Upgrade Special Price

If I buy my upgrade during the July special (I’m at 3.5 now and will go to whatever the latest version is when I upgrade), I will probably not install the newer version immediately, as I have many projects I want to complete before I start learning the new features.

I assume there are no nasty “gotchas” that would be contra-indicative of buying now and installing later?

At some point in the future the eLicenser system will be fully deprecated, though (and this is supposition) I’m guessing it won’t be for many years. At that point (still guessing) it may be difficult to get Steinberg Activation Manager to recognise the existing 3.5 license that qualifies for a Dorico 4 upgrade.

Thankfully I can report that having gone through the 3.5 → 4 upgrade procedure, Dorico 2, 3 and 3.5 still work just fine (on both macOS and Windows 10) in tandem with Dorico 4 (albeit not simultaneously) and without doing anything particularly special: each paid update installs as an independent application. If you intend to upgrade to Dorico 4 at some point, you may as well do so at a discounted price and get the license update out of the way, whether you intend to start using Dorico 4 now or at some point in the future.

I would say there’s little need for caution in moving up to v4, especially for projects that are unfinished, which may benefit from some of the new features.

There’s no better way of learning new features than using them on a job.

The only cause for hesitation is when re-opening completed projects using lyrics, which may occasionally have slightly different spacing, causing a bar to knock over to the next system, or a system to be slightly taller; but these instances are rare and easily fixed with a couple of adjustments to Engraving Options.

But if you prefer, you can use 3.5 for any older projects that exhibit any movement.

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Thank you both for your encouragement. I will upgrade as soon as my next paycheck arrives!