I have a random experimental first attempt with Dorico. I had entered a meter of 3/4 and everything barred correctly. Then I decided to delete the meter and go back to having it unbarred for continuous entry.
When I try to enter a half-note at the end, I get a half-note [picture 1] until I try to enter a 2nd half-note and then my first half-note gets turned into a dotted quarter.[picture 2] The first half-note remains a half-note even when I exit the note-entry mode (hit ESC). But the first half-note gets turned into a dotted-quarter no matter what note value I enter after it.
I don’t understand why Dorico thinks the first half-note I enter should only be a dotted-quarter-note. It’s not as if there is a bar which is supposed to be filled correctly.