Shortcut Editor doesn't inform of conflicts with Alt+[F,E,V,A,N,L,S,P,H] already hard-defined for top-menu.

• Apr 2, 2017 - 18:51

I wanted to define Alt+F to add flat and Alt+S to add sharp and Alt+N to add natural. Shortcut editor let me do this. However, when I tried using the shortcuts, I got the File Menu and Style Menu and Notes Menu to open instead, since those are already hard-defined.

So shortcut editor should either tell me of this conflict, or it should let me override the hard-definition.

(aside note: I can assign Shift+Alt+[F,E,V,A,N,L,S,P,H] no problem.)

Also if anyone has good ideas to what I should assign to Add flat, sharp, natural, please let me know. I also do think that shortcut should have a default definition...


Comments

Alternatively if there is a way for score view to intercept the keystroke before the top menu access it, then that would also solve the issue...although of course would still have the underline in the top menu names which would be ignored.

Concerning adding a flat, a sharp or a natural:

What about "shift+-", "shift++" an "shift+0", although it will appear in the shortcut list as "_", "*" and "=".

In reply to by kuwitt

Not a bad idea, although the problem I have is that I like to be able to do most editing just with my left hand.

I assignged Alt+B and Ctl+Alt+B for add flat and add double-flat, and then the closest I could find for sharp was G, but nothing made sense for natural.

I'm wondering if anyone already has figured out a good choice?

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

I don't know about "good", but at one point I used "-" for flat, "+" for sharp, "=" for natural. Before you ask, I also reassigned the tie shortcut (I think it was ","). And I did a bunch more customization too. But in the end, I found it enough of a pain to remember my modifications when answering questions on the forums, and also to re-establish them after a Revert or when switching between release and development versions, that I went back to just defaults.

FWIW, I also considered "_" for flat and "^" for sharp because that is what ABC uses and when I first started using MuseScore I was also using ABC a lot. But now, I actually had to go look up what ABC used because I couldn't remember.

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

I don't need the shift key for adding a tie and as I wrote I mean "_", "*" and "="...

...at least with the QWERTZ layout ;-). I didn't think of the different keyboard layouts (QWERTZ, QUERTY, AZERTY) as I wrote my comment above.

So maybe it's worth to have in mind: A shortcut, which seems useful for a QWERTZ layout maybe doesn't make sense for a QUERTY layout (and the same from the other perspective (from QWERTY to QWERTZ))

In reply to by kuwitt

Thank you everyone for the comments.

Out of curiosity, I've looked online to see what finale/Sibelius use (fyi, I've never used those programs).

for finale it is :

Double Flat SHIFT+ - (minus)
Double Sharp SHIFT+ =
Flat -
Sharp =

and on Sibelisu G7 it is:

Natural: 7 on numeric keypad
Sharp: 8 on numeric keypad
Flat: 9 on numeric keypad

Now I don't know if those are the real shortcuts because I might be reading the manual wrong or reading the wrong manual. And I don't particularly agree with those.

Again, as I said I like to input with my left hand only, like as I originally wanted to override the top menu so I can use Alt+S (sharp), Alt+F (flat), Alt+N (natural). Or maybe Alt+V (sharp), Alt+B (flat), Alt+N (natural), which appear together on keyboard and make sense except for sharp and which also is reasonably comfortable to use Ctrl+Alt+V (for double-sharp) and Ctrl+Alt+B (for double-flat) without contorting my left hand.

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

Remember that you can use multiple keys to define an action. Something such as ctrl-shift-B then KeyPad+ for sharp, Ctrl-shift-B KeyPad0 for natural, Ctrl-shift-B KeyPad- for flat. c-s-B KeyPad* for double sharp, c-s-B KeyPad/ for double flat makes sense. This works well for me since I keep my right hand on the keypad fir durations. The shortcuts recognize the difference between alpha key board and numeric key pad keys.

hard-defined ? they are rather "previously" or "by default" assigned.

So first delete them from their present assignation, and they become available for what you want....and you'll (perhaps) choose anther short-cut for the deleted one.

In reply to by robert leleu

No, Robert, I believe you aren't understanding the problem with the File menu. The problem is that pressing Alt plus a letter will open up the top menu that has that letter underlined in its name. There is no way for me to "unassign" this default without opening in QtCreator, changing the topmenu underline character, and recompiling, which is why I'm using the word "hard-defined". MuseScore shortcut editor doesn't inform me of the conflict with this pre-existing assignment.

Folks, I'm noticing a frustrating funny behavior when Alt is used as a shortcut, even for letters other than the hard-defined top menu. The Alt+letter It works fine if I hold down Alt for half-a-second-or-so before tapping the letter. However, if I do a very quick Alt+letter (almost simultaneously, but not quite), then in addition to musescore performing the associated operation, there is an undesired side-effect of the top menu "File" menu being highlighted. If I press escape, I can get out of that...but if I press one of the arrow keys, then the arrow keys act to navigate the top menu, and are not longer changing the currently selected note as they should be.

Anyway, this seems like a bug to me, but I'm wondering if anyone else can replicate. It happens with MuseScore default shortcuts like Alt+T for add tempo text, but also for my own custom defined-shortcuts. I'm on 2.1-dev 2026e09 on arch linux mate.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

That doesn't matter, if you press just the alt key, the menu will be highlighted..waiting for a key press. This is the effect we are experiencing. What is really weird is that if I hold the alt key a second, press the T, release the T then release the alt all very slow, this problem doesn't happen. That is totally backward from what I expect. It only happens when I'm on a roll and press the sequence very quickly.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Jojo, it sounds like it does happen to you, since you say the file menu is highlighting. That's the issue we're experiencing. It's a problem because if you use one of the arrow keys while that file menu is highlighted, you will loose focus on the score and instead your arrow keys will be controlling navigation of the top menu.

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

For Windows at least, it is expected for the top level menu to become activated when pressing Alt. Pressing Alt again will restore focus back to where it was.

The simple workaround is to press Alt (release) and then Alt+T for example. It is not just an "issue" in MuseScore but in many programs.

In reply to by ericfontainejazz

While holding Alt-key, all top-menu items preparing for some action. (waiting for some action)
and some OS's started showing (hided) underscore letters for top-menu shortcuts. (visual aid)

Right: While holding Alt-key: arrow keys and/or undefined shortcuts for top-menu shouldn't work. (usually)

But: If you release the Alt key (a very small moment) while you press another key, then problems started(!). Because of releasing Alt-key is started another job in OS and/or software.

for example: first behavior is -> highlighted first item of top-menu for some other action, then starts waiting for user to enter another key (including Alt-key)

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