hello everyone,
A new Dorico user here, this must be my very first post here. I started to use Dorico about 6 months and gradually-poco a poco- it became my main engraving software after 25 of Finale-addiction. Recently I edited an old orchestral Finale score and remembered the pain. Anyway, I learn few things everyday I believe in a year I’ll master Dorico : )
Of course, few things confuse me and even annoy me but Dorico is good, and with any future updates things will be brighter. Not so difficult to switch actually, it’s 20-30 new things to learn. I run in on a trashcan mac, mojave, 64GB ram; sometimes it lags with big-ish scores but no complain, we need short breaks to stretch.
Best
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Welcome to the Dorico forum @GagarinMoore! It is worth mentioning that one of the many huge benefits of Dorico is the ready availability of help on this forum. So… if/when you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask them here and you will discover many extremely competent users (I’m not including myself in that category) and development team members who are ready and willing to give help with big and small problems when needed.
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Welcome to the forum! Just a word of advice if you’re coming from being a long-time Finale user. Resist the temptation to start manually manipulating things – learn about all the available options, select those that match what you’re trying to accomplish, and let Dorico to most of the work. Layout Options, Notation Options, Engraving Options properly set will save you TONS of manual override work and hours time (not to mention frustration). It will probably take a year to get fully comfortable with Dorico, but ultimately it’s worth the investment to learn the program fully. Watch lots of videos, do the First Steps tutorial, and forget EVERYTHING you know about any other engraving software.
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Welcome! You’ll find lots of old Finale users here.
I’d echo the sentiments above – Dorico’s golden rules are: try to work less; and work from the global to the particular. There’s usually always a better way than manually moving each thing.
And if you get stuck, I hear there’s a very friendly forum where you can ask for help.
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Hello everyone,
As a user who has recently invested in Dorico after many years working with Finale, I want to express a concern that I share with many other musicians making the transition. While I recognize and appreciate the power and precision of Dorico in terms of final presentation and advanced editing, I find the lack of a fast entry mode similar to Finale’s Speedy Entry frustrating.
The Problem
Coming from Finale, I am accustomed to an agile and straightforward workflow where note durations are entered with numbers, and pitch is adjusted with arrow keys. This allows for smooth, uninterrupted writing, especially in large projects or complex arrangements. However, in Dorico, writing notes using letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G) and the lack of efficient vertical navigation makes the process slow and tedious, breaking the fluidity that many of us need in our daily work.
Proposed Solution
I strongly believe that implementing an optional fast entry mode, similar to Finale’s Speedy Entry, would not only benefit users migrating from that software but also broaden Dorico’s accessibility to a wider audience. This could be achieved by enabling:
- Number assignment for durations (like in Finale).
- Arrow keys to adjust note pitch directly on the staff.
- The option to switch between Dorico’s traditional mode and the Speedy Entry mode in the settings.
Impact on Steinberg
Many Finale users are considering migrating to Dorico due to Finale’s lack of ongoing support. However, if the workflow remains cumbersome and difficult to adapt to, many may turn to other alternatives like MuseScore 4, which now features MuseSounds and a more user-friendly interface. Ignoring this need could result in a significant loss of customers in the future.
As a customer who has invested in the software with the intention of using it long-term, I sincerely hope that the development team will consider this proposal. Implementing a fast entry mode would significantly enhance the experience for many users coming from Finale.
Thank you for your attention.
Speedy entry has been added to Dorico some months ago…
@Lillie_Harris Maybe add a little something to the online help so searching for “Speedy Entry” will yield meaningful results? This might lead new users coming from Finale in the right direction.
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This has always been possible. You can assign different numbers if you want in the Preferences.
From the Dorico 5.1.6 release announcement from 6 months ago:
I agree with @Estigy that bringing these steps up as a first result when searching the help files for ‘speedy entry’ would probably help.
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Firstly, I’d say that using a MIDI keyboard is always going to be the easiest and best way to enter pitches – particularly chords. If you are doing large and complex projects, then spending even as little as $50 on a small 2-octave board is essential to speed and productivity. And that’s as true in Finale or MuseScore as it is in Dorico.
As a former Finale user, I’d also say that Dorico has made several concessions to make its Note Entry more like Finale. However, I’d argue that the fastest workflow is using the Pitch AFTER Duration, with the preference to add dots, articulations, etc, AFTER.
The only advantage of “Pitch Before Duration” is in being able to play material on the keyboard easily without having those notes entered in the score until you ‘confirm’ them with the duration key. It’s not necessarily faster than Pitch After Duration.
In fact, if your music has successive notes of the same duration, then Pitch After Duration is faster, because you don’t have to press the duration each time. If your notes do change duration every time, then there’s no difference: you’re entering a pitch and duration for each one.
I know that learning new methods will inevitably be slow and awkward initially. It took me about 2 months to get used to pressing 6 for quarter note, and to get up to full speed in note entry.
