Copying and pasting lyrics

You can copy and paste lyrics from both existing lyric lines in Dorico Pro and from external text editors; for example, if you want to copy a lyric line to a player who has different rhythms to the source but uses the same lyrics.

When copying text from outside Dorico Pro, you must format the text so it is suitably separated into syllables; for example, by adding hyphens in multi-syllabic words. This ensures Dorico Pro can correctly identify the characters required for each word/syllable and therefore format the resulting lyrics appropriately. There are automatic hyphenation tools that you can use, but results from these are not always reliable. Dorico Pro checks text you have copied to your clipboard to make sure it contains only single spaces and single hyphens for correct syllable input.

Note

You cannot currently copy and paste lyrics containing Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters. This is planned for future versions.

Procedure

  1. Select the lyrics/text you want to copy. You can do this within Dorico Pro or externally.
    Note
    • If you are copying existing lyrics/text in Dorico Pro, you must be in Write mode.

    • If you want to select many existing lyrics in Dorico Pro, you can use filters for lyric lines or you can select a single lyric and press Ctrl/Cmd-Shift-A multiple times to select the rest of the lyrics in the lyric line.

  2. Press Ctrl/Cmd-C to copy the selected lyrics/text.
  3. In Write mode, select the first note in the voice to which you want to copy lyrics.
  4. Open the lyrics popover in any of the following ways:
    • Press Shift-L.

    • In the Notations toolbox, click Popovers Popovers button, then Lyrics Lyrics button.

  5. Optional: Change the lyric type into which you will paste lyrics in one of the following ways:
    • To change the lyric line number, press Down Arrow.

    • To change to a lyric line above the staff, press Shift-Up Arrow.

    • To change to a chorus line, press Up Arrow.

    • To change to a translation lyric line, press Alt/Opt-Down Arrow.

  6. Press Ctrl/Cmd-V to paste the first word/syllable of the copied lyrics/text.

    The lyrics popover automatically advances to the next note in the selected voice according to the source text. For example, for syllables followed by hyphens in the source, the popover advances as if you had pressed - (hyphen), which automatically shows hyphens after those syllables.

  7. Optional: For words/syllables that you want to apply to two or more notes, you must advance the popover manually in one of the following ways:
    • After complete words or the final syllable in multi-syllabic words, press Space.

    • After syllables that are not the final syllable in multi-syllabic words, press - (hyphen).

    • After syllables that you do not want to be followed by an extension line or hyphen, press Right Arrow.

  8. Continue pressing Ctrl/Cmd-V for each word/syllable you want to paste.

Result

The selected lyrics/text is pasted into the selected lyric line belonging to the voice in which you selected a note.

Note

Words/syllables are removed from your clipboard as you paste them. If you want to paste the same lyrics/text into another lyric line or staff, you must copy the source again.