Dorico 6.0.20 brings proofreading improvements

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Dorico 6.0.20, a free update for Dorico 6 users that includes more than 70 bug fixes, and introduces a significant change in the way the brand new Proofreading panel works. Read on for more details.

Proofreading

The new Proofreading panel that arrived with Dorico 6 has already proved to be hugely valuable, and we’ve enjoyed reading and watching the feedback from users as they have discovered the depth and breadth of the issues Dorico can report. We knew before we released the new version what the predominant form of feedback about the new panel would be, though: “how do I mark an issue as resolved to remove it from the panel?”

Proofreading in Dorico is completely dynamic, and is carried out afresh after every edit (though always when the application is idle, to avoid slowing anything down, and if you start interacting with Dorico while proofreading is being performed, it stops as quickly as possible). The project data in Dorico is likewise completely dynamic, and as you edit your project, Dorico doesn’t keep track in detail of every change you make, so proofreading is always carried out purely with the knowledge of the project data in that moment, with no information about any previous state. Although the issues listed in the Proofreading panel might look the same, in fact they’ve been regenerated from scratch – it’s simply that most individual edits don’t change the project to such a degree that the issues will all change.

However, we know that, particularly in larger projects, not being able to remove issues that you’ve already checked from the panel makes proofreading less useful than it could be, and in Dorico 6.0.20 we have worked to address this limitation. You can now mark an issue as ignored, which removes it from the list – but it’s important to understand what’s really going on. Anthony has prepared a short video to demonstrate the changes and provide some further context:

In summary, when you mark an issue as ignored, what you are really doing is telling Dorico that you don’t want to see an issue of that specific type at that specific position. If you make significant changes to the project, for example, adding or removing bars so that existing material is now found at new positions, then ignored issues will reappear. Conversely, if you edit existing music such that a new issue appears, if you’ve marked that type of issue as ignored there, you won’t see it.

So we recommend that you only start ignoring issues once you are beyond major structural changes to the project. If you do need to make big edits after you have ignored issues, we recommend you use the Clear button to reset everything, so you can be sure you haven’t missed any issues that would now benefit from your attention.

Dorico 6.0.20 also includes further improvements to the existing proofreaders, including better handling of user-defined playing techniques, and more improvements to the fingering checks for stringed instruments. As always, you should consult the Dorico 6.0.20 Version History PDF for full details of the changes.

Cantai support

If you are following the development of Turing Opera Workshop’s vocal singing synthesis plug-in Cantai, you may be interested to know that Dorico 6.0.20 includes support for the in-development VST plug-in currently being worked on by Richard da Costa and his development team. As and when the plug-in becomes more generally available, it should work seamlessly with Dorico 6.0.20.

Chord symbols

We are continuing to refine the major new features added for chord symbols in Dorico 6. In this update, we have completed the revamp of chord symbol positioning and collision avoidance, taking into account the new capabilities to display multiple lines or rows of chord symbols, and for chord symbols to show extender lines. This should now be working reliably in all circumstances, and produce a more stable result than in Dorico 6.0.10 and 6.0.

We’ve also added extra options for the appearance of capo chord symbols, allowing you to specify that they should be drawn using the same appearance as main chord symbols – i.e. neither italicised nor in parentheses – but scaled to a smaller size, as is used in some publications. We’ve also rejigged the options for the way chord diagrams and chord symbols are stacked at the same position, and these options all now appear in the Position section of the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options.

Further bugs have also been squashed in the chord symbol appearance and kerning pairs editors, though a handful of stubborn problems for chord symbols that apply to all roots remain. We are continuing to work on these issues, and fixes will come in future Dorico 6 maintenance updates.

Relatedly, we’ve also made changes for chord diagrams, including improving the default choice of ukulele chord diagrams for common chord symbols, in line with the recommendations of the Ukulele Society of Great Britain.

Engraving improvements

There are a handful of useful engraving improvements in this update, including:

• A new Show wings property for repeat barlines, allowing you to choose whether wings should appear on an individual end or start repeat barline
• A new option for bar number ranges on multi-bar rests to be positioned using the Layout Options settings for bar numbers
• A new option for custom characters to be treated as punctuation for the purposes of aligning lyrics
• A new option for the offset of Ped. text at the start of pedal lines, allowing you to determine exactly where the downstroke of the P should go relative to the note or chord at the same rhythmic position

Dorico 6.0.20 also includes a thoroughly revamped template for barbershop quartet, based on the detailed guidelines published by the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Version History

For full details of all the changes in Dorico 6.0.20, including more than 70 bug fixes, please refer to the Dorico 6.0.20 Version History PDF.

Installing the update

Dorico 6.0.20 is a free update for existing Dorico Pro 6, Dorico Elements 6 and Dorico SE 6 users. If you are currently running Dorico Pro 5 or Dorico Elements 5 or earlier, you can buy an update to Dorico Pro 6 or Dorico Elements 6 from the Steinberg online shop.

Assuming you already have Dorico 6 installed, you can update to Dorico 6.0.20 free of charge. First, quit Dorico and any other Steinberg application that you are running on your computer. We recommend that you run Steinberg Download Assistant, which will automatically update Steinberg Activation Manager to the latest version, along with any other elements of the Steinberg run-time environment (including Steinberg Library Manager, MediaBay, and on Windows the Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver) that may be outdated on your computer.

Once Steinberg Download Manager has finished updating any required components, go to My Product Downloads in the left-hand list, where you will find Dorico Pro 6, Dorico Elements 6, or Dorico SE 6, depending on which product you have installed. Select this, and on the right-hand side you will see Dorico 6.0.20 Application Installer. Click the Install button immediately to the right. This will download and run the Dorico 6.0.20 installer.

If for any reason you cannot use Steinberg Download Assistant, you can find all the installers you require here.

If you already have Dorico for iPad installed, it will probably update automatically, but if you need to update it manually, you can do so following these steps provided by Apple.

What’s next

With the release of Dorico 6.0.20, we have now shipped three significant updates in the space of just nine weeks, adding dozens of features and improvements and more than 120 bug fixes. We are certainly not resting on our laurels, and the team is hard at work on further improvements in proofreading, chord symbols, and other areas. But team members are looking forward to a bit of a break over the summer months, so we anticipate there being a pause before our next free Dorico 6 update.

In the meantime, please continue to provide us with feedback on the new features and improvements in Dorico 6. We hope you will find this latest update makes your use of the software even more enjoyable.