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The top 3 results when searching the 5.1 webhelp for “speedy entry” are already relevant for adjusting the note input setup for a more Finale-like experience.
The manual doesn’t contain explicit instructions for exactly which commands to change, because that’s been written up elsewhere (in the version history and blogs).
I couldn’t agree more, that’s how I did it even in Finale (simple entry), and I also agree that new users should take the time to adjust to a new software. I did too and I’ve adapted my workflow in certain aspects, and I’m glad I did. However, I’ve also learned that note input in particular can be a very personal thing in terms of how an individual achieves their optimal speed/workflow. So while I’d urge anyone to explore Dorico’s different input options, if someone wants the speedy entry variety, I’d say knock yourself out. 
Hi, Lillie!
Thanks for chiming in so fast
My results may differ from yours, but from the first 4 results only one seems relevant to me. This is what I got when doing the search in order to help the user:
(The next results are “Keyboard panel” and “Repeats popover”.)
And I don’t know if “pitch before duration” is what will catch people’s eyes when they come from Finale and don’t know that that’s what it’s called in Dorico.
Welcome, @WhiteTiger1987 ! Long-time, former Finale user here (32-33 years I think, since v. 3.2). As others have noted here, there is considerable flexibility with Dorico in terms of note entry. A few comments that likely will be additive or complementary:
- In Finale, I always used Speedy Entry. Only once did I ever need Simple Entry, and that was because i had a work from the early 80’s (I think it was my first minimalist piece, which is over two hours oddly) that called for a 128th note, which is not easily or readily doable with Speedy Entry in Finale. That said, for the equivalent of Speedy Entry with the Caps Lock key on (for entering multiple notes easily, all of the same duration), that is actually the default for Dorico: duration before pitch. Now, I do have Pitch before Duration as my default in Dorico, because just as with Simple Entry in Finale, I always find it too easy to accidentally input notes. So Pitch before Duration is what I use, and that’s just like Speedy Entry in Finale, without the Caps Lock key engaged. All good there.
- As others have mentioned, there is now an option in Dorico to use arrow keys to nudge notes similar or identical to how Finale does it in Simple Entry. I actually do not use that in Dorico; I’ve gotten used to arrow keys to move to another staff, and it’s easy enough to move noteheads, either by dragging them up or down with the trackpad/mouse (as in Finale as well), or using key commands (which I’m pretty used to now after switching to Dorico in early September).
- The one concession to my own muscle memory from Finale that I did make is to change the number shortcuts for durations in Dorico’s preferences (so they are n-1 from Dorico). Having used 4 = eighth note, 5 = quarter note etc for more than 30 years, that’s something I chose to maintain, since it’s hard enough at my current age of 64 to start thinking of 5 = eighth note, 6 = quarter note, etc. Using Dorico’s standard shortcut numbers for note durations leads to a small delay for note input, so for me, best to use what I’m used to. That’s just my preference. But the point is: you can certainly change the shortcuts to whatever you want. I know many users will suggest using Dorico’s standard preferences, and that’s understandable, but I don’t think for me there is any downside to my one concession to several decades of having used Finale LOL.
- There are many times when I do choose to use Duration before Pitch in Dorico, since some things were clearly designed for that paradigm and just work better that way: Lock Duration, for example (which is a less elegant method, IMHO, to mimic the JW Rhythm Copy plug-in Finale, which I do miss).
Good luck. I think you make many good points and just know that there are many advantages to Dorico that you’ll find, compared with Finale and perhaps every other notation program out there. It takes a bit to learn, but compared with the year it took me to kinda sorta come up to speed with Finale back in the early days, you’ll likely master this in no time. I’ve already composed four substantial (in terms of time duration) works in Dorico since September and am starting my fifth. It’s definitely increased my compositional output.
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How coul i do to use the “speedy entry” from dorico ?
Hi @WhiteTiger1987,
besides the link that was already pointed out,, see this videos:
(in particular starting at 1:08)
(in particular starting from 5:50)
And here again the comprehensive Version History for version 5.1.81 (an previous version 5.x..x) where you may want to look at all items titled Note Input, to see the improvements that where made to Note Input for Pitch Before Duration mode.
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Thanks a lot…i bought Dorico 2 days ago…because i head sadly finale will not longer have support and i spent almost 600 USD on this software that promises a lot…but i’m so adapted to use the speedy entry mode of writing…due i don’t have a MIDI keyboard…
If I’m not mistaken, you still have the option to get Dorico through your finale account for 149$!
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@WhiteTiger1987, if you have a Finale license, there is actually a massive discount for Dorico:
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i bought the PRO version
i bought directly the PRO version because i didn’t have a license from finale because i downloaded by torrents
Well, then you’ll have to look at it like you bought Finale (after the fact!) and Dorico (proper) at the same time, and still got a discount! 
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