One’s mileage with any application will vary. But I do think one shouldn’t expect Dorico to be a Finale clone. Yes, the playback cursor in Dorico is not continuous like Finale’s; it is discontinuous. At first, that seemed jarring to me, but then I got used to it. On the other hand, I can easily audition different tempi in Dorico; one used to be able to do that in Finale by changing the option in Playback Settings to “Reset” or “Use Current Settings” (the difference between the two never was clear to me, but it worked). For the past few years, that’s been broken in Finale.

You can have colored noteheads in Dorico. There seem to be a few ways to accomplish that. See https://forums.steinberg.net/t/colored-noteheads/129164 as one source.

As a longtime Finale user, I am very glad I switched to Dorico last September after the “announcement.” Since that time, I’ve composed seven substantial works, and my output has significantly increased in large part due to Dorico. It’s more efficient, the layout is largely done when I’m done with my composition (at most, I might make some minor tweaks, compared with what was often a ton of work in Finale, even if I invoked the somewhat complicated Perfect Layout script), and I haven’t had to deal with a lot of unpredictable glitches unlike Finale. Finale had been circling the drain for a few years now. As a physician, I think it’s important to come to the reality when one needs to just call it and terminate futile measures.. In my mind, I can’t understand why I would continue to use Finale for new compositions; bugs are not going to be fixed, features are not going to be enhanced or added, and I had to rely on many various plugins and .lua scripts to do what is built into Dorico by default.

Sorry for your disappointment, but I really think you might want to give Dorico a second chance and also reach out to folks on the Dorico user forum. Unlike this forum, the developers actually read everything and also comment as appropriate. Plus there is a very vivid and engaged user community that provides a ton of expert advice. It’s honestly better than their support documents (Finale’s support documents are, to be honest, better, but Finale no longer has a very active online user community and is a fraction of what many of us used to experience years ago).

I’m not sure what your intention was in posting this here. You will get actual guidance from people who have used Dorico much longer than me if you go to the Dorico forum here:  https://forums.steinberg.net/c/dorico/

any workaround or secret site to be able to download v27? I am currently at v. 26.3.1.643, on Mac 15.5 I realize there may be bugs with 15.5 but ut can't be much worse than the bugs with 26.3. I'm happy to pay whatever Finale wants. I do NOT want to learn a new app !!!! 

No. You can purchase the competitive upgrade to Dorico and get the latest (and final) version of Finale. I do not know of any site to pirate Finale 27. You can certainly contact MakeMusic and implore them to sell you F27, but I can also tell you that F27 ain't no panacea in terms of bugs. I decided to fix up an old score that I had previously fixed up to a point a few years ago, and just dealing with getting the systems laid out in a better fashion took a ridiculous amount of time, along with every system disappearing then reappearing then disappearing etc. And this was even with Perfect Layout. I'm tweaking the audio file now in preparation for getting it up on my Bandcamp site, and Finale 27.4 already crashed on me once today.

Honestly, I can't for the life of me understand why so many people want to persist, against all odds and reason, with a piece of software that has been buggy for years, is no longer supported and while it still works, doesn't work very well at all (especially compared with more viable alternatives). Look, I really really didn't want to have to switch to Dorico or anything else. I kept telling myself from 2021-Fall, 2024 when Finale really wasn't getting reasonably updated in terms of significant bugs, that I was too old to switch, that I didn't have the time to learn a new program, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. But I'm really glad I did make the switch. Dorico isn't perfect, but it's light years more reliable and efficient than Finale. No need to redraw the screen. No need for various plugins, free or pricey. 

Move on. It's over. 

Thanks David. I TRIED to contact Finale but their phone number directs me to their website to get their support email link, and that email link they claim will be functional until August 25, 2025 is not even functional on their website. Does Dorico work the same as Finale as far as creating scores and data input?

Sorry to hear about the simply amazing MakeMusic support (/sarcasm). They were not terribly useful over the past few years, TBH, so this doesn't surprise me, but it's still disappointing to hear.

As far as Dorico; there are certainly similarities in terms of methodology (the data input at the top level is the same as any other notation program; you can input notes with a MIDI keyboard, with a physical computer keyboard, etc), and the Dorico team has certainly made some accommodations for us Finale expats (they added a preference to enable note changes with the arrow keys, and enabled Pitch Before Duration, both similar to speedy entry in Finale). But it's a very different program. Finale is mouse-centric, although it certainly has a plethora of keyboard commands and also has metatools if desired. Dorico is much more keyboard-centric. That takes some getting used to, but it actually works very well, and in some cases, is much faster and more efficient than Finale. I can select several staves, hit a chord on my MIDI keyboard, and Dorico appropriately assigns each pitch to each staff. In Finale, I would have had to input a chord to a single staff, then select the others as well and apply TGTools Smart Split Point, for example, to get the same output. Even better: layout is really automatic. I have to do very little to tweak the output in Dorico, whereas it was often a bear to do in Finale with the Page Layout tool, or invoking Space Systems Evenly, or Perfect Layout (which, truthfully, was underwhelming for my own experience but others love it). 

The best way to learn Dorico, if you do take the plunge, is to forget everything you knew how to do in Finale and go through the many Dorico videos, and really follow their methodology for new users (they have an entire brief "getting started" manual that really works well). I did figure it out within a month, and composed a lengthy work not even a month after purchasing Dorico, since that was one of the best ways for me to just learn it (ie, have some didactic, basic background, but then just do it). 

Good luck. And sorry that MM support is AWOL. Again, not surprising; I have to hit the Back button and resubmit responses on this "official" Finale forum so that it finally goes through. It's like nothing works anymore vis a vis Finale...

Hey, as a fellow educator, give MuseScore a try. I don't do general music and Boomwhackers, but I know it has a functional color note-head plugin AND has Finale-like scrolling playback. The playback sounds are not quite as good as Finale's, but they're probably good enough. Best of all MuseScore is free so your only cost is the time it takes to evaluate. I've moved several of my small ensemble writing processes over to MuseScore with much less difficulty than moving into Dorico. 

ThanksDavid  and UGGH I'm too old to learn a new program, and Im a banjo player not a keyboard guy. I just now was able to download Finale 27... for some reason the installer was on my desktop.

Glad you got it! And no, you are not too old to learn another program. I thought I was and proved myself wrong. Good luck!

Got Dorico as well but can't get the installer to work. Maybe because I'm trying to install them on  two different Macs? Doesn't my 149 bucks buy both Finale 27 and Dorico? What's the difference between Dorico 6 and Dorico se6? 

I don't see why two different Macs would be an issue. Dorico SE is their free and more limited version, I believe.

If you have a problem with (or feedback on) Dorico, then post it on the Steinberg Dorico forum. You'll find a healthy user community, and regular responses from the developers. 

The Dorico crossgrade does give you Finale 27.4 as well, so at worst, you can think of it as a Finale update, with a free copy of Dorico. ;-)