Allow dragging the score without losing selection

Perhaps my viewpoint is OS-influenced (we use Win7), but I don't find the idea particularly intuitive (or necessary) from a user standpoint. Text selection (highlighting) in most Windows-compatible programs is click-hold-swipe (or a keyboard/mouse combo variation), and releasing the mouse button defines the end of the selection. Any new click made before executing some other action upon the highlighted text cancels the selection and creates a new selection start point. I think most people running any similar system are quite used to that.

Some programs which involve multi-screen documents (notably photo editors, certain PDF viewers/editors and MuseScore) enable click-and-grab moving of the entire screenful, and for these, click-hold-swipe highlighting obviously can not work (unless the 'hand grabber' can be toggled from a toolbar or dropdown).

But MuseScore provides many easier ways to select material in a score. A single click can pinpoint one note or even part of it (head, stem, flag, dot) precisely. CTL+click adds things to the selection; and click + --> + END (or click+SHIFT+CTL+END) selects to the end of the line (or the entire score) quickly and easily. When selecting just a few measures click + --> (or <--) selects each note or element in sequence; click+SHIFT+CTL+ --> (or <--) selects a whole measure at a time. If one selects certain measures in one instrument, and then wishes to include one or more additional instruments or voices, CTL+down-arrow (or up-arrow) adds the staff below (or above) to the selection.

Finally, there is an way to do pretty much what you want, although you must use the mouse-wheel to scroll the score vertically or horizontally (unshift or shift while rolling the wheel) instead of the click-and-grab function. If you select a section of the score using any of the above methods, and then scroll the score using the mousewheel, pressing SHIFT again (and holding it) while clicking on the new measure you want to select will extend your original selection to the new point on which you clicked. Note that if you don't hold down shift, though, the original selection will be cancelled.

With all those easier ways to select material in a score, I really don't see the need for an additional method, especially one which could easily conflict with other needed functions.

Yes. 99.9% of our Musescore work is done on laptops; and although I believe most people eventually add a wireless mouse for convenience at home, I don't always bring the mouse when I'm travelling so the touchpad functions come into play.

Long plane rides are good oppotunities to get work done (hint: bring a clothespin to clip the MS you're transcribing to the seatback pocket in front of you!), but there's not much space to use a mouse on those tray-tables in tourist class. A quick bit of experimentation indicates that scrolling functions work the same way as with a mouse while using a touchpad, even if the technique is a bit 'touchy'. ;o)

Shift+scroll works sideways

To be clear: the mousewheel *does* allow horizontal scrolling, including scrolling from 1 to 4. Simply hold Shift while scrolling. You should never need drag to navigate; it's more suited for fine positioning.

To me the whole thing just seems quite unnecessary. As stated, there are easily available tools already. This would not be high on my list of preferred places to concentrate. :)

I also am very uncomfortable with making anything depend on the timing of the clicks.

Dragging is bound to be inefficient for anything but very small motions - surely it's not a good way to move several wpages for instance. So one way or another it seems one needs to make piece with the scroll wheel. If your particular mouse or touchpad settings makes this motion uncomfortable, you might consider whether a different mouse or different touchpad settings would make things easier. Personally, I can't imagine any thingout where I'd choose dragging over two-finger swipe.

@Recorder485:
Your image has a width of 14114, so you seem to have an exceptionally large screen. Well, I have not and I just tried it. It's a lot slower, because once I zoom out to the needed degree, it's a lot harder to hit the right point in a measure, and since everything is very small, it's not even easy to quickly see what has been selected. So, doubt it or not, for me, dragging is a lot faster, as I already said, and I cannot help wondering, why you would doubt it at all.

I'm having serious problems understanding your objections:

1. You don't have to think at all about how long to hold down the mouse-button if you click on something, that is, you try to select something, everything works as before. No change here at all.
2. You're seriously mistaken when you say moving the mouse during the clicking process is always ignored. It clearly is not. If you click on a note, for example, to select it and move the mouse before releasing the button, you'll have moved that note to a different pitch. Same is true for all elements that can be selected.
3. Human hands are just not precise enough to avoid enough displacement [...] Once again: I tried it, and simply clicking on a blank area in the score window always worked, and cleared the selection. So I seriously doubt anybody would even notice a difference here.

Generally speeking: I really don't understand why anybody should insist on keeping the possibility to clear the selection by dragging around the score. I don't see any connection in these two actions. There is an easy way to deselect all: press Escape. Always works, no matter how shaky your hands may be.

I really don't understand this strong objection to something, that seems to not even make any difference to those objecting to it. Are you saying you need to be able to deselect all by clicking on an empty space for a long time, or by dragging around the score using the mouse, an option you seem to not even use anyway?

So simply put: Besides from some theoretical "I doubt, that ..." or "I don't like if ...": What is the disadvantage you're afraid of?

Can't you change the shortcut in Photoshop so it matches the other programs you run? One of the things I really appreciate about MuseScore is how easy it is to modify keyboard shortcuts to match my needs or idiosyncracies. (I know Adobe is NOT known for making that sort of thing easy, but if you are computer-savvy enough to compile your own version of MuseScore, you stand a better chance than I of finding the appropriate lines of code.;o)

As to the PR in question, I have explained my reasons for objecting to it in some detail in other posts so I won't repeat myself except to say I think it is unnecessary and counter-intuitive. There are many more important fixes and features to work out, IMO.

Scrolling and dragging are not the same thing. If they were, the problem complained of wouldn't be an issue in the first place.

My point is that MuseScore already offers three very rapid, distinct methods for selecting material, and none of them requires any change to typical mouse-command behaviour.

Selecting material is usually done for one of the following reasons:

1. To transpose it to another key
2. To transpose it to another octave
3. To change its visibility, colour, or head-type
4. To assign a specific articulation to the notes within it
5. To copy it to the clipboard
6. To delete it

For reasons 1 and 3, the usual selection will be the entire score or part, so CTL+A or Select+CTL+End will get the job done in two or three keystrokes.

For the other reasons, Select + --> (or END, repeat as needed) will quickly highlight the measures wanted, and the desired operation can be performed upon them.

Instead, we are faced with a proposal which would change the expected behaviour dependent upon the length of time one holds down the mouse button (have you never clicked on something thoughtfully that you weren't entirely sure of, and let your finger linger on the button before releasing it?) or upon whether or not the mouse was displaced while the button was depressed.

As a professional user, I rarely if ever use the mouse for input. Keyboard or Midi input is much faster and easier. OTOH, I use it frequently while editing, proofreading, or doing layout. For that sort of work, it is invaluable, but when keyboard shortcuts are available, they are still faster and more precise.

The current system works extremely well. In the words of the anonymous sage, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' All programmers know that everytime a new line of code is added to a program, a new potential for a bug is introduced. Why risk that for something that isn't really needed?

It's the little things like this that go a long way to making MuseScore more perfect. My thanks to all involved.