Appending measures to the end of a section
ATM I find working with sections quite tedious, though they could be very useful. Obviously the bug where there's a pause at the end of a section even if it has a repeat sign is very annoying, but the one things which puts me off sections the most is how cumbersome it is to add measures.
Say I have a section A and B and I want to add measures to the end of section A ...
If I choose "append measures" they will be added to the end of section B instead
If I select the first measure of section B and choose "insert measures" it will insert the measures at the beginning of section B.
In fact the only way to resolve what I want is by selecting the last measure of section A, choosing "insert measures" and then selecting the notes on that measure and cut-and-pasting them to the first of the inserted measures.
Would it be possible to add "append measures to section" or maybe even better "append measures after this one" functionality?
Comments
See #244381: Add options for "Append to current measure" and "Insert at beginning of score", for measures and frames
You were close with your second attempt. Now, simply delete the original section break and add a new one.
In reply to You were close with your… by Marc Sabatella
It would be really nice to be able to drag breaks (section and line) from one place to another.
In reply to It would be really nice to… by DMarcus123
Perhaps, so, but it's even faster to press Enter to toggle them :-).
In reply to Perhaps, so, but it's even… by Marc Sabatella
Could you detail what you mean by pressing Enter to toggle them ... or just reply with the handbook reference?
thanks, Marc.
In reply to Could you detail what you… by DMarcus123
If you select the measure where the break is attached and press Enter again, it will remove the current system break. It's explained somewhat in https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/breaks-and-spacers#add-break-to-mea….
In reply to If you select the measure… by dragonwithafez
Thank you.
In reply to Perhaps, so, but it's even… by Marc Sabatella
For me, drag would be faster and more intuitive. Click, hold, move, release vs select measure, press enter, select measure, press enter.
In reply to For me, drag would be faster… by DMarcus123
Selecting the new measure is as easy as pressing the Ctrl+Left/Right. So literally three keystrokes. Not that drag couldn't be added someday as well, but really, it takes only a fraction of a second currently.
In reply to Selecting the new measure is… by Marc Sabatella
I get it. And it is easier.
But drag is so much more intuitive ... everybody drags everything. You don't have to learn any keystrokes. (And for me, learning yesterday that Enter removed a break if one is present - that was a surprise.)
thanks
In reply to I get it. And it is easier… by DMarcus123
Everyone drags everything? Not really; it's a way some programs might be designed to work, but not all. For instance, I'm trying this in Chrome, and there isn't a drag operation in sight. I type words, I press keyboard shortcuts, I click buttons, but I don't drag anything. ANd it's the same with almost every other program I use.
MuseScore is designed to barely need drag at all, either - almost everything is done quickly and simply with a single click or a keyboard command. So needing to drag something is actually a pretty big step backwards.
Again, it's not harmful to provide that method as an alternative to the normal method, but it's not what most people would find intuitive, because it's not what most people are accustomed to. I don't know of any word processors that let you drag paragraph markers around; they pretty much all add line breaks with Enter, page breaks with Ctrl+Enter.
MuseScore definitely tries to be as intuitive as possible, by working as much as possible like other programs people are accustomed to. Of course, everyone has different experiences, and hence different notions of what subjectively seems intuitive. So it's impossible for one interface to be equally intuitive to everyone. But it's important to understand we really do put considerable effort into trying to do things in ways the most people will find the most natural, based in large part on how most other programs perform similar operations.
In reply to You were close with your… by Marc Sabatella
Yeah, more often than not I also use a horizontal frame (with text) in front of a section, so that doesn't really solve anything.
In reply to Yeah, more often than not I… by Camille Reynders
You can insert a measure in front of the horizontal frame just as easily as inserting before a measure. - select the frame, press Insert.
In reply to You can insert a measure in… by Marc Sabatella
Yes, it will insert the measure in front of the frame, but still after the section break, so again it's of no real use.
In reply to You can insert a measure in… by Marc Sabatella
So in the first screenshot you find a typical situation, when working with sections: I have some music and a next section begins, with some text right in front of it, and I want to append a measure to the first section.
However, if I select insert measure on the text frame I get the situation as in the second screenshot. It does add it to in front of the frame, but it's still after the section break, as you can see. It's also clear when you look at the measure numbers.
In reply to So in the first screenshot… by Camille Reynders
But yeah, it does make it a little bit easier; I can delete the section break, insert a measure in front of the text frame and then re-add a section break. Still, it would be a lot easier to have an append at end of section functionality.
In reply to But yeah, it does make it a… by Camille Reynders
That's basically what #244381: Add options for "Append to current measure" and "Insert at beginning of score", for measures and frames is about
In reply to But yeah, it does make it a… by Camille Reynders
As per my other response, deleting and re-establish the section break is all but three keystrokes (Enter, Ctrl+Left, Enter). So it while, again, a new command to eliminate two of those keystrokes might also be nice someday, it's actually quite simple already.
Meanwhile, it occurs to me a plugin could probably do this already.
In reply to As per my other response,… by Marc Sabatella
I'm sorry, but no, it's not. First of all, I'm talking about section breaks, not system breaks. Maybe there's a handy shortcut like for system breaks to toggle them, but I haven't encountered it yet.
In fact the shortest amount of actions necessary are:
1. use mouse or keyboard to select last measure of section
2. click enter, to turn the section break into a system break
3. click enter, to remove system break
4. use mouse to select the text frame (you can't do it with ctrl+ arrows)
5. click insert to insert a measure
6. ctrl+right to go to the inserted measure
7. use toolbar (or some shortcut) to turn it into section break.
In reply to I'm sorry, but no, it's not… by Camille Reynders
Oh yes, sorry - you do need to define a keyboard shortcut for them if you use them often, in Edit / Preferences / Shortcuts. I have it as Ctrl+Alt+Enter. For maximum efficiency, it is probably best to adjust the breaks after adding the measure. So, first select the frame (you obviously need to select something before starting, so let's not count that as any sort of "extra" step). Then insert the measure (again, you were going to need to do that anyhow). Now, Ctrl+Left to move the selection point to the new measure, Cltr+Alt+Enter to add the break, Ctrl+Left to move to the previous measure, Cltr+Al+Enter again to remove the old break. Exactly four keystrokes including the one to select the newly-inserted measure (which I forgot about before in saying it was three).
Considering that appending measures to an existing section isn't something one does hundreds of times a day like, say, entering notes or adding articulations, it's not that bad. But indeed, as I've acknowledged many times here, an additional command (or plugin) to save those extra few keystrokes could be nice someday as well.
BTW, it's perfectly possible to select frames with the keyboard - Alt+Left/Right moves through your score element by element.