Keyboard shortcut for accent

• Sep 13, 2014 - 18:38

There are keyboard shortcuts for staccato, tenuto, and marcato, but apparently none for the standard accent (>). This is a "top 3" articulation in my book ;) and should have a keyboard shortcut.

Comments

• Sep 15, 2014 - 14:55

I think the problem is that we would like shortcuts for so many things that there are not enough keys to cover them all. To expand the number of shortcuts I think we would need
to include two-key combinations much as is used for accented characters when writing text.

Maybe it would be good if ALL shortcuts were double-key combo's with an initial key for Text, Accidental, Dynamic, Accent or whatever general type and then a second key to specify. The most commonly-used shortcuts (and I agree that the > accent is common) could additionally be assigned single-key shortcuts. Perhaps a default list could be created of those single key shortcuts's and the user could then change them as needed (much as at present only excluding the less-common things). Personally, I'd rather have > for an accent and be quite happy to accept a two-character combo for crescendo and diminuendo. I also wouldn't mind using a two-character combo for things such as rehearsal marks, time signature etc. that are used less frequently. I wouldn't miss not having K assign a key signature either when I can easily drag it over from the palette.

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• Sep 15, 2014 - 15:41

It is likely that some way to add more articulations via keyboard will be coming, if not for 2.0, then soon after. This will be needed for the accessibility work - making MuseScore usable by blind people. And something like a two-keystroke sequence - first to activate the appropriate palette, second to choose from within it - is definitely a possibility.

But FWIW, everyone probably has different ideas of what shortcuts are common. Personally, I am perfectly happy adding accents by selecting the notes then double clicking the palette; it's only a margin win to replace that with a shortcut but yes, if marcato deserves a shortcut, so does the regular accent). On the other hand' being able to add hairpins using keyboard instead of drag and an drop is a *huge* win in comparison. And I use rehearsal marks much more often than either accents or hairpins. But that's me.

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• Sep 15, 2014 - 18:56

I'm glad there is discussion about the wider role of keyboard shortcuts, and I agree that the hairpin shortcuts are a huge improvement over dragging them from the palette. (It looks to me like multi-key shortcuts are already in place in 2.0, isn't that right?)

But I think there's a narrow question here about the accent shortcut that doesn't need to touch on the wider issue: personal idiosyncrasies aside, the accent is a VERY common articulation and the absence of a shortcut for it seems like a glaring omission.

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• Sep 15, 2014 - 20:28

Multi-key shortcuts are possible in both 1.3 and 2.0 Beta 1, but only for commands that are defined to work for shortcuts at all. Which brings us to the original question. Currently, only a handful of markings on the palettes can have shortcuts defined. As I said, one way or another, we will be expanding on this to allow all palette elements to be placed by keybaord command. it just isn't clear exactly *when* this will happen, or exactly *how* it will work.

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• Jun 30, 2015 - 10:27

hi everyone,

About shortcuts: i used Notion for a while and liked the shortcut system from that program. It should be nice if the dynamics could work like that. It could be other keys but in that program you have to press f for f and ff for ff and so on. Same for p. Thats working much faster than dragging of clicking. Because you can add almost all dynamics with just the keyboard. I know it's personal but at least make it possible to add all common elements with shortcuts.

Cheers, Philip

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