Hi all, this was posed earlier but not fully answered. I can’t seem to be able to select a single note of a tie chain. Also having trouble figuring out how to delete ties. E.g. four notes tied together, I want to select the third, change its pitch, and delete the tie before it. Can’t seem to select just one of the notes.
Thanks.
To use the scissors (U) to delete just part of a tie chain, invoke the note entry caret by pressing Return (or double-clicking); the caret will be at the first note of your tie chain. Use your arrow key to go forward through your tie chain until the cursor is just before the desired cut point; then type U.
(The cut point is at the end of the tie you wish to cut, not the beginning.)
In Engrave mode you can select just one note in a tie chain, but you can’t delete the tie in Engrave mode.
For the four notes tied together that you mention - I would probably cut all four notes using the above method; then change one of the notes, and then re-tie the other three.
“but you can’t delete the tie in Engrave mode.”
This still feels weird to me, that I can’t select the tie and tap delete.
It takes some getting used to, but it makes sense once you see Dorico’s rationale. The tie is not an independent item, but rather how a note’s duration is represented. Just like you can’t select the flag of an 1/8 note and hit ‘delete’ to turn it into a 1/4, you can’t select a tie and delete it. You need to either change the underlying note’s duration, or separate it into several notes using the scissors tool.
You can’t delete anything in Engrave Mode, so it’s not like one should expect otherwise.
Stephen’s answer was correct. I’d just like to add that if you double click on a staff — directly on a staff, not on an object in a staff — while in Write mode, the caret should be invoked at the place, meaning you don’t need to shuffle the caret around with the arrow keys.
Part of the rationale for not being able to delete in Engrave Mode is that Write Mode is where the musical information is input, and ties belong to that class of information; Engrave Mode is where that information can be moved around, but not actually changed. Takes some getting used to, but once you get used to it, it seems normal - and it prevents those accidental (no pun intended) changes that can occur in other programs where one wishes to move an object, and ends of up moving the pitches; that cannot happen here, and it’s a nice safeguard.
All I’d like is to be able to make a selection and push delete. I wouldn’t do this by accident and don’t get why this kind of operation shouldn’t be modeless.
Dear steve,
Delete key works in Engrave mode, for instance it can delete moves made to the staves (staff spacing) : if you delete after selecting a red square (red because it has been manually moved), the square comes back to the default position and turns blue back again. The rationale here is very strong and does prevent users to delete musical content while dealing with engraving.