Hi, thanks for responding. Well, I tried that, but the popover calls up the lyric where you left off and I couldn’t figure out how to make the popover go back to the lyric syllable I needed. How would you do that?
Remember the first syllable you copied/cut, put your lyric popover exactly at the note it should belong to and start pasting repeatedly. If a syllable extends over more than one note, use the space-bar to advance.
Hi Linda. I’m also new to Dorico…a long term Finale user of 20+ years, and I’m struggling to comprehend the seeming inflexibility of Dorico lyric entry. It was always faster for me to import an entire set of lyrics into Finale lyric window, hyphenate them, and then make adjustments to the appropriate syllables after instantaneous click assignment. I avoid typing in lyrics at all costs. It’s time consuming to make some adjustments…but if a melody is fairly simple often the lyrics will adjust with limited time spent. Having to recopy an entire set of lyrics due having one syllable being off really blows my mind…
Hi Dan, thanks for your insights. So…if you make one mistake in Dorico and the lyrics are shifted off by one syllable there is no alternative other than re-inputting all lyrics? There are so many options for adjusting notes and rhythms in Dorico…but none for lyrics?
You don’t need to start all over. Assuming you have the entire hyphenated text in a text editor delete the wrong syllable (even back up to the next whole word) in Dorico with ⌘/CTRL Z, then copy the text starting from this particular word to the clipboard and continue pasting.
I’ve written a lot of choral music in Finale and I’m not sure whether pasting the text with Option-click and then shift all syllables manually is significantly faster than pasting syllable by syllable with ⌘/CTRL V and SPACE and HYPHEN characters in Dorico.
A good compromise could be that by pressing ⌘/CTRL Z Dorico deletes the latest syllable and simultaneously undoes also the state of the clipboard.
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I have found a fairly good solution currently. If I copy a block of text to be inputted, and make a mistake on the clicking location, I just delete that syllable and recopy the block text from that point forward. You do have to pay attention carefully, however, when you are clicking in your lyrics. I’ve been able to make this process work for inputting multiple verses.
I guess that’s what Vadian is saying above.
Thanks a lot for your response Linda. I’ve been experimenting with lyric input today… Initially it is very frustrating. I’ve been doing a lot of stopping and starting, copying and pasting. Working with lyrics is tricky in any notation program 
Question for you… or anyone 
What I have traditionally done is paste a complete set of lyrics into Finale’s lyric window, break them down into syllables, then click assignment takes place… In Dorico where do you “store” the lyrics before command pasting them into the melodic line? The issue I’m having is once I have to backspace sometimes through several syllables, Dorico seems to lose track of where I was up to… (Or maybe it’s just me At the moment I’m using a external word document to cut and paste into Dorico which is not particularly convenient. Can you please enlighten me on your current method. Thanks in advance.
There’s no ‘store’ for lyrics before entering them, except for the general Copy/Paste Clipboard.
Can you explain how it’s problematic? Isn’t it just “a window with text in”?
Dorico does have a Lyrics Window for editing syllables, but you can’t add more syllables to it. Indeed – it won’t let you exit unless the number of syllables is the same as you started with!
Sometimes, if I’ve forgotten a melisma, I go to the Lyrics Window, delete the last syllable, and add “QWE” where the melisma should be. Then delete QWE from the page. Viola! – everything has moved over one.
I frequently select and filter just lyrics, and duplicate to staff above/below; or alt-click. You can also Copy selected lyrics and then paste in.
As Benwiggy said, there is no lyric window like in Finale. The lyric window in Dorico is created after you enter the lyrics… you can edit syllables in that window but you can’t add or subtract syllables in that window. I have been getting used to just using a text editor to copy and paste into Dorico. If I make a mistake in my click assignment, I just delete the mistaken entry and recopy and paste from that syllable forward. It doesn’t seem too cumbersome once you get used to it.
You can add the hyphens in your text editor. That also works.
Thanks Ben… Appreciate your answer.
I didn’t say it was problematic… I said it was inconvenient.
Aa matter of convenience it’s nice to have all the lyrical material that you need on hand in the application that you’re using to edit it. An internal space where you can break the words down an into syllables, keep track of what you have inserted and what you haven’t assigned, combine various songs into shorter sized components, etc.
My go to is usually copying and pasting songs from lyrics websites, then editing them in my notation software, rather than some other word file or the like .
Maybe I can use the lyrics window in Finale for this, and then cut and paste them into Dorico from there
A very simple Text editor will be enough. Don’t aim for MS Word, that’s overkill indeed.
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Do you know Juicio Brennan’s Hyphenator website?
I’ve never edited lyrics in the lyrics window of Finale because if you’re going to edit a four-part polyphonic mass or an opera it becomes annoyingly slow. Any primitive plain text editor is more suitable.
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I hear you Vadian……I definitely had some issues with the finale lyric window…… Even though generally I’m not doing operas or complex vocal arrangements……more symphonic with single vocal line or showband/big band… Thanks for reminding me how spastic it can be
Having said that… Click assigning an entire song lyrics with one tap of a button is awesome. Sometimes if I’d delineated slurs for melisma etc accurately, and applied the appropriate syllables (mem-ory vs mem-or-y etc,etc) I’ll get lucky and need virtually no adjustments. Other times there would be considerable tweaking. But without the stress that if a couple of things didn’t come out quite right I couldn’t backtrack and adjust….either melody or lyrics.
I just tested out the hyphenator and it got a 50% pass grade
I’m actually pretty good with the old English… My issues come with Hungarian, Romanian, German, Yiddish… Pretty much everything that’s not in English. And that’s when you need all the help you can get in terms of flexibility when editing lyrics after input.