If I take a measure of music with slurs and dynamics, and I paste it over multiple successive measures, the resulting dynamics and slurs are horizontally linked together (not grouped), even when “Link dynamics and slurs to existing items when pasting” is disabled.
Is horizontal linking known or expected behaviour? The documentation actually states that the start positions must be the same, but even manual horizontal linking seems to be possible. I suppose it could be useful, but I worry about a situation where I’m editing slurs or dynamics in one measure and unwittingly editing another in a different measure. Therefore, I’d like it to respect the option when pasting.
Sorry for the assumption, these terms cause confusion sometimes amongst users. The behaviour you show seems abnormal, and I’ve ended up sometimes with situations like these. I recall having this problem (with an XML import) and Daniel told me that Dorico doesn’t actually have a technical restriction to link items in different positions, but it actively prevents so. However, sometimes this doesn’t work quite exactly like that.
I wouldn’t say it actively prevents so. You can get dynamics and slurs in this state by simply right clicking on them and selecting “Dynamics > Link” or “Slurs > Link”, even if they are at different start positions.
Related: The “Explode” operation also always results in linked slurs and dynamics, even if the “Link dynamics and slurs to existing items when pasting” option is disabled. (However, “Reduce” follows this option.)
This isn’t as bad since the result should always be at the same rhythmic position, but it still results in potentially undesirable linking. I’d prefer it if Dorico could respect this option, or better yet, include linking options in the Paste Special settings of Note Input Options.
