I’m working on a book project that has 5 volumes, 3 of which are published. I’m trying to see if I’ll be able to continue the project in Dorico. Volumes 4 and 5 would need to look exactly the same as volumes 1-3. There are about 20 font symbols that were created for the project that are attached to notes, some above and some below. They are in a priority font, and replace other regular character, such as the degree and yen symbols. In Finale I was able to create Note Expressions with the characters and attach them where needed. I could look in the list and select the expression that I needed. In Dorico I would need to be able to do the same. I tried to create one as a playing technique, but it didn’t work. One of the issues is that if I create them, they are shown in the list as the character that’s in Dorico’s default font and don’t show as the character that would show in the correct font.
Hi, I would suggest, that you finish your project part 4 and 5 in Finale. That way you can be sure it will look the same and you don’t need extra time to find workarounds for your requirements.
You certainly should be able to create playing techniques using the symbols from your special font. In Library > Font Styles, create a new font style that uses your special font, and when you’re creating your custom playing techniques, you can then either use Text-type playing techniques and choose your custom font style, or you can use Glyph-type playing techniques, and choose your custom font in the editing dialog.
“Hi, I would suggest, that you finish your project part 4 and 5 in Finale. That way you can be sure it will look the same and you don’t need extra time to find workarounds for your requirements.”
The issue is that there are 6000 to 8000 pages to go, so it could take another 10 years before it’s done, the author is still working on the material. He’s not even ready to start having me enter the music yet. It’s taken about I’m looking at Dorico to see if it’s a possibility, in case Finale stops working. It’s taken over 20 years to complete Books 1-3.
I’ve been able to create them as Playing Techs, and they show in the correct font. Is there a way to dictate how far below they are placed? The below items need to be below the lyrics.
There’s something really goofy with the Playing Tech window. I created several Playing Techs, that all showed in the window, but when I clicked ok, only the last one showed. I went back in and all of them were gone, excepted the last one. Do I really have to click OK and close the window for every single one I create?? Other windows have an Apply and ask is you want to apply the changes.
I’ve just given this a try myself, creating three different playing techniques in the same session (i.e. without confirming the Library > Playing Techniques dialog by clicking OK between creating each one), and all three of them were saved as I expected.
If you’re adjusting the Text value, make sure you hit Tab to select another field in the dialog before you move on to the next playing technique: the changes to the Text field will only be saved if the focus moves to another control.
Ok. That’s the problem. Thanks.
It’s a little strange that it doesn’t automatically select the “New Playing Tech.” text that’s in the field, so that you can start typing the new name without first having to select the text.
Speaking of closing windows, in the Transposition window, once you make a selection, is there there a way to close the window other then
Click the OK button? In Finale I can make my selection and hit Return and it works, In Dorico, if I do the same thing, it just opens the selection options.
You mean that Dorico would be have an « Apply » bouton, separate from the closing one ? Yes, for many settings, this would be practical.
Note that Finale highlights this Apply button, which is why pressing the return key applies the settings without closing the window.
(I’m thinking, among other things, of the layout settings window, particularly the one dedicated to systems).
When the Transpose window first opens, the OK button is highlighted. If I want to use the selected transposition I can just press Return. Great.
But once I change anything in the window, the OK button is now not highlighted and I have to move the mouse to it to close the window. I should be able to just hit Return. A lot of Dorico focuses on just using the keyboard, but here you can’t.
Dorico is a completely separate application from Finale, it has been developed from ground on without references to other notation software.
It is not a successor to Finale either, even if in real life this happens to be the case for a lot of people…
In theory, of course, hitting Return should always confirm a modal dialog. There are a few exceptions where we specifically prevent this from being the case, e.g. in the Project Info dialog (where Return moves the focus to the next editable control).
In the Transpose dialog, when the focus is in one of the other controls, e.g. one of the drop-downs, then both Space and Return will open the drop-down. This is intended to be helpful, but of course it does mean that you can’t confirm the dialog with Return until you explicitly put the focus in the OK button.
It’s been suggested before that we should have a kind of “super confirm” function where Ctrl+Return (or Command-Return on macOS) should confirm the dialog no matter what. We’re thinking about this, but it’s not completely straightforward to achieve, and my sense is that it wouldn’t make sense for modeless dialogs either.
(In the Transposition window) How do you put the focus back on the OK button then?
I can navigate all of the options in the window with Tab, the Arrow keys and Return, but I can’t get back to OK to be able to apply what I selected without having to go to the mouse.
That doesn’t activate OK. I still have to click on it.
When you first open the window OK is active. Press Return and it selects OK.
An Option (This in not currently the case but a suggested future option)… What if, you click on the window outside of the Popups and it activates OK, then hit Return to select it.
If you have Full keyboard access enabled in System Settings, you can navigate to all controls in the dialog. But in recent versions of macOS, this mode has become rather more overbearing than it used to be in years past, and I must admit that although I used to use macOS in this configuration, I no longer do.
