Dorico Tutorials

Dorico Chord Symbol Editing Tutorial

Chord symbols in Dorico are powerful, flexible, and deeply customizable—but they can also trip up new users, especially those coming from Finale or Sibelius. In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know to control how chord symbols appear, enter them efficiently, and when to use Dorico’s Chord Symbol Editor (and when not to).

🎛 Controlling Chord Symbol Appearance with Engraving Options

Dorico gives you deep control over how chord symbols look—without having to design them manually every time. Head to:

Library > Engraving Options > Chord Symbols

Here you can set global preferences like:

• Whether to use j, Δ (triangle), or maj for major
• Whether to show − or min
• Whether ø is used for half-diminished (min7♭5)
• Whether sus, alt, and add stack or appear inline
• Superscript/stacked extensions (e.g., C7♭9)

These settings affect all chord symbols globally, making them the first stop when you want visual consistency. Finale users might be accustomed to having to create their own chord library from scratch – but in Dorico, most of this work is done in Engraving Options and applies automatically.

⌨️ Entering Chord Symbols via Popover (and Shortcuts)

To enter a chord symbol, select a rhythmic position and press Shift+Q (for “chord”). You can then type chord names naturally:

You can also use:

• Alt/Option + G to enter a system-attached chord symbol (default)
• Alt/Option + L to enter a local chord symbol that appears only in the current part layout
• Spacebar to advance to the next beat
• Right Arrow to advance to the next rhythmic entry
• Tab to jump to the next bar
• Enter to end entry

Dorico has Multiple Chord Symbol Editors

Dorico has created a major improvement to their chord symbol ecosystem in version 6. New features include the ability to make edits to chord symbols appy to all roots (rather than just the particular instance) and also save it as a program default. They’ve also added the ability to create and store other chord symbols besides those that Dorico recognizes, while giving them playback and recognition capability. Furthermore, they’ve added the ability to create an additional row of chord symbols, either as alternates, or for analytical purposes. This is a huge step ahead of not just Dorico 5, but all other notation software.

Dorico provides multiple edit screens to edit the appearance of chord symbols. They are:

• Edit Chord Symbol Appearance editor in Engrave Mode, which allows local edits to a specific symbol’s design and relative placement of characters
• Project Default Chord Symbol Appearances, accessed from the bottom of the Chord Symbols section in Engrave Mode, or from Library>Chord Symbols…
  • ☛ This editor has the ability to “promote” local appearance overrides to every instance of a specific chord symbol (but not others of the same quality)
  • This editor also “hosts” the Chord Symbol Component Editor
• Chord Symbol Component Editor, which for many users is the most powerful tool to create project-level edits to chord suffixes.

💡 Understanding Dorico’s Chord Symbol Editing Layers (Dorico 5)

⚠️ You can’t define entirely new chord types or save suffix changes as app-wide defaults.

✅ Best practice: store custom suffix edits in a Project Template.

If you’re not satisfied with the appearance of your chord suffixes after applying global rules in Library>Engraving Options>Chord Symbols, and you don’t want to go through and edit all chord symbols of the same quality but different roots, then you can make granular edits to suffix appearance with Library>Chord Symbol Editor.

☢️When to Use the Project Default Chord Symbol Editor

Library > Chord Symbols...

🛠 How to Use the Chord Symbol Editor (Dorico 5) 

When you open the Chord Symbol Editor, you need to start by adding a chord symbol, including the root and a suffix.

To modify or customize the symbol:

1. Add a chord symbol
2. Click the + button to activate it for editing.
3. Make your changes in the graphical editor.

🔸 Important: Edits made in this main editor window apply only to that specific instance of the symbol—this is a local override.

If you type something Dorico doesn’t recognize, it will rename it internally to the nearest Dorico equivalent. This ensures consistency, but it also limits user control of their chord library.

🔁 Working in the Chord Symbol Component Editor (Global for Suffix edits)

There’s a second, deeper level to the editor: the Chord Symbol Component Editor.

To access it:

• Double-click a character in the suffix portion of a chord (e.g., the “∆” or “ø”) in the Chord Symbol Editor.

Inside the Chord Symbol Component Editor:

• Your changes will apply to every use of that suffix throughout the current document.
• You can adjust its size and position.

These changes cannot be saved globally—they are document-specific. If you want to reuse these customizations in other projects:

• Save your project as a Project Template.

⚠️ Limitations to Be Aware Of (Dorico 5)

• You can’t add to Dorico’s internal chord symbol library. You’re limited to modifying existing types. (Not true in Dorico 6. You can!)
• Some common suffixes are still missing or unsupported, such as:
  • sus4 with an added chord quality (e.g., “maj7sus4”)
  • ♭2 suffixes (e.g. “sus4b2)
• Custom suffixes can be created. In the Chord Symbol Component editor, it’s possible to create custom suffixes – but!
  • Dorico will assume that new suffix is intended to replace what it thinks its parent is. For example: If you enter “[X}sus4b2” in the Chord Symbol editor, Dorico renames it to [X]sus4 in its list, and associates your edit with that chord structure. You can then open the Component editor and add the addtional “b2” – but, having done so, and saving it, Dorico will assume you mean to rename every [X]sus4 in the score to an [X]sus4b2 .
    

In these cases, the best workaround is to approximate with an available suffix and edit its appearance—just remember that this is a per-document solution.

As a last resort, write out your voicing and use Dorico’s default naming..

✅ Best Practice: Keep a master template with your customized suffixes saved and start future projects from that template.

🧩 Best Practice Workflow

1. Set your preferred suffix style in Engraving Options.
2. Use Shift+Q popover for quick entry.
3. Use Alt+G or Alt+L to choose between system-wide or local visibility.
4. Only use Chord Symbol Editor to refine exceptions or create custom suffixes.
5. Use Keyboard Maestro (optional) to speed up workflow.

🧠 Summary

Dorico also supports chord recognition for fast entry—similar to Finale—for entering symbols into the score, but it goes a step further with automatic chord detection: you can select a passage and use Dorico’s tools to generate chords based on your music, with adjustable harmonic rhythm density.

Additionally, you can extract a basic bass line from the chord symbols Dorico generates, then use the caret and Alt/Option + arrow keys to reshape notes or durations manually. It’s a fast, musical way to build out harmonic rhythm and bass motion.

Dorico’s chord symbol system is elegant and powerful—but like much in Dorico, the key is knowing which tool does what:

• Engraving Options = global style
• Popover = efficient entry
• Chord Symbol Editor = specific overrides
• Keyboard Maestro = speed boost for power users

Stay in the flow, keep it consistent, and use the Chord Symbol Editor for exceptional customizations—and you’ll be creating clean, professional chord charts in no time.

💪🏽 Power User Tip:

Keyboard Maestro users might enjoy creating an icon palette showing often-used chord symbols that enter the Popover string when the icon is clicked.

📘 Complete Popover Entry Reference for Chord Symbols

Dorico’s chord popover is incredibly flexible. Here’s a quick reference for common suffixes and constructions you can type directly after Shift+Q:

For the full official list, download Steinberg’s popover reference here:
👉 Dorico Notation Popovers PDF