User manual

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In Dorico Elements, the term lyrics is used for all text that is sung by singers.
To differentiate sung text from any other forms of text that often appear in musical scores, other
forms of text are referred to as performance instructions, tempos, dynamics, and so on.
In Dorico Elements, lyrics were designed so that it is simple to make changes to existing lyrics
without having to re-input new lyrics each time. For example, you can change the syllable type of
lyrics so that they are either followed or not followed by a hyphen.
Lyrics are organized into lines to ensure consistent horizontal alignment and to make showing
verse numbers simple and accurate. There are different types of lyric lines for lyrics with different
purposes, and the appearance of lyrics changes depending on their line type. For example, lyrics
in a chorus line are shown in an italic font.
When inputting lyrics, you can use key commands to switch between lyric lines, to change on
which side of the staff lyrics are input, and to switch the lyric style between normal lyrics, chorus
lyrics, and translation lyrics. You can also change the type of lyrics after they have been input.
You can input multiple lines of lyrics, chorus lyrics, and translations, both above or below staves.
You can ī “lter lyrics according to their type and lyric line by choosing Edit > Filter > Lyrics and
choosing a lyric type or lyric line from the menu.
RELATED LINKS
Types of lyrics on page 479
Lyric line numbers on page 489
Filters for lyrics on page 478
Inputting lyrics on page 225
Changing the syllable type of existing lyrics on page 481
General placement conventions for lyrics
Lyrics are generally placed below the staff to which they apply, and are positioned so that they
align horizontally with their corresponding notehead.
A plain font is generally used for normal lyrics, and an italic font is generally used for chorus
lyrics and translation lyrics in order to differentiate them.
The horizontal spacing of lyrics must be wide enough so that words or syllables do not overlap
with the words or syllables on either side. For this reason, note spacing must sometimes be
adjusted to accommodate lyrics.
To reduce how severely the note spacing is changed to accommodate lyrics, which can distort the
appearance of rhythms, Dorico Elements allows the alignment of some lyrics to be adjusted
relative to their corresponding notes. For example, if a long, single-syllable word on a long note
follows another long, single-syllable word on a short note, the second word is moved a little to
the right to give both words enough space.
Lyrics
477