What is the hotkey for changing staff?

• Sep 24, 2011 - 19:51

I.e. the shortcut key for going up to the instrument above, and the one for going to the next staff.


Comments

Peter Whittaker
Nov 27, 2011 - 16:11

In reply to by [DELETED] 5

Oddly enough, while alt-up and alt-down are defined as pitch up/down in chord, when not in note entry and when the cursor is positioned in a measure containing only rests, alt-up/down navigate through voices 1 to 4 (I can see the voice highlighting change as I press up/down repeatedly)...

...when not in note entry mode and when the cursor is positioned in a measure containing notes, both alt-up/down play the current note...

...when in note entry mode, alt-up/down do nothing.

Peter Whittaker
Nov 27, 2011 - 16:55

In reply to by Peter Whittaker

OK, definitely bugs at work: I created a new score with two piano parts, with clusters in the top part and single notes in the bottom. When in the bottom part (with the single notes), alt-up/down takes me to the top part, but then I am "frozen" there with alt-up/down cycling through the notes in the cluster....

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Still, when I'm in note entry mode, my fingers are on the keyboard, and a keyboard shortcut would make it much more efficient to be able to move up or down a staff to enter more notes without having to leave note entry mode (so clicking won't inadvertantly place a note), click the other staff, then re-enter note entry mode.

Alt-arrow seems like it should work, but I find it seldom does what I expect. I would want it to move the next/previous staff in layout order, period, regadless of whether it contains notes or rests, regardless of in what order I had previously visited staves, regardless of in what order I had originally created those staves. Right now the algorithm for determing which staff alt-arrow will take you to seems almost random, although my best guess is that involves one or more of those other criteria.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks lasconic, Alt-up and down mostly works fine, except when there are rests, as Marc says. Hopefully that bug will be fixed sometime.
In general for user interface design, 'just click on it' is a poor solution. The homing time from keyboard to mouse is far too slow and tedious for productive work.

In reply to by Richard Cooke

Another variable is, if one staff has a chord. It seems the actual algorithm must have to do with taking the next higher or lower pitch, independent of what staff you are on. Sometimes that's a staff halfway up or down the page, sometimes it's another note in the the current chord on the current staff.

Got to Edit > Preferences > Shotcuts and tell the programm which shotcut you would prefer for that action or look up the default option.

Peter Whittaker
Nov 27, 2011 - 16:00

In reply to by troglodyth

But what is the action whose shortcut we are trying to change? I've been reading through the list of shortcuts, through forum posts, the docs, etc., all morning, trying to find the action in question.

Thanks!

In reply to by Richard Cooke

The above workaround *does* work in certain case, although whether ot beats just clicking to change staves is an open question. If you are in note entry mode, press N to leave it. Then press Shift+Up or Shift+Down to select upwards or downwards. This works *if and only if* there is a note or rest at that same time position. If you then press N again to re-enter note entry mode, you will be on the staff above or below where you started.

I mentioned that there will be a direct shortcut in 2.0 not to advocate people actually install and use a nightly build - they are not stable enough for regular use. I just wanted people to know this has been identified as an area for imorovement and already addressed, so there is no need to sub,it a feature request. And to provide some encouragement that things will get better.

In reply to by setrar

There have been a lot of changes in accessibility in the last 6 or so years, so any comment you add to this conversation is not related to the existing thread. As for moving to the next or previous voice or staff, the shortcuts are already defined in your picture. If you keyboard (probably a laptop) does not support the shortcuts, then you will need to find an appropriate unused shortcut you can assign yourself. This is part of the reason MuseScore permits you to assign your own shortcuts.

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