I’m not seeing “Tempo Font” in Paragraph Styles or Font Styles. Am I insane? Where can I adjust tempo font?
That’s because there are two - Immediate Tempo font and Gradual Tempo font. Look harder 
lol that makes so much sense! My next question was about different fonts for “Allegro” (usually bold) and “rit.” (usually italic) but there you go!!! Thanks!
It’s almost like the developers were musicians 
I wouldn’t mind if they were labeled “Tempo (Immediate)” and “Tempo (Gradual)” - they would be easier to find. 
The differentiation between immediate and gradual tempo change is a very good idea and very useful. Nevertheless there are many situations, in which you will need still more differentiation. The attached file is a part of a Brahms Intermezzo. In most editions of f.ex. 19th century solo-pieces the tempo at the beginning of the movement is written above the upper system and in bold letters, while tempo-changes within the movement are written like expression-instructions: in italics and between the systems. In these pieces an accelerando is considered to be closer to a crescendo than to the general Tempo (which in many cases is more like a title of the movement). And when you look at the function of those instruction this seems to be correct. In order to achieve this in Dorico, I had to do many tricks: For the più lento I took any default gradual tempo change and changed the text into più lento. This because there is no possibility to define custom ‘gradual tempo changes’. Piú lento is considered as an immediate tempo change (what it really is - technically, but not from the functional point of view). Afterwards I had to put the più largo and the rit. manually between the systems, because tempo changes in Dorico always appear above the upper system of an instrument.
Wouldn’t it be great to have the possibility to define as many custom instruction-styles as you need? Than we could have one for espressivo, one for gradual tempo changes within a movement, one for general tempo, one (or even two) for dynamics and so on?
Just an idea. I can imagine that this in not too easy to realize, but I think it would be great.
Ben
The workaround for this is to input an immediate dynamic (p, f, whatever you like) with the più lento after, then hide the dynamic from the properties panel.
Very good idea! Thank you! But what about the position of the rit. . . . . between the staves? Could I enter a dim. . . . . and change the Text?
Sorry, I was multitasking when I typed my previous reply - I haven’t added anything you didn’t already know. Are you saying you want a regular bold (but not italic) indication between staves?
I would like to have an italic indication for "rit… " as well as for “più lento”. Both in italics, non bold, both between the staves, both not colliding with anything else (like dynamics, espressivo-marks or whatever). And I would like to have the the chose between a (dotted) line after “rit.” or a
ri - tar - dan - do.
I would also like to enter “peu à peu plus retenu” or “become slower step by step” or “allmählich verlangsamen” etc. etc. and have the same possibilities.
(Maybe that is too much for the moment, but for future versions of Dorico this would be great. What I like using Dorico is just that Dorico asks me, what I mean and not what I want to see. But at the moment the restrictions are a bit too strict for my opinion.)
Dear Ben,
You can choose in the properties panel if you want a ritardando to be displayed as rit. or rit…………… or rit – – – – or ri - tar - dan - do -
But I agree that sometimes, we need some gradual tempo indications between piano staves, sometimes not, sometimes bold, sometimes italics… and we can still have only one choice of those or… workarounds.
Dear Marc,
thank you for your quick response!
I know the properties panel and like it. But when entering a gradual tempo change the ri-tar-dan-do version works only with very few default indications. I cannot enter an individual text and stretch it by syllables. And: The popover recognizes only these few default-words als gradual tempo changes. So if I want to enter another text and use it as a gradual tempo change, I cannot use the popover. I find the popover one of the most powerful innovations in Dorico, and I would like to use it as often as possible.
The same with expression marks, such as “flüchtig” (Arnold Schönberg), “expressif et sans rigueur” (Claude Debussy) or simply “espressivo”: I have to create a dynamic indication and kill the dynamic sign manually. Maybe in a future edition we have universal indications that can be widely customized like in the new editor for playing instructions. Maybe it’s a dream, but who knows…
Ben
Dear Ben,
I’ve been fiddling a little with those tempi things and I noticed (not sure it’s somewhere in the operation manual) that I can change a ral - len- tan - do in the properties text field (where the tempo text is written) by something like en ra-len-tis-sant and Dorico indeed is clever enough to use it and extend it the right way… Sometimes it’s nice to go off the tracks and notice those developers also ARE musicians!
You’re right. Great! I tried it out, and it works. Now the next things could be:
- create an option in the properties panel to place the indication above or below the staff
- allow to create custom tempo indications that are recognized correctly by the popover
- new style: expression mark
- …?
Thank you for your help!
Ben