Tutorials – Dorico

Tip: Show guitar diagrams for chord symbols

Enable chord diagrams by switching to Setup mode, right-clicking a player and choosing Chord Diagrams, selecting the tuning that you want to show.
Chord diagrams show beneath chord symbols, and now when you add a new chord symbol, the appropriate diagram is displayed automatically.
Chord diagrams—in different tunings—can be shown on multiple staves; simply enable them for different players.
Press Alt+Q to cycle between the different fingering variants for a chord diagram.
Press Shift+Alt+Q to open a dialog that lets you choose from all possible alternatives.

With note input enabled, press Shift along with the up/down arrow keys to extend the caret onto adjacent staves.
Now, when you enter notes, they will be created on all staves the caret crosses.
Input other notations, such as slurs and articulations, dynamics etc. and they will be created for all staves.
When using a MIDI keyboard, as you play chords Dorico will automatically explode them across the staves.

Easily edit the paragraph style used for all staff labels, using Engrave > Paragraph Styles.
To edit the text and/or style for an individual staff label, switch to Setup mode and expand the relevant player card.
Hover over the instrument label and click the arrow to open the menu, then choose Edit Names…
You can spread staff labels over multiple lines, and edit using Dorico’s standard text editor, even changing the font and colour used by the label.
You can change the staff label for both the full name and short name for an instrument, which are set to be shown on the Staves and Systems page of Layout Options.

In Dorico, it is easy to create time signatures and key signatures on just a single staff, by holding down the Alt key during input.
To input a time signature on a single staff, press Shift+M to open the popover and type the desired meter as usual.
If you hold down Alt while you press Enter, the time signature will be input only on the selected staff.
It works for creating time signatures using the mouse as well. Simply hold down Alt while you click.
The same method can be used to create a key signature on a single staff. Shift+K opens the key signature popover where you can type as usual. Holding down Alt when pressing Enter creates the key signature just for that selected staff.

Dynamics created together are grouped automatically.
Dynamics grouped or linked to a selected dynamic are coloured blue.
Grouped dynamics stay aligned in a row and can be edited as a group.
Group or ungroup dynamics manuals using the right-click context menu.
Dynamics copied to other staves at the same rhythmic position are linked automatically.
Linked dynamics stay aligned in a column and editing one updates them all.
Link or unlink dynamics using the context menu.