Such a joy!

Reading of all the issues that people seem to have working with Dorico, I feel like acknowledging all the hard work that the developers put into this software. I’m a Sibelius user since version 2 and about to drop it completely as soon as Dorico includes most of its functionality, BUT… this doesn’t mean, that I don’t use Dorico, yet. Today I started working on a songbook, my first large project in Dorico, and it’s absolutely stunning to watch how Dorico creates a beautiful layout on its own as soon as the notation, engraving and layout options are properly set up to your needs. I don’t know any notation software that really understands what the user puts into it like Dorico. Now, everytime when I have to work in Sibelius again (because of compatibility), it feels like a really dumb old “MS Paint” for music. Sure, it has the flexibility to input pretty much everything, but at what cost? Impossible chord symbols, inconsistent lyric spacings, hidden objects to fake certain things. Sure, it all works, but it feels like my messy garage, where I put in all the stuff that won’t fit elsewhere, no need to be fancy there, but it’s dry and it has a lock… :wink:
Now, I’m sooo looking forward for the next big update with implemented drum notation features!

Here are some ideas for future features of Dorico:

  • proof-reading in engrave mode: highlighting all colliding objects, so the user can easily see, where to manually adjust e.g. Shift+X text elements
  • customizable rehearsal marks (like “Verse 1”, “Chorus 2”, …) with boxed frames
  • global rulers in engrave mode to constantly display dimensions of frames or to create magnetic guidelines for adjustments (also across pages)
  • unified measurements (instead of spaces, points and millimeters)
  • real-time preview window in the font style dialog and line-spacing in the floating font panel during text input

Thank you for this great software, I absolutely love it as yet!

Thanks very much for taking the time to write and say that you enjoy using Dorico. We love to hear that feedback! (We also appreciate constructive criticism and suggestions, of course, but it’s always nice to hear that your users feel that you’re basically going in the right direction anyway…)

Thanks also for your suggestions concerning Engrave mode. All of these are certainly on our radar, and indeed a couple of them will be addressed in the next update (custom prefix/suffix for rehearsal marks, and better handling of measurements that follow your choice made in Preferences throughout the program).