I’m sorry this is causing such confusion. Dorico uses the cross-platform Qt application framework, which provides all manner of platform abstractions that allow us to write code once and use it on both Windows and macOS, which for a small team like ours is incredibly helpful in making sure that we can focus on adding useful functionality to the software, rather than working on platform support. One of those abstractions is in keyboard handling, which means that Qt has a platform-independent means of describing keyboard shortcuts.
“Num” does indeed mean “the keys on the keypad, when it’s in keypad mode”, which is a concept that only makes sense on Windows, which, as Steve rightly points out, has a Num Lock key that switches it between keypad mode (where it types numbers etc.) and its other mode, the name of which I don’t rightly know but which allows the keys to work as cursor keys, among other things. On Windows, shortcuts like “Num+.” work when Num Lock is on.
On Mac, there’s no Num Lock key: the keypad is always treated as if there were a Num Lock key, and it is switched on. So when you see a shortcut like “Num+.” in Dorico’s Key Commands editor, you can read that as “the . key on the numeric keypad”.
I am still not quite clear though on the num-cursor-key combinations. Do the arrows in the following refer to the Mac’s actual cursor keys (without need for a NUM key)? Or to the Mac’s equivalent of the physical positions on the Windows numeric keypad (the location at which those cursor keys are found on the Windows keypad)?
NUM + SHIFT + ↓
SHIFT + ↓
COMMAND + NUM + SHIFT + ↓
NUM + SHIFT + ↑
COMMAND + NUM + SHIFT + ↑
Perhaps at some point these useful clues could be clarified in the documentation. especially In the onscreen keyboard image that comes up on the Mac as a help screen. You could perhaps simply delete the 4 char “num+” part of quite a few of the keyboard shortcuts that are shown so that it would make sense to us num-less Mac users.
BTW Dorico is in itself beautiful and elegant. Having had to go back to the last incarnation of Sibelius due to need of features not yet implemented in Dorico, it seemed comparatively primitive and clunky and cartoonish in feel. Dorico is an aesthetic experience.
Thanks for taking time to answer this trivial but pesky question.
Laurie (who you met briefly at your NY demo a few weeks ago)
I don’t think the Num+arrow key combinations do anything at all on Mac, because they would require you to be able to toggle Num Lock on or off, which you can’t do.
Dorico uses a single, common shortcut file for its default shortcuts on Windows and Mac, which is very convenient for us (and also hopefully convenient for you as a user, as it means you could in theory take your shortcut file and use it on the other platform, provided you don’t use a lot of shortcuts that contain the Mac Control key, which Qt thinks of as a key called “Meta”, as this key is not present on Windows keyboards). If seeing things like Num+↓ bothers you, you can always delete those key commands via the editor.
It was additionally confusing because in the Mac’s System Preferences Accessibility pane, the “Mouse and Trackpad” panel allows the numeric keypad to be switched to a mode in which it controls cursor movement. the arrows of the Windows keypad might be simulated in that mode. But there was nothing in the Dorico documentation about whether to have “Mouse Keys” turned on or off.
Now that I understand it I don’t need to. But you might want to make the change for the Mac version at Dorico HQ so that other new users on Mac won’t have to experience the same confusion about the missing NUM key.
It’s worth mentioning that Apple used to provide the entire Numpad within the laptop keyboard, by using the Fn key with a particular rectangle of keys on the main board. However, they discontinued this feature several years ago.
It’s still impossible to “press” the Clear key on a short keyboard, which irks me greatly as Another Notation Product™ uses it extensively.
Karibiner doesn’t work with Sierra.
I remember trying this software several years ago, and there was some other issue with it at the time that made it unfeasible or unacceptable, but I can’t remember. It may have improved.
My thinking on this and things like it is that it’s more of a general computer usage point, than a specific point for a given program. There are many ways Mac or Windows users discover these differences, and once they do, it is understood for all programs on their platform, so each developer does not need to make a separate note in their own documentation.
A comment in the manual noting the keyboard difference between the two platforms should be complete (I mention because I didn’t check in the Dorico manual).
