Hi,
Would it be a more effective way to input triplets if you choose a note value, then press semi-colon, and a number instead of inputting the whole ratios?
Example:
Press 4 (16th notes) → semi-colon → 6 → enter or return = a 16th note sextuplet
Best,
Juan
You have to provide the full ratio for everything other than a triplet, because it’s not obvious what ratio should be used otherwise: your sextuplet could be 6:4, 6:8, 6:5, or indeed many other possibilities.
I don’t know if this would be tenable or not, but often there is a most common choice for tuplet. Say if you have an 8th note, and you type 5 in the popover; to me this is most likely going to be an 8th-note quintuplet, spread over two beats.
And in jmatos’s example, a 16th-note sextuplet would be more common than 6:5, etc.
So if there were a way to code it, perhaps typing without a ratio could create a default tuplet (decided by the Dorico team, or maybe even in user preferences); and if you want something less common, you can always type the ratio.
Just like the post above, at least have the most common ratios simplified. Although I’m enjoying this program more than Sibelius, it does give simplify the tuples input and gives you the options for more complex tuplets.
So far I’ve been loving Dorico. I know it’s going to knock out the major players in a few years.
I think this puts the Dorico team in an “impossible” position. Someone working in one genre of music (Baroque) vs someone else (avant-garde) would potentially have totally different ideas for what is a “normal” or “simple” tuplet. Such “standards” could also change depending not only on the genre but on the time signature within that genre. Hence, the simple way of doing it, and covering everyone’s needs, is to simply ask you to type in the ratio you want (which is how it is currently set up). Frankly, I think trying to alter the algorithm to accommodate your wishes is not a straightforward task. You’ll end up with people getting ratios they don’t want because Dorico decided for them, rather than simply telling Dorico what you want from the get-go and having the program produce exactly that.
I don’t mean for ratios option to be removed, just give simpler options for simpler tuplets in addition to what we already have.
Over the years (if not decades) there has been a steady stream of questions on the Sibelius forum from people who only used the “simple” options for tuplets, and thought the program had a bug when the default didn’t match what they wanted.
In 19th century scores, even “3” often meant “3:4” for quarter-note tuplets but “3:2” for shorter notes!
Maybe the Dorico developers have long memories - as Einstein is reputed to have said, “make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler.” 
I think this might be solvable so you can create your own shortcuts for preferred tuplet ratios when the key-editor and script-editor reach a little more maturity. I know it has a Lua engine underneath, but I have not been able to find much documentation on Dorico’s implementation. (Putting the words “script” and “macro” into Dorico’s online documentation comes up dry.)
If nothing else, you could already use a program like Keyboard Maestro to record a macro that automates typing whatever ratio you like, e.g. a sequence of ; followed by 6:5 followed by Return.
We hoped to get scripting fully implemented for the initial release, but it proved to be a much bigger job than anticipated. We did the groundwork to get the Lua engine embedded in the application but the big remaining work is to design the Apis. This is certainly an area that we will return to in the future as we know how valuable it is for our users. If you search the forum for ‘lua’ then you should find a thread that summarises some of the use cases we’ll be looking at.
What’s the best (most efficient) way to revert back to regular duplets? Currently I exit out of input mode by pressing enter sign, and then re-entering and press right arrow button to start input on the next beat. This would greatly help my efficiency if there’s a better way to cancel out tuplets. Thanks!
Are you looking for SHIFT + ; / : to turn off the ongoing tuplets (on a QWERTY keyboard)?
ah yes! Thank you!