I’m a recent convert to Dorico. Below are some things on my wish list that relate to layout . Some of these may be things that others have suggested as well; some may also be things that Dorico already has but I haven’t found yet – please feel free to point them out to me if that’s the case.
- Let Dorico resolve some collisions by moving objects horizontally instead of vertically. Some discussion regarding rehearsal marks and bar numbers here.
- Some way to redistribute existing measures to optimally fill a series of staves, aka “Make Into Systems”. There’s lots of discussion about this, often in reference to the Finale plugin JW Fit Music. I understand that there are ways of accomplishing this with note spacing, but that’s trial and error and not necessarily the desired approach. My description of what I’d like to see is here
- It would be nice if there were a property to make a rest (single or multi-bar) expand to encompass the width of a tempo mark over it. For example, if a multi bar rest sits between two rehearsal marks and has a long tempo mark like “Slowly and with oceanic feeling q = 42”, the tempo mark will likely be wider than the rest and will cause the following rehearsal mark to reposition vertically. If the rest could automatically stretch to accommodate the tempo mark, there would be no collision. (I know I can change the width of the measure/rest myself.)
- Dorico should be able to auto-hide a time signature change if the displayed time sig is the same as the current one. For example, 5/4 by default is 3+2. If I add a time sig change to [2+3]/4, Dorico should automatically hide the resulting 5/4 because it’s the same as the sig currently in effect.
