Quick question… I’m sure there’s an easy answer to this but I can’t find it in the documentation or via search.
Suppose I want a dotted bar line somewhere in the bar, but want to display a time signature for the two measures together.
A simple example might be 2 bars of 2/4 with a dotted line between them, but a time signature of 4/4. Or maybe 3/4 but (2/4 + 1/4). (Obviously these are fairly trivial examples.)
What is best practice for doing this in Dorico?
Thanks!
Make whatever time signature you want, then add the dashed barline anywhere! Shift-B, colon.
But then it has to be done individually for each bar. This is, shall we say, sub-optimal for a 100+ measure piece! 
Is there a way to do it automatically?
SHIFT+M 2/4|1/4 will produce a dashed line in between the two length measures, but it produces a compound time signature. So start with a 3/4 time sig and add the dashed barline with SHIFT+B colon. Then in measure 2 add the permanent time signature and hide it.
timeSIgTest.zip (470 KB)
Thank you… that’s a solid work-around.
One more question… when I insert a dotted barline into a grand staff with the control-B “:” it goes through all staves. The dotted barline from the auto time signature does not cross the center of the system (and, for piano, it should). I’m sure there’s a global setting for that but I can’t find it.
How to make the dotted barlines cross systems like regular barlines?
Thank you!
Dashed barlines in aggregate time signatures don’t cross multiple staves: they are always contained within the staff. If you want the barline to appear like a regular barline, only dashed, then you will indeed have to add it as a regular barline wherever you want it to appear.