Slurs from Finale XML

If I import Finale XML with the setting checked to observe Slur direction, then all slurs will have their Direction ‘forced’ in the Properties panel (i.e. the little Blue switch is on). However, you cannot turn off the switch in the panel: you have to use Reset Appearance.

Similarly, if you turn OFF the XML import setting to observe slur direction, then dashed slurs exhibit a similar behaviour: the slur’s Style in the Properties Pane is unsurprisingly dashed, with the Blue switch on: but you cannot turn off the Blue switch.

The weird thing is that when you try to turn off the switch, the Slur becomes a Solid slur, even though the panel says “Dashed”. Again, you must use Reset Appearance to turn off the switch. It’s as if the switch’s action is running, but the state is not being set.

Slurs entered in Dorico do not exhibit any of this, as far as I can tell.
Screenshot 7.png

Seems buggy for sure. This is why, assuming you can stomach it, it’s best to select all and select reset appearance and position. These commands trim away all these odd quirks.

This is a long-standing issue, with no near-term hope of a solution. The problem is a technical one, and not specific to MusicXML from Finale but rather to MusicXML import more generally. In Dorico terms the properties for things like slur direction are per-layout, but at the point at which the slurs etc. are created during MusicXML import, Dorico hasn’t yet created any layouts, and so properties for things like slur direction end up getting set with a different scope than the ones you can set via the Properties panel; they’re set in a way that affects all layouts, which is of course something that everybody is waiting for the ability to do in the normal run of using the program. So doing Reset Appearance is the only way to remove those properties because it can remove properties with any kind of scope, not only the kind of scope that the Properties panel itself is expecting to find.

Thanks, Daniel, for the interesting explanation!