I’m currently finalizing a big score for performance, and I’m running into some major mechanics that slow me down considerably.
Sometimes, I want to select multiple bars to for example hide all accidentals at once. To do this, I select the first note and the last note of the passage by holding shift. However, this selects other elements that makes the “notes and rests” category in the lower zone disappear in engraving mode. This is one annoyance that I don’t understand why it is a function. However, I thought, easy fix: just filter on notes and rests! However, still no bueno, because this also selects the tuplet notations, making the aforementioned area disappear in engraving mode. My only options here is to manually select, or deselect. all the objects I need without making any mistakes, which is quite hard and time-consuming to do in a large score where many edits and adjustments are needed.
Is there a reason that the different categories disappear in the lower zone engrave mode based on what you have selected? I suppose it could be to make things clean and less cluttered, but it is quite annoying that tools that you need handy are disappearing based on very slight selection mistakes and such. I’d rather have all the tools where I expect them to be, all the time.
And furthermore, and this is a personal pipe dream I realize: I need the option to hide accidentals, hide notes, etc. practically all the time. It is extremely time consuming to be switching between writing and engraving mode every time I need these tools, especially in large scores and when you write in galley mode.
I really enjoy Dorico, but things like these are making me reconsider why I switched from my previous software, which was mostly based on giving you all the tools you need, all the time, as quickly as possible. Now I find myself continuously interrupting my creative workflow to do very specific things simply to get a button to appear in the lower zone.