Hi,
The original design of the Dorico UI cleverly put the Properties pane under the score.
After the Key Editor has been added to the same pane, the Properties pane is no longer always available. One has to constantly switch from the editors.
I would find more comfortable if the Properties pane was transformed into a floating palette. Something that can be moved next to the area where one is working, reducing the mouse movement.
Paolo
Iâm thrilled that you have requested this @Paolo_T
Iâve mentioned floating palettes in various posts for several years without any reaction, which made be think that I was the only one who finds the Dorico workspace less than flexible. At times I open up another Dorico window and tuck the part I donât use off the screen to provide something like a floating palette. Donât know why I havenât tried that with the Properties panel. Will now.
Well I just tried it and it seems to work perfectly because one can collapse the entire Dorico window as a standalone properties panel. Perhaps this was envisioned by the designers. One could have as many versions of the Properties panels as one wants set to different search terms, perhaps. I will experiment today with this.
That is a really great idea.
I wonder if there is a limitation in the Qt Framework that makes this hard to do? I donât know.
If youâre working on a large-scale project, I wouldnât recommend creating multiple project windows onto the same project for the purposes of showing only one of the panels. For every window you have open, Dorico has to update the music when you make an edit, and on larger projects you will start to feel this in an overall slower response time.
We donât have any current plans to make it possible to âtear offâ any of Doricoâs panels, though we are not in the business of ruling things out for all time (unless theyâre ideas with absolutely no merit, which is certainly not the case here).
Thanks @Andro I can now position my source material directly under as well as over my main window without properties panel ever intervening. However, the extra properties panel wonât change mode along with the main window. This isnât a big issue for me but that would depend on oneâs working style. But I am trying out two extra properties panels, one for each mode, parked on my second monitor.
Thank you for considering this @dspreadbury. I havenât noticed any degradation in performance, but this project is not large.
there are keyboard shortcuts for the panels, arenât there? If not, perhaps a script is possible.
As a bit of neat freak I personally have never been a fan of floating panels, they tend to pile on and look like clutter for my tastes. However I do think of some software examples that use integrated non-floating panels but have a little more flexibility as to how you can place them. I donât currently have it open but I believe Cubase allows you to move & configure individual panels to taste while still keeping them integrated IIRC.
I also like how Adobeâs products treats this - their software comes with integrated panels which can be moved around and set side-by-side/above-and-below if needed, but thereâs a little âhamburgerâ icon allowing you to break them out into floating panels if you so desire 
I generally like the Dorico layout, itâs very clean allowing me to focus, but I understand this issue when switching between the inspector panel and key editor, it comes up for me often too where I wish I could view them simultaneously.
True, but since then you would have to use the mouse for clicking around, I donât know if it is really worth assigning it.
Paolo
