In my Dorico for iPad, all too often the dotted quarter or half notes change to notes having ties with other notes with the same pitch. Even when forced duration helps with this the notes written just after that still come up with ties. Can’t seem to solve and quite frustrating.
How note-values are “split” often depends on the time signature chosen along with settings in Notation Settings.
If you’re using Force Duration, then things should stay as you enter them. Can you give us an example of where and how it’s not working – time sig, notes used, beat position…?
As said, you can configure how Dorico will deal with note groupings in Notation Options.
This sounds like you may have notes of different durations in the same voice. You may want to use multiple voices, as notes of different lengths can’t share a stem.
If we’re not getting what you mean, please illustrate.
Where exactly are the notation options? Is it directly below the drop down menu in the upper left of the screen where you can then change like from flat to sharp for individual notes?
Tried that. It did work for a quarter note but not with a dotted quarter. The other note with the different voice was an eighth note.
Could you show us a picture?
CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + N
You can access Notation Options in Dorico for iPad via the application menu at the very right-hand end of the toolbar. You must have an active subscription or have purchased the Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase in order to be able to access these options in Dorico for iPad.
Turns out that I had an incorrect setting for the rhythmic grid. Should have been a quarter note, not an eighth note which I had been using.
I still think it would be useful to see a picture of what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’re getting; as there may be more to be said and better solutions.
The grid does not affect the display of the note you are entering.
I’m having the same problem on a Mac: using pitch-before-duration, I pick a pitch, then dot, then whole note, and rather than getting a dotted whole, I get a whole tied to a half, and I don’t see any way to change it. I’m in 3/1 time, and the note is on the beat, so this isn’t a case of Dorico using ties to show where the beat is.
I found the "Note grouping (Notation options) dialog, chose “notate as a single note” everywhere it was possible, then re-entered the dotted whole and it’s still coming out as tied.
Ideally, I’d prefer to be able to enter a note of any duration anywhere without it automatically becoming tied, but I recognize that many people don’t want that so it’s not default behavior. In fact, if I read the “Note grouping (Notation options)” dialogue correctly, it’s not even possible in some cases.
Have you tried force duration?
Firstly, it’s working for me, even with Factory-reset Notation Options.
Can you upload a sample file?
Secondly, you may find that Dorico changes the note to a dotted semibreve when you add the last note of the bar.
Thanks! In fact the whole-tied-to-a-half did retroactively change to a dotted-whole when I added the final half note in the measure. (Mine is not to reason why…)
But all those “notate as a single note” preferences I clicked don’t seem to work for half notes, or whole notes on a half-note beat:
Replying to my own reply because I’m not allowed to put more than one screenshot in a single reply…
Sometimes a whole note on a half-note beat stays a whole note, as in three of the four cases below:
Apparently the rule for notes that cross a beat of their own value is “if the previous note is one note value smaller, notate as one note; if it’s two note values smaller, notate with a tie.” Somebody must have come up with that rule and coded it, but why, and how do I get around it?
In my ideal world, the rule would be “notate as one note if you can fit it into one measure,” with ways to notate as one note even if you can’t fit it into one measure (e.g. mensurstricke)
I presume this is for an edition of early music? If you really don’t want Dorico enforcing modern rhythmic conventions, then it’s probably best to leave Force Duration on all the time.
But of course, mensurstriche falls down at the end of every system, unless you make it even more difficult to read.