Request for chord symbols to behave like system text

Dorico
1

I love that chord symbols in Dorico are all grouped, and if you add or remove one in one instrument they automatically update in other instruments, however I’ve just inadvertently deleted 16 bars worth of chord symbols in all instruments during a localised (one instrument) delete operation, not for the first time!

In Dorico 1.1 copying and pasting of music with chord symbols seems to “automatically” do a pretty good job: existing chord symbols are only overwritten if there’s a chord in the right position on the clipboard to paste in (sorry, not well explained!).

DELETE deletes everything including chord symbols - including in other instruments. If I want to delete 16 bars of a single instrument I have to select, then Edit>Filter>Deselect Only, then again go Edit>Filter>Chord Symbols, THEN delete. Or more likely, I’d select the passage, filter chord symbols (which I’ve mapped to Cmd-shift-alt-K), cut, delete, paste.

My request is that there’s a global option somewhere in the settings that allows Chord Symbols to be treated like Tempo markings. Is this remotely viable, please?

An even more radical idea: how about a Filter/Copy/Paste hybrid where one can tick exactly which items one wants to copy (Dynamics, tempo markings, time signatures, key signatures, notes, articulations, Shift-X text, lyrics, ornaments, techniques, chord symbols etc.). It’d be a ridiculously long list but might save the user time…

2

We are certainly talking about whether the way chord symbols are handled with regard to selections at the moment is how they will be handled in the future. Since they live on the global stream, like tempo items, it is arguably not good that they are selected when you make a selection of music on just a single staff, as this has knock-on effects for things like pasting as well as deletion. So it’s not impossible that in the forthcoming minor update chord symbols will in fact not be selected when you e.g. click in a bar – only when you do a marquee selection would they then become selected.

3

Thanks Daniel - exactly my thought process.

4

Another thing I’ve just spotted - it’s currently possible to delete chord symbols in Engrave mode. I"m guessing it shouldn’t be…

5

You can delete a few things in Engrave mode. Ideally it would be impossible but there are some complications that make it difficult to completely prevent without also making it impossible to e.g. delete breaks in Engrave mode.