Hello Dorico developers!
First, thanks for writing the absolute greatest piece of music notation software that humanity has come up with thus far. Speaking as a former software developer turned musician, I can say that you are definitely on the right path towards putting more music in the world and making all of our lives easier via utilizing the full capabilities of technological innovation for music notation.
There is one feature that I think you could add to the “Force Duration” function. It works fine as it is for now, but what it really needs in order for it to be perfect is the ability to TOGGLE it on a note that is selected. This is mainly useful for dealing with imported musicxml files that have weird results. It is also critical for people in the field of early music because when we typeset scores, we like to replicate the notation we see in primary sources and often time the ties are non-standard.
If we had a toggle button, it would reduce the amount of keystrokes needed to switch from two versions of the same note value. Please see attached image for reference!
It would be great if I am just missing the keyboard shortcut for this or something like that, but if not, if you could add this function it would totally make my day!!!
All of these small changes like this would go a long way towards avoiding and preventing tendonitis, especially for anyone involved in early music. We have to do soooo much typesetting of scores. It is exhausting and Dorico so far as saved my hands from devastation because of the time saving features of the engine.
Finally, on totally different note, I also beg you to please implement letter based lute tablature a soon as possible. Because the engine can generate tablature based from normal notation, the implications are that we will be able to generate lute tablature from any music and instantly have the basis for transcriptions set up as well as for composers to be able to write music for us in the notation that is most efficient for our instrument. Make no mistake- all of the current software used to write lute tablature are complete trash because of the obscurity of our instrument and lack of funding/development time and so forth. This one feature will help further bring our instrument from the brink of extinction. The key idea here is accessibility and Dorico can bring lute tablature to musicians who have not been exposed to it. Indeed, I would personally love to help you with this. I hold a master’s in early plucked instruments from the Eastman School in Rochester, NY and consequently I’ve studied with the most knowledgeable lute player on earth. We can help you implement the features needed to cover all types of lute tablature for early plucked instruments.
Thanks again, for the marvelous work of art you have created with Dorico! It is a joy to work with.
Thanks,
Joe