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
Iām thrilled that you have requested this @Paolo_T
Iāve 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 donāt use off the screen to provide something like a floating palette. Donāt know why I havenāt 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 donāt know.
If youāre working on a large-scale project, I wouldnāt 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 donāt have any current plans to make it possible to ātear offā any of Doricoās panels, though we are not in the business of ruling things out for all time (unless theyāre 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 wonāt change mode along with the main window. This isnāt a big issue for me but that would depend on oneās 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 havenāt noticed any degradation in performance, but this project is not large.
there are keyboard shortcuts for the panels, arenāt 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 donāt 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 Adobeās 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 thereās a little āhamburgerā icon allowing you to break them out into floating panels if you so desire 
I generally like the Dorico layout, itās 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 donāt know if it is really worth assigning it.
Paolo
I was searching for whether this was possible because Iām working on a large orchestral score and really need the properties panel as a floating window to put on my second screen. I just canāt fit a page view and the properties window on my main screen and see with a decent zoom level. So I would LOVE this feature to be considered.
It would be nice if the various panels were dockable like in Visual Studio or SQL Server Management Studio. That way they could be floating or docked where they currently are. When you have two or more monitors, having the keyboard panel and/or properties panel floating on a separate monitor would be extremely useful.
