Selecting only Notes so that *all* property adjustments are available

Dorico
1

Well, after almost two years since the death of Finale, I’ve finally figured out why sometimes the Properties panel shows all properties of Notes after I filter for only Notes and Chords, and other times not. I usually want my piano fingerings Position left of notehead which is not the default in Dorico and I’ve never found a preference setting for it. And it is tedious to change this property on one note at a time. So after I’ve entered all my fingerings (or imported from a Finale file) I want to be able to hit that Position left of notehead checkbox once, and do it for all. But as we know, Dorico usually only shows properties which are applicable to all elements in the current selection. The secret is that clicking Edit > Filter > Select Only and then Edit > Filter > Notes and Chords only gives the full properties availability for Notes if the selected notes have no Tuplets. The trick is to do several more clicks: Deselect only, then Tuplets and voila all tuplet brackets appear deselected and the Properties panel suddenly has all adjustments including Fingering available. Of course, I’ve made a macro to do this…

Filter Only Notes.lua (293 Bytes)

I suppose the reason for restricting property availability is so that the Properties panel does not become a mile wide with properties to scroll through. But there must be a way for Dorico to not be so fussy about the selection. The Notehead contextual menu is really nice in this regard. You can do a Select All, which selects all elements of all types in the Flow, and the Notehead submenu is smart enough to ignore everything except notes and just work.

I would happily pay twice the usual upgrade price if Dorico 7 replaced that Edit > Filter submenu so that you didn’t need to mouse through it multiple times to get the selection you want. Hint: Look at the Edit > Edit Filter window in Finale. Dorico is way better than Finale in every way, except this one feature that drives me crazy.

Using Dorico Pro version 6.2.30.6245 in macOS.

2

Did you try this preference?

Jesper

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3

The preference @jesele mentions was introduced in Dorico 6 I believe, and it helps a lot. But I recognize your longing for Finale’s filtering function. :wink:

4

I seem to have forgotten Finale faster than one would expect after using it for many decades! Perhaps – and maybe I’m just blowing smoke – the Development Team could take a quick look at Dorico’s implementation to see if there is a better way that might include a dialog box (or [nested] boxes) that had check boxes and/or radio buttons. Filters can get quite complex, I’m sure, and this could become a programming nightmare with the possible combinations of filter “these” and “those” as well as “this” or “something else” (for selections that are not mutually possible, if that may be the case). Maybe it would be a worse interface! :woozy_face::man_shrugging:

I’ve only started to make use of filters (as most of my “work” is not complicated) but it sometimes seems like the restaurant menu whereby one picks so many from column A, etc.

— Jim

5

The wish for improvements to the filtering system has been expressed many times before.

6

Instead of Filtering, one useful trick is this:

Select the first note that you want; then Command-click (or CTRL-click on PC) the LAST note that you want. Now press Select All (Command Shift A).
Dorico will select all the same objects between the two (and not add the tuplets!)

There were improvements in recent versions about what Properties were shown when Notes and Tuplets were selected, IIRC – but it doesn’t seem to cover this.

I’m a massive fan of the application Preference to show all properties of all selected items, which for my money is one of the biggest productivity enhancements; even if you do get a long list to scroll through.

7

Very good, @benwiggy . I’m sorry this forum won’t let me mark two replies as Solutions, so you only get a heart.