Leif, re: your #9: I stumbled across the answer to that this morning. It is in Engrave:Font styles, and it represents one of Dorico’s very clever attributes.
There are two settings for Tempo text, Immediate Tempo Change and Gradual Tempo Change. I was faced with the same issue: rit, accel, etc. in large, bold font. I set the Gradual Change font to a smaller, italic (non-bold) font, and then started wondering how I tell Dorico which marking to use, because there is only one Tempo tool.
For want of anything else to try, I typed in an accelerando and hit Return. To my surprise, the accel appeared in the small italic font. Certain that I had somehow messed up the whole tempo tool, I did the same thing again, and this time I typed Allegro. Presto – large bold print; Dorico recognizes the difference between Gradual change and Immediate change tempo terms.
I love this application!