Recurring notation issue

Notice the collision of dots with the notes in the upper voice. I have this happen quite often in my music, where I have two voices, naturally with opposing stems, with articulations involved. It does not look proper to have the articulations on the stem side of the notes, so what is the proper procedure with this dilemma?

Notice the collision of dots with the notes in the upper voice. I have this happen quite often in my music, where I have two voices, naturally with opposing stems, with articulations involved. It does not look proper to have the articulations on the stem side of the notes, so what is the proper procedure with this dilemma?

I'm only recalling this from memory, but I believe that people just move the half notes (or any note with the longest beat) to the left of the lower stems, to make room for the staccato markings.

Is this an issue in finale also? If so, then I have no idea how to fix it (sorry; I don't use finale)

No, not a Finale problem. Whatever needs done I can figure out how to do it, I just don't know the proper convention. Well, there's one suggestion. Anybody confirm or disagree?

I believe David is right. I'll look it up to make sure though.

Notice the collision of dots with the notes in the upper voice. I have this happen quite often in my music, where I have two voices, naturally with opposing stems, with articulations involved. It does not look proper to have the articulations on the stem side of the notes, so what is the proper procedure with this dilemma?

Yeah, move your stuff around. It isn't hard.

OR, put the staccato markings on the stem side of the notes. That's fine. I've seen that in plenty of music.

Am I interpreting the suggestion correctly? I didn't tweak the spacing of the notes or bars, just notes vs. dots.

Whenever I see two parts on one stave, the staccato dots seem to always go on the stem, rather than the head, like YC26 said. This is the case even if there is no possibilty of confusion.

But I think any musician looking at your score above would be know what's expected of them. The only problem is in the 3rd bar, in idiot might think you want a dotted minim in the top part.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I've never seen it done like David and Internal suggest.

See how it looks here:

Am I interpreting the suggestion correctly? I didn't tweak the spacing of the notes or bars, just notes vs. dots.

You interpreted the suggestion correctly, but the suggestion is "incorrect," as far as standards (and clarity) go. The staccato markings should appear on the stem side of the notes, below the stems (outside of the beams) in this case. Whenever you have split voices, placing articulations outside of the stems/beams is the convention.

2 suggestions:

1: could you put the notes in the other staff?

2: putting the staccato underneath the note?

Another alternative, that avoids the problem in this particular instance: Leave out the articulations after the first (or first two) bars entirely. If the music is somewhat conventional, it will be understood that the articulations continue like that, which is the common practice in a lot of music. If you want to be more explicit about this, write "simile" where you stop using the dots.

DJ F: Thanks for the confirmation - that was my second guess and I might go with that. It just looks weird with only one side staccatoed.

Gardener! Thank you for reminding me of the possibility for simile markings. Both of these suggestions will probably be put to use.