Dorico 2
In the attached two measures, the first has 1/8 1/4 1/8 and is written that way (following my notation choice not to tie the quarter note), but the second measure which was input 1/8 1/4 1/16 1/16 changes the quarter note to tied eighths. It actually makes the rhythm look more complex than it should and is a bit disconcerting. Is this a standard notation for that kind of pattern? Am I missing an override or parameter?
Cheers!
Ed
P.S. Starting to use Dorico for everything. No turning back! 
You mmight want to toggle “force duration” on (o) when you input this kind of syncope to make sure Dorico follows YOUR way of writing it.
There are many options in Notation options (cmd-shift-N) > note grouping, but sometimes they do not respond to the situation you’re facing and force duration overrides Dorico’s settings.
Dorico’s detection of syncopated rhythms is a little simplistic at the moment, and in a short-long-short pattern like that, it expects each “short” to be made of a single note: if one of the “shorts” ends up subdivided, then it is no longer recognised as a pattern. We plan to do some more work on this in future. In the meantime, you can use Force Durations as Marc suggests.