Suggestion Regarding Modes

• Oct 25, 2010 - 23:19

Hi, All --

I'm brand new to MuseScore, and trying to learn both the program and musical notation, of which I know just the remnants of a long ago smattering from high school. So, I hope to serve here as a sort of "useful idiot" to help idiot proof the manual. ;-)

Here's my first suggestion: At the beginning of chapter 2 of the documentation, I think it would be helpful to have a broad overview of the program's three modes. I know from the existing documentation that there's a Note Entry mode and an Edit mode. Escape exits from either of those, but there's no name for the third mode to which you exit from the Note Entry and Edit modes. So, what we need are the names of all three modes, and a description of their uses and functions.

On the programming side, it might also be nice to have an on-screen indicator of which mode you're in.

-- J.S.

Comments

• Oct 26, 2010 - 09:54

I had never thought of there being a specific Edit mode. Reading the handbook I wonder if its description is misleading. If you double-click anywhere in a score, say on the background, as far as I can tell you do not enter an edit mode, which is what is implied in the handbook.

I think the handbook should say that if you double-click on an element such as a note then you enter Edit mode.

I would call the 'third' mode 'Read' mode (can't be 'Play' because that is when the play button is pressed).

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• Oct 27, 2010 - 08:40

Although I commented above, I do in fact agree with you. Although the code might have modes, it is best if they are transparent to the user. The software would be more instinctive to use if it switched modes silently with the user unaware of it. I don't have to change modes with Sibelius.

I agree, let us have no modes. vi, anyone?

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• Oct 27, 2010 - 19:28

I think the thing you really want to avoid is having to go back and forth changing modes all the time. There may be a place for modes for different users. You'd pick the mode or setup that suits what you're doing, and spend several minutes or even hours in the same mode.

For instance, if you're actually a good keyboard player, and have a MIDI board attached, you may want a mode that lets you enter by playing. As a rank beginner, I may find that too touchy, a source of mistakes that works faster than I can fix them.

One program that does a great job of avoiding modes is AutoCad. They do it by using "snaps". Instead of having modes for parallel or perpendicular or endpoints or whatever, if you mouse the cursor to within a certain user-defined distance of a midpoint or quadrant or perpendicular or whatever, it pops up a display that lets you snap to that point with a mouse click.

To do that kind of location-aware thing in a music program, how about if you put the cursor just ahead of a note, it gives you the option to click once for a sharp, twice for a flat, or just mouse away and leave it? (Of course if the key has a sharp or flat there, the option would be for an accidental natural.) Put the cursor just after the note, and the option is to dot the note. Move up or down the stem to other lines or spaces, and the option is to click to add more notes, making or enlarging a chord. When you roll over a slur or hairpin, its handles would come on, and you could choose one to click and drag. Roll out into the rests past your music, and the option would be to click new notes into place. Click on the far end of the stem and drag up or down to change the note duration, or side to side to alter the way things are spaced.

In AutoCad, you can turn the snaps on or off individually on a snaps palette. For music, you may want to turn the dot function off, for instance. AutoCad uses the word "snap", maybe we should choose something a little different, perhaps "pop".

Of course, all this may be an overwhelming amount of work for the programmers.

-- J.S.

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