Recommending a consolidated Add Measure dialog

• Dec 6, 2020 - 01:13
Reported version
3.5
Type
Ergonomical (UX)
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project

Why not consolidate the four "add" measures options (Insert one, Insert measures, Append one, Append measures) into a single multi-purpose dialog?

A generalized Add Measure dialog (like the one show below) could conveniently handle most situations:

      Add Measures Dialog 03 (MuseScore).png

Currently:

• adding or appending a single measure is a menu choice
• adding or appending multiple measures leads to a dialog anyway, and if accessed by a single keystroke that frees up keystrokes currently dedicated to the task.

Prior discussion here

scorster


Comments

How would "Add after last measure of score" with "Using key signature of next measure" be interpreted? There is no "Next measure" after the last measure. Similarly how to treat adding before the first measure using the key signature of the prior measure.

Should those combinations be disabled?

As I mentioned in https://musescore.org/en/node/313822, IMHO these aditional clef, key- and timesig optiona are too little on one hand (tempo text, instrument change, (repeat) bar lines, voltas, pedla lines, etc...) on the other hand way too much of all those missing once get added, so I'd rather just have those top 4 options.

In reply to by SteveBlower

Good points!

If the user chooses “Before selected measures,” and the current selection includes the first measure of the score, then the “Prior measure” option in the Key Sig, Time Sig and Clef sections would have to be disabled. Those options would also be disabled if the user chooses “Before first measures of score.”

If the user chooses “After selected measures” and the current selection includes the last measure of the score
then the “Next measure” measure option in the Key Sig, Time Sig and Clef sections would have to be disabled. Those options would also be disabled if the user chooses “After Last measures of score.”

scorster

In reply to by frfancha

My original design was this:

      Add Measure - Basic dialog.png

And I assumed it would have the following default behaviors:

  • on Add After, MuseScore would imbue the added measures with properties (key, meter, clef...) of the measure "after" the selection.

  • on Add Before, MuseScore would imbue the added measures with properties (key, meter, clef...) of the measure "before" the selection.

(NOTE: In pursuit of brevity this design ignores a scenario of a scorist setting up a measure of a new score section possessing a key change, meter change etc.—and they want added measures that have the properties of that measure.)

Additionally, when suggesting changes, I like to include current features if possible, so I proposed this:

     Add Measure - with Insert and Append .png

After posting this design a reply requested to options for key, meter and clef, so I posted a revision that addressed that request. You've labeled those options as useless. I assume is true for your purposes, even though the design does offer options beyond your preferred and recommended default behavior.

I'd be perfectly happy with my original design at the top of this post, and the default behaviors.

And I prefer its simplicity compared to the animation of an Inspector control on Github. Looks nice, but you must first navigate to the Bars section of the Inspector, then click Insert, then click the second menu to see the options. Sometimes a dialog is simpler: press a keystroke, immediately see and choose your option, then OK.

scorster

In reply to by scorster

''
And I assumed it would have a default behaviors:
• on Add After, MuseScore would imbue the added measures with properties (key, meter, clef...) of the measure "after" the selection.
• on Add Before, MuseScore would imbue the added measures with properties (key, meter, clef...) of the measure "before" the selection.
''
This would be counter-intuitive. Added measures must have the property of the current one, please look again at the animation of jeetee.