I’ve been using the trial version of Dorico and am seriously considering switching from Sibelius. Something that does annoy me about Dorico 4 is that you have no choice but to select the whole duration of the tied note. I get why it defaults to selecting the whole duration, but it does start to drive me insane when I’m having to constantly untie notes to change the duration of the second note or shift the first tied note forward a beat or so. I’m just wondering if there is/if there could be an option to select just one note in write mode? Maybe holding down another key while clicking the note so it’s not the default. I apologise if this is already a feature, and if so I would love to know what it is
If you double click on a tied note (or any note), the cursor will appear and you can type U to break the tie or note right at that spot.
One thing that still trips me up from my Sibelius days is clicking in a bar that has the end of a tied note: nothing gets selected, it’s the same as clicking outside of a bar.
<alt><Shift>+L/R Arrow Keys will shorten/lengthen the tied note’s duration by the grid value. So, you don’t have to break the tie to change the duration.
<ctrl><Shift>+L/R Arrow Keys will shift the position of the note backward/forward by the grid value.
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Welcome to the forum @Ben_Jobson !
The advice above about using the caret to input things in the middle of tie chains or split notes/ties at a specific position (as that works on any note, not only tied ones), and simply lengthening/shortening a tie chain overall to change how long the last note in the chain is/appears to be, are both really good tips.
Additionally, here’s an introduction to how rhythmic position works in Dorico. Only a few types of notations (like articulations and fingerings) are fundamentally part of notes, everything else is separate and can be input anywhere: you don’t have to select a note to “add a dynamic to it”, selecting anything at the desired position (or positioning the caret there) allows you to put something in the music at that point.
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Just to hammer the point home: there’s nearly always another way of doing something than untying the notes. Dorico thinks of a tied note as “one duration”. You can shorten it, move it; and with the caret invoked, you can add dynamics in the middle; and so on.
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One new habit that I have found myself getting into since we have added the Key Editor in Write mode in Dorico 4 is using the piano roll editor to make some edits with the mouse that I would previously have done with the Alt+left/right commands (which move the selected item, whether it’s a note or indeed more or less anything else, left and right on the grid, retaining its duration) or the Shift+Alt+left/right commands (which lengthen or shorten the selected note or other item). You might give it a try – for some edits it’s quicker because you can change the start position and duration in one motion.
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