This isn’t too focused on any particular issue – I just wanted to give a shout out to the devs.
I’ve been working on Dorico most of today, and I have had SIX (I did count) instances of:
- Wanting to do something in Dorico,
- Thinking that it wasn’t possible, or took way more steps than it should,
- Writing up a short forum post addressing said issue,
- To avoid embarrassment, giving Google one last check,
- Realizing that there is, in fact, a really simple way to do said thing.
- Deleting my post and carrying on.
So to beginners, give Google a shot 
. And if you don’t, they’ll probably still be willing to patiently help .
Thanks devs, you thought of it already.
PS: Okay I can’t make it 10/10, so there is still one thing out of the 6 that I’m not happy with, and that’s how long force duration takes, when things aren’t beamed the way I’d like them to be beamed. It’s just kinda annoying. Putting a toggle in the properties pane would be amazing. Something like “combine into one note” or something like that. But hey, maybe there is a one click method and I just don’t know it yet.
If beaming is a problem, do you know you can set key commands for “Make Unbeamed” and “Beam Together”? I’ve set them to “?” and “/” since I use them often. Pretty fast.
Or maybe you meant note grouping.
Thanks for the reply. I did in fact mean note grouping. The attached shows the passage. The image is notated correctly (or, at least, how it’s notated in the original score). At first it was two tied 8th notes, and for the life of me I couldn’t find a global option that would turn that into a quarter note. I selected every single option that reads “single note”. So I just used force duration to rewrite it and that was that. Which, to be fair, may have been the first time I’ve ever actually needed to use force duration.
I’ll admit, this issue may be totally fine, once I get used to it. It’s just very different from other notation software I’ve used for years. And of course the general benefit is properly grouped music the vast majority of the time. I’d just like a toggle in cases where it’s a simple binary choice in grouping.
edit: And I’m setting your keybindings right now, thank you. In fact the first measure of the attachment required beaming as well, but I’ve had no problem working with that.
The “key” with force duration after the fact is to use a smaller value of the note you want to force (here, eighth note). So select your note (two tied eighth, press 5-o-6)
There comes a time when you’re fast at it!
Thank you Marc! I suppose there’s a massive time difference between typing 5-o-6, and learning all this stuff then typing 5-o-6. Looking forward to the fast phase.
