Resuming note entry in primary voice

When I resume note entry in an empty bar following notes in multiple voices, the caret consistently takes up in the last-created voice, and I have to remember to manually switch to Up-stem Voice 1. Is this behavior intended for some reason?

In over a year with Dorico I have still not learned to expect this. When I select a bar rest (presumably in Up-stem Voice 1) I am expecting note entry to be in that voice. I will spare you more detailed descriptions of the inconveniences involved unless requested.

It might be worth showing voice colours to check this is indeed the case, as it could well be that bar rests after a passage with multiple voice actually follow a different voice.

Thanks, Lillie. I don’t prefer voice colors because it reduces legibility, but when I do show them, the bar rests I’m talking about are grey, implicit ones.

My question (to the Team) stands: Could we have at least the option to restart in the primary voice? Given a choice of existing voices in a staff, I would never want to resume in a secondary voice by default.

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I second this. It still throws me too, and it’s pretty much the only source of incorrect voice input for me.

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I haven’t checked exactly what Dorico is doing in all circumstances, but my expectation is that it will always start note input in the voice of the item that was selected, unless that item has no affiliation with a voice, in which case it will start in the first up-stem voice. A bar rest does have an affiliation to a voice, even if it’s an implicit one, and if it’s “glommed”, i.e. two or more bar rests belonging to different voices superimposed on each other, then you do typically end up with the bar rest belonging to the secondary voice “on top” of the one belonging to the primary voice.

As a way around this, you could perhaps disable consolidation of rests in multiple voices during the note input phase?

Aha! So I see if I select a barline, or text, I get the primary voice. This may be enough of a solution for me.

I am still curious about “glommed” bar rests – why an implicit bar rest in Down-stem Voice 1 would be on top if it isn’t drawn at all when up-stem notes are added. But that is just conceptual details compared with the practical issue of note entry.

@dspreadbury you are the only other person apart from me that uses the words like “glommed”. I use “agglomerated”. People just stare blankly. :slight_smile:

I guess they are just “glom-smacked.”