I have a score in which many quarters on the second beat of a 4/4 bar are tied to an eighth. I’d like to replace these with dotted quarters but changing the first setting in Notation Options/Note Grouping to reflect this doesn’t do it and neither does a subsequent Reset Appearance. The quickest way I could find to do this was to press ‘.’ to turn the tied note into a quarter with an eighth rest, press ‘o’ for Force Duration and then press the ‘.’ again. Pretty good but shouldn’t changing the notation settings have done this automatically? If not, is there another way to do it all in one go?
Yes, changing that first setting on the Note Grouping page of Notation Options should do the trick. I’d need to see the project file itself to provide any further insight.
(Remember the simple rules of this forum: search before you post; be polite; don’t bump threads; and don’t post a picture of a problem you’re having, post a project. This last one is really important. You can save everybody, yourself included, a lot of time if you do something like do File > Save As to save your project under a new name, use the Shift+B popover to delete all but a handful of bars in your flow, delete any other flows that are irrelevant, delete any players that are irrelevant if you like; or use File > Export > Flows to export e.g. just the part layout for a single instrument that demonstrates the problem. 99 times out of 100 I can help when I see a project file. I can help maybe 10 times out of 100 when I can only see a picture. A quick search shows that I have used the words “attach project” in 542 of the 10700+ posts I’ve made to this forum – close to 5% of them. Please: help me to help you.)
Fair enough! Perhaps I should have mentioned that these anomalies could, again, have to do with XML import. I’ve decided that from now on I’ll use it only if I desperately need to port something over to Dorico which I’ve already created in another program.
Vaughan, do take a good look at the MusicXML import settings in (General) Preferences. There are several options in there that may save you time in future.
I have done this and I’ve chosen the settings consciously. It’s sometimes a bit of a catch 22: you choose one setting which works well for certain things but it can also screw up other things. Anyway, as I said, from now on I’m planning to keep XML import to an absolute minimum.
If you have a sequence of bars that you want to change the tied notes to dotted ones, here is one solution:
Example 3:3:2 is written in 4/4 as doted quarter note, eight note tied to quarter note, quarter note. If you want to change the eight tied to quarter note to a dotted quarter note, do the following (since is in an upbeat there is no option in the “notation options”):
Select the sequence of bars, press “shift + m” for meter, in the meter input box write [3+3+2]/8, press “enter”, you will notice that the values changed already, but also the meter changed to 8/8. Press “o” to force duration, select the 8/8 meter and press “delete”. Done. Thanks to my friend Ben for helping with this issue.
although this thread is a bit older, I wanted to thank you for your working solution to a problem: for days I couldn’t find any direct way within Dorico to force a double dotted half note to be shown as double dotted in a 4/4 bar (8/8 grid). Goal: print the final double dotted half note chord within the last bar of a Jazz piano solo transcription which had been done within an older version of Sibelius. I just found no way to do it in Dorico 3.5, whereas it took me only about 15 sec. to find the right way in MuseScore.
