Positions of jazz articulations

In Dorico Pro, jazz articulations are automatically positioned relative to the noteheads to which they apply, with any other notations on those notes, such as rhythm dots, accidentals, and back notes, automatically considered.

When multiple notes in a chord have a jazz articulation, Dorico Pro considers the best way to align them based on how close to the noteheads they can be positioned and how many jazz articulations to show in total. Dorico Pro allows a maximum of one jazz articulation per space, meaning fewer jazz articulations than noteheads are sometimes shown on cluster chords.

They are positioned by default according to your settings in Engraving Options.

You can change the default positions of all jazz articulations project-wide relative to other jazz articulations and to noteheads on the Jazz Articulations page in Engrave > Engraving Options.

In Engrave mode, smooth jazz articulations have a handle at each end that you can use to move the start and end of each smooth jazz articulation independently. You can also move whole individual jazz articulations graphically.