Overlapping frames

How can I edit the content of overlapping text frames? In the attached sample I want to edit the “Verl.-Nr.” in the upper left frame. Every time I try to select this text, the title “Adoramus” in the larger text is highlighted.

Thomas
Bildschirmfoto 2017-07-08 um 11.51.56.png

This is ackward. Haven’t really explored this in 1.1, but what I’ve done is select the frame, hit alt-leftarrow 5 times, double-click in the now hon-overlapping area to select/edit the text, then select the frame again and move it back precisely, by hitting alt-rightarrow 5 times. I’m sure there is or will be a more elegant solution… :slight_smile:

fratveno,

what you described is the workaround I used in this cases too.
But in my special case the text frame cannot be moved to the left as it is left aligned to the page margin.
Moving it to the right or down doesn’t help too, as there are other frames.

Thomas

I add a frame (text or pic) by drawing it larger than the frame, add text or pic and drag it back to the size I want, within the old frames. Quite smooth.

“Quite smooth” when you create the frame. But it’s not smooth when you later want to edit the content of a frame.
Sometimes, instead of simply correcting an orthographic error, I had to delete the frame and create a new one.

Thomas

I don’t see any difficulty in selecting the frame, enlarging it, editing and then make them small again.
B

What happens if you increase the zoom? There are times when I have trouble selecting an object - in Dorico or Sibelius - as it is too close to something else “selectable.” If I zoom in, then it is possible to select/move/edit - would that work here?

I really love most aspects of Dorico so far. However, I am reticent to say this - but speaking from the heart… I hate overlapping frame editing. It is a royal p.i.t.b. Please (Dorico dev team) do that elegant voodoo you do, and give us an easy way to do this.

Here are my concerns. Even moving a frame that is overlapping another can cause more than one frame to be selected (often without the user knowing it) resulting in several frames being moved. Trying to double-click in a newly created graphic frame (in order to place a graphic) ends up in selecting and editing the text frame that overlaps the graphic. This happens all the time with text frames that are stretched across the left and right frame boundaries and are quite unavoidable. And another annoyance occurs when trying to edit text. If a text frame is selected first, then double-clicked in the middle of the text frame, a different text frame is opened up, ready for editing [arghhhh!].

Also, the user is “tricked” into thinking he/she has only selected the frame wanting to be edited. If a frame is selected and is the only one showing selection handles (verifying it and only it is selected), trying to move or edit this frame surprisingly ends up with more than one frame being moved, or a different frame being edited! (What is going on here!!???)

(Guessing here…): It seems the larger text frame of overlapping frames is the one that gets priority. Or perhaps the order of creation (first created has priority over 2nd, etc). Bottom line is I need to have control over what I am doing in these operations. I know one of the updates made for an easier way to select frames using arrow key navigation, but what we need is a foolproof way of editing and moving these frames.

Thanks from a “mostly happy but frustrated with these frames” user.

Musicmaven,
This was one of my biggest frustrations as well, but as of 1.2, we can enter text frame editing by pressing Enter :smiley:

Dear andgle, thanks. This is helpful, but depending on how frames line up, trying to then move one after an edit usually ends up with a mess of additional frames being moved out of their previously tweaked position. I’ve also noticed that pressing Enter doesn’t always work as far as editing the frames. Sometimes pressing Enter does nothing.

… but as of 1.2, we can enter text frame editing by pressing Enter

This is really an improvement that makes editing the content of a frame easier. But this only works, if there’s any content in the frame.

One thing that sill doesn’t work for me: Take the standard master page “first”. Create a new text frame in the upper left corner of the page. As nearly the whole page is covered by frames, you cannot drag this new frame to a blank part of the page. Double-clicking the new frame will bring you to text editing of the title-frame.

It would be nice, if pressing Enter in a new frame would start the text editing for this frame.

Thomas

Fortunately, as shown in one of the recent Anthony Hughes videos, one can set frame dimensions and locations by number in the Properties pane. That allows one to center a frame without stretching it all the way to the margins. This helped me, since I can now have frames that hold left-aligned and right-aligned text that have at least part of their frame (that I can click on) uncovered by a center-aligned frame. So the “Partie 1” frame could be indented enough at each end to allow one to select the left-aligned frame now covered.

Thomas, +1 for your idea.

A work-around I have found is to initially draw the text frame over a music frame if one exists, then reposition. Presumably because clicking or double-clicking on a music frame is a “non-event” for Dorico. The same work-around is helpful when double-clicking in a graphic frame to set the graphic - just draw the graphic frame over the music frame, get your graphic in, then reposition.

In a nutshell - with Dorico’s current workings - it is best to avoid currently placed text or graphic frames when initially drawing in new ones! (in my opinion).

Derrek and musicmaven,
thank you for these two workarounds.

Thomas

I hate to bring this up again, but this is in desperate need of a more intuitive and user-friendly approach. When bulk editing under quick deadlines, it’s very disruptive and inelegant to have to switch to editing, click, re-click because the text box won’t properly select, re-click again because the text box is selecting only one anchor and you can’t hit enter to edit the text, then hit enter to edit. Additionally, the inability to press the up arrow to bring the insertion point to the top of the line is very frustrating. Very frequently I need to notate that certain scores are in different transpositions, and needing to manually drag this cursor back to the top is one of those things that isn’t an issue here and there, but - again - when bulk editing it adds up significantly. I really hope this is an instance where the dev team pays attention. Don’t misunderstand, I am very grateful for Daniel and the team, but many features I wish to be included have been knocked down because ‘that’s not how the software is designed to work,’ which isn’t a solution for me, and continues not to be a solution.

Disclaimer: I haven’t had time to read the original posts.

I find it easy navigating the frames to be honest? You can navigate through the frames with arrows (even overlapping ones), hit enter/escape if I want to edit content, and if I want to switch to edit anchors I hit tab and then navigate the same way.

HI Daniel, actually this helps, as I wasn’t always able to reliably tab between frames with the arrow keys (couldn’t tell you why), but checking again, it works. So thank you for making me take a second look there! Other points still stand, as far as I’m concerned.

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