The following Write and Engrave Mode behavior seems strange to me:
If I select a group of notes, each of which has the same articulation indication, the articulation properties appear in the panel, as expected:
But if one or more of the notes has no articulation, or one or more has a different single articulation, the properties do not appear. I found this unexpected and unhelpful, but perhaps understandable:
Yet of one or more of the notes has a combination articulation which includes the same articulation as the others, the properties do appear in the panel. I find this helpful, but inconsistent and strange:
Two things are going on here. First, with default settings, Dorico only displays properties that are shared by all selected items. And second, Dorico divides up articulations into three types: articulations of force, duration, and stress.
In your first screenshot, all the notes have a staccato dot, so Dorico shows the properties for articulations of duration. In the second screenshot, not all notes have an articulation, so Dorico doesn’t show you articulation properties (since they’re not shared by all selected items). In your third screenshot, three notes have staccato (duration) and one has an accent (force); again, neither one is shared by all 4 notes, so Dorico doesn’t show you properties. In the last screenshot, all 4 notes again have a staccato, so you get properties for articulations of duration – but you don’t get properties for articulation of force, because only one note has an accent.
If you don’t like the way this works, you can change Preferences > Note Input and Editing > Note Input > When selecting multiple items of different types.
Personally, I keep this on the second (default) setting. It reduces the number of sub-panels shown in Properties, and it lets me see exactly which properties apply to which items. But many users like the first setting.
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Thank you, asherber, for taking the time to explain that. The behavior is quite logical. I am thinking that I might prefer to see all of the properties, so I will change the setting and see how it goes.
3 Likes
I have to say that I find showing all properties for all objects very useful. It means you can select everything, and then modify lyrics, or whatever, without having to filter for that type of thing first.
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