there’s a function in finale where notes can be transposed, but the original note can be preserved, i.e. 2 instruments on 1 staff in octaves and you only have to input 1 line and then hit the transpose button and it will copy the music an octave without having to input the octaves together?
Pretty easy to achieve! If I understand what you’re asking…
- Select the line to be transformed/transposed
- Shift-I, 8, Enter
- With the resulting notes being automatically selected, just press Alt-N (Opt-N on Mac) to move to staff above
my apologies. I wasn’t clear enough.
say I’m writing a piano part and a particular passage is in octaves, but I only input the passage in one octave. in finale, there’s a way to transpose the inputted notes up (or down) an octave and also preserving originals notes so it displays 2 octaves in one staff. is there a similar function in dorico?
Exactly as @dan_kreider said. Use the shift-I popover. Enter either the upper or lower notes, select them and use shift-I 8 (or -8) which will add an octave above (or below).
The shift-I popover is perhaps the most powerful. It will add notes to make chords (shift-I 3,5,8); allow you to transpose by intervals (shift-I t dim5); change specific notes (shift-I C=C#, Eb=E); even map passages onto different scales (shift-I C to Eb), and much more…
In Finale I use Speedy Entry with a MIDI keyboard to play pitches, then entering duration with the number pad. I’m stumbling on how to achieve this same approach, particularly with dotted notes and rests. Moving to the mouse is really slowing me down. Is there a video where someone is demonstrating how to input notes with MIDI keys for pitch, numbers for duration that avoids having to use the mouse for rests and dotted notes?
Wait…I didn’t know this! Extremely more powerful than what I was doing, which was pressing J and type “map pitches”, and even before I found that, I was using “filter notes by pitch”.
Always learning something new everyday 
There is an amazing amount of power in the note tools popover. After 3 years I’m still learning more.
Double tap the duration number for a dotted note. You can also press the dot key on the keyboard. I have it assigned on the numpad too, but can’t remember if I did that myself.
I definitely changed Zero on the Numbpad to “Advance Caret”. This essentially makes it like Finale’s Add Rest. It move the caret by the currently selected duration.
Yes, we both did!
Thank you! One clarification: you said “Advance Caret” moves the caret “by the currently selected duration.” Does that mean if quarter note is selected on the palette to the left, it adds quarter rests? And if so, how do I do a rest of another duration? Do have to select a eighth note in the palette to get an eighth rest?
Yes, it moves the caret forward by whatever note value is currently selected. Because Dorico will “fill in” rests, when you then add the note that follows, you’ll get the rest of the duration you set.
I think the default key press is Space (which you’ll want to keep, because that’s useful for creating hairpins.
If you can use the keyboard it’s faster than the palette. Press 5 then spacebar to add an eighth rest.
Looks like all these only work when you’re doing duration before pitch. Coming from Finale, I’m hoping to do pitch before duration - and these commands don’t work in that mode. Are there methods for both modes? Or is Dorico set up to favor duration before pitch?
If you’re trying to enter rests as you enter notes – you don’t have to in Dorico! Just put the notes where they belong, and the rests take care of themselves. You may not see an eighth rest when you advance by an eighth, until you enter another note!
That’s a good point. Unless I’m unaware, the best option might be to toggle K off, press duration and space to advance rest, then toggle K back on for next pitch.
Ok - I see how that works. Just takes some getting used to. But I still get dotted notes using pitch before duration (without clicking the dot on the palette)? The double click of the duration only works in duration before pitch.
EDIT: I just figured out it’s not the “.” on the numeric pad, but the “period” on the computer keyboard.
I’ve been working with Dorico now for a few days. I see that Dorico has quite a steep learning curve (as did Finale). So far I have been able to figure out just about everything I could do in Finale I can do in Dorico. My big concern moving forward is the lack of ability to put two percussion instruments on a single line such as having one line with the snare drum on the top of the line and the bass drum on the bottom and also play those sounds when using the same staff. This was done in Finale using layers and assigning a different sound to a different layer all one the same staff. Does Dorico have this ability? I don’t mind the steep learning curve I just don’t want to invest the time into a program only to eventually find out that it can’t do the things I need.
But you can change that if you want, I changed it to the one on the numpad!
And while I was at it, I also changed the duration numbers to what I was used to with Sibelius… 
I think you need to read up on Percussion Kits. It is a huge topic. There are many video tutorials that will also help.