Can notes be moved or nudged horizontally?
You mean to change their graphical position? Not yet, I’m afraid, but we hope to add this soon.
Thanks. Sometimes with modern music, adjustments that may not otherwise seem important, are.
I find entering notes into Dorico excruciating. For example I’m in 4/4 and I want to create a measure where the first note is a pickup 16th note before the third beat. In other words I conceptually want seven 16th rests followed by a 16th note, which would most reasonably be written by starting the measure with a quarter rest followed by a dotted eighth rest (followed by my note). The resolution of Dorico’s entry mechanism isn’t fine enough to specifically position a sixteenth note (even if I zoom the measure in), so invariably my first attempt to create the first note produces a 16th note at the start of the second beat. This incorrect measure consists of a quarter-rest, a sixteenth note, an eighth-rest, a sixteenth-rest, and a half-rest. All I want to do is move the sixteenth note from the start of the second beat to the end of the second beat. I finally figured out that I had to overwrite the rests in the second beat and delete my original misplaced note, but even that was fraught with difficulties - Dorico keeps wanting to put my sixteenth notes in places where I don’t want them. Could you suggest a simple method for either creating this note in the correct position in the first place, or (failing that) moving the note once it is created? Thanks!
The rhythmic grid (bottom left corner) is set to eighths/quavers by default. Increase it to 16ths/semiquavers by clicking it and selecting from the dropdown or by typing Alt-Opt-[ and Dorico will let you place 16ths at any valid 16th position.
The rhythmic grid also controls the valid positions for Alt-Left and Alt-Right, the shortcuts for moving notes left and right.
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Alternatively start note input to show the caret, then position the caret at the place where you want to input a note. You can advance the caret by any duration, not just what the rhythmic grid is set to, by selecting that duration (e.g. press 4 for 16th notes) then pressing Space.
Our First Steps guide includes inputting notes not at the start of a bar, if that’s also a helpful demonstration.
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Wow thank you so much for this input. I would never have known about Alt-Left and Alt-Right, which do seem to move things around. Maybe you can help with a similar problem. I am writing jazz lead sheets. At the start of my first measure I have the tempo indication (quarter-note = 80) and also the first chord name [“D(add9)”]. Dorico spaces these so that they are not on top of each other. But if I then put in a rehearsal mark, the tempo indication and the chord name are on top of each other. I tried using Alt-Left and Alt-Right to move these things around and indeed they do move, but then they get associated with different notes and/or rests in the measure. What I want is for Dorico to have all three referencing the beginning of the first beat of the first measure. I removed the rehearsal mark, then I tried moving the tempo indication up (above the first chord name) but I can’t find a way to do this (using Alt-Up, for example). I also tried moving the tempo indication using Alt-Right, which Dorico realized would cause it to bang into the first chord name (immediately to the right of the tempo indication) - and Dorico did indeed put the tempo indication above the chord name, but it also moved the tempo indication’s reference point (indicated by the dotted line) within the measure. Is there any way to get Dorico to put a rehearsal mark, a tempo indication, and a chord name all on the start of the first beat of the first measure? THANKS!
Be sure to move the items in Engrave mode rather than Write mode in order to keep the terms associated with the original notes.
Is there some way in these forums to ask if there’s someone in the Minneapolis area who could sit with me for awhile and help me out? I am trying to use Dorico as a point-and-click app. Almost all the things that I try to do based on my intuition from its interface don’t work. Either I don’t understand Dorico’s whole UI paradigm, or Dorico is not the right product for me. How would I go about asking for local help?
Might possibly be better to start a new thread with this request rather than multi-posting it onto other subjects. 