Some miscellaneous comments from a newbie

Dorico
1

Hi!

I have been using Dorico for almost half a year now and I really love it!
The design and UI “concepts” are extraordinary, which makes the tool really easy to use.
I also find this forum and its users the best and most helpful ever seen.

Here I have gathered a few minor comments/suggestions/questions:

1. (Application)
Merge menu line and window border header to one, to save space for smaller screens.
This also matches the style that Wavelab and Cubase have.
(Yes, I know about “Full screen mode”, but users could benefit from this always)

2. (File)
I would like to have a File->Revert entry (self-explanatory)

3. (Setup Mode)
If doing a “Change instrument” from the players list, the currently selected instrument
is not selected in the list - you always get the first instrument (Brass->Alpenhorn->F)

4. (Setup Mode/Print mode)
If notes and other objects are selected in Write Mode, they can be changed/removed in Setup Mode and Print mode.
If I have interpreted the design philosophy correctly, these modes should be “Read only”,
and if so, shouldn’t it be better to not show the edit menu items and pop-up menu (applies to Setup mode only) at all,
or at least make them disabled (greyed-out)?

5. (Write Mode/Tooltips)
Many of the blue key command descriptions in the tooltips for the notations toolbox are missing.
I really like them and they are very convenient when learning the application.

6. (Write Mode/Chords)
When inputting chords the pop-over hides the previously input chord.
I would like to have the pop-over adjusted upwards a bit so it doesn’t cover the previous chord
I find myself exiting chord mode, or advance and then back again, to be able to see how my input was interpreted…
Sometimes I also find it hard to see where I am - It would be great with some kind of caret.

7. (Write Mode/Cues)
Colouring cue notes doesn’t work.
They are possible to select and change in the properties bar, but the colour does not apply.
(Chords symbols suffered from the same problem before Dorico 2)

8. (Write Mode/Cues)
It is not possible to add a cue (with the pop-over) at a multi-bar rest section, if “show as multibar rests” is selected.
In this case no instruments are shown in the list in the pop-over.
(I understand if this can be a bit hard to implement though… What should Dorico do in such a case?)

9. (Write Mode/Staff Size)
When scaling the size of a staff that is top-most, all other items above it,
(even the ones not directly belonging to that staff) like bar numbers, rehearsal marks etc will be scaled to.
The work-around is to afterwards inverse scale those items back to normal size again.

10. (Misc - “Statistics”)
I would like to be able to find a note range, -, of the currently input notes for an instrument.
This to be able to see if a score needs to be transposed to better fit a player.
(I know that this is similar to “coloured notes” found in other programs, and which has already been suggested)

11. (Misc - A bit off-topic :slight_smile:)
A page-turning-enabled, read-only, full screen mode to be used when practicing or performing!
(Similar to the feature found on some score-applications for iPad etc)


Best regards from Sweden

2

As for 7) you can change the colour of each individual cued notehead in engrave mode.

3

Thanks for your list of suggestions. For the fourth item on your list, I’d be interested to know what edits you’re able to make in Setup and Print mode?

4

Thanks, that’s a good work-around.

5

Actually I’m able to use everything that is in the edit menus, in the Setup and Print modes.
To reproduce:

  1. Go to Write Mode
  2. Select some notes
    3a1. Go to Print Mode (notes will not be shown as selected, but they are)
    3a2. Select menu Edit->Cut or something else from the edit menu
    or
    3b1. Go to Setup Mode (notes will not be shown as selected, but they are)
    3b2. Select menu Edit->Cut or something else from the edit menu, or use the pop-up menu (right-click)
6

Aha! This explains some mysterious behaviour I’ve noticed recently when switching between modes. It seems that the colour indicating the selection disappears, but the selection itself is retained, making it possible to (e.g.) delete a passage accidentally while trying to change print settings.

7

Heh. I find that I can use anything in the Edit menu in Setup mode except Delete. If I use Delete on the Edit menu, nothing happens. If I use the Delete key or the Backspace key I’m asked if I want to delete the flow that’s currently selected.

8

Ah, right. Good, then. I suspect I cut a passage by accident (while trying to cut some text), but because I didn’t know what had happened, I thought it had somehow got deleted.

9

FYI we will make sure that the various commands in the Edit menu that should not be available in Setup and Print modes are disabled in the next update.