I know everyone is feeling a bit shocked, and angry, and even a little bit frightened; and this can all turn to a panic that you need to convert 5000 files and learn a new program TODAY.
First of all: there’s plenty of time to take stock of your current setup, and decide what you’re going to do. There are plenty of people still using ancient versions of Finale as it is – so the chances are that you can continue using Finale for a good few years yet. There’s also plenty of time to investigate things like Virtual Machines.
If you come to Dorico panicky, angry and resentful, and feeling that you need to become an expert in 10 minutes, then you’ll only get frustrated and disappointed. Take your time, accept that you need to learn the basics and work up, and even try to enjoy the process!
It will be a journey, and there are going to be bumps on the way, but you’ll get there in the end.
Also: there are plenty of people here who are happy to help. The Dorico team are fantastically present, and there are many other Finale users who have already made the journey.
Great post, Ben. Having trained a large number of new users over the past few years, I have a few suggestions based on recurring themes that arise in tutoring sessions.
Seek to learn the “proper” way, even if it takes you longer. Take the long-term view. In the same way that you should press Tab rather than hitting Spacebar 8 times in a word processor, it’s worth the time to lay every building block properly…. Even if you don’t expect to be a power user. The first and seemingly quickest solution may seem to be the best, but it can cause unforeseen problems later… and take more time down the road.
Learn the “Dorico” way first. Don’t be too quick to change shortcuts to match what you know. Allow yourself to retrain your brain from square one. If over time you still find yourself wanting to alter defaults, by all means, use what works.
Seek to understand “why” a design or workflow function was designed as it was. That will help immensely.
When possible, look for a global option. Ask yourself, “will I need to perform this function repeatedly?” If so, there is a good chance there’s a global option rather than just a local one.
Don’t allow yourself to get frustrated. Of course you should do your own work in learning, but if you’re stuck on a problem for more than a few minutes, just ask!
Dorico has a number of concepts that are foreign to users of other notation software. A great place to start to grip with that is the ‘First Steps’ guide. This is the latest published version (for Dorico 5.0) but a new version (for Dorico 5.1) is coming soon.
In addition to Dan’s #4 above, about global settings as opposed to individual tweaks, I have similar advice:
In Finale it is necessary to tweak things like staff spacing and note spacing manually (if there is a collision, or to even things out, etc.) — In Dorico the intention is that these layout issues should be handled automatically with appropriate settings. If you find yourself doing more than a couple of tweaks, there is probably a setting (and there are hundreds of them) that will produce good positioning without further edits. And you should use the settings, not only to save time, but especially because manual layout tweaks that produce page overrides can easily be lost when the music changes.
For any Finale “refugees” so busy exporting MusicXML files and getting to know Dorico that you haven’t yet seen this morning’s (U.S.) email update from MakeMusic:
After reviewing early feedback from our dedicated users, we’d like to offer some clarifications.
Finale development has ended, but you can still download your previously purchased Finale versions from your eStore account. If your computer crashes or you need to install Finale on a new device, you’re not left without options.
We are committed to keeping the authorization process functional for a year. We’ve heard your concerns and are actively exploring ways to extend flexibility in the weeks ahead.
We understand that learning Dorico will be a steep learning curve, as it is with any complex notation or professional software. Both our team and Steinberg have developed extensive onboarding videos to guide you through the transition.
If you are official representatives of MakeMusic, please consider stating it it in your forum account profile.
Regarding the onboarding videos, it will be extremely helpful if Japanese versions are available. Specifically, Japan-special version of Finale has extra dedicated features for users in the notation industry in Japan. Due to their limited average English ability level, the entire English community is probably (90%) non-helpful to them until Japanese-translated contents are available. Their English ability issues hinder them from seeking help directly in this forum.
I’m not a Japanese but I am trilingual and I know their concerns (or incoming concerns of such). Both you and Daniel can feel free to actively hear similar concerns through MI7 (the reseller of Finale in Japan) and YAMAHA Music Publishing Japan (YAMAHA is Steinberg’s father company).
I was in touch with the team at MakeMusic about this issue today, and there should be some news on this front soon. We’ll need to figure out how to do this for customers in Japan as they will buy from us rather than directly from MakeMusic, but we’ll come up with a solution. Please give us some time to work out the details.
