Entering rests with mouse + Shift or other modifier
I'm sure I'm not the first person to suggest this, but it would be pretty trivial to implement:
What if we made it so clicking on the staff while pressing Ctrl (or some other keyboard modifier) entered a rest of the desired duration? It would eliminate the need for the whole "rest toggle icon shuffle" process you need now in order to enter rests with the mouse. Still not particularly discoverable, so we'll still keep hearing requests for an actual rest toolbar. But at least it would speed the process of entering rests by mouse.
Comments
The keyboard modifier would need to be something not currently in use. Your choice of examples is problematic because ctrl+click adds an item to the current selection. Perhaps ctrl+shift+click would work. I can't think of anything that alt+click does, that would also work. On windows systems the ctrl+shift are very close to one another and neither has system incompatibilities. This would be very useful for people who use the mouse for note entry.
In reply to The keyboard modifier would… by mike320
Yes, it has to be something currently available. But actually, Ctrl+click is available in note input mode. it only adds to selection in "normal" mode. "Shift" is taken because it switches to "replace" as opposed to the default "add" mode when clicking on an existing chord (ie, the exact opposite of what Shift does during keybaord note entry).
Right click seems available as well - there is no context menu when in note input mode. On most Mac's, though, Ctrl+click is right click, so it could actually be either/both.
When I think about it, it's still weird, in that pressing "0" is so much easier & faster than Ctrl+click. Maybe that's an argument in favor of right click though.
In reply to Yes, it has to be something… by Marc Sabatella
"0" is easy for me also although it could cause one to feel that they have to remove their hand from the mouse.
In reply to Yes, it has to be something… by Marc Sabatella
Ok, I don't usually use mouse input, so I'll agree ctrl+click makes sense. That would make it the same for everyone. It would be more convenient when no changing rhythms while inputting notes and rests, such as a bunch of 1/8 notes with some 1/8 rests mixed in. Also, I would guess most mouse users are using the numbers above the letters. This would allow them to keep their left fingers on the 3, 4, 5, & 6 to change to the most common note/rest lengths rather than reaching for the 0 to enter a rest. Of course there is that pesky move to the ctrl button...
In reply to Ok, I don't usually use… by mike320
My thinking is that a shortcut like this would also help when entering consecutive rests of different durations, since right now changing the duration always takes two clicks (one to change the duration, another to re-enable the rest button). But I am struggling to get past the realization that if you're going to press Ctrl while clicking, you might as well just press 0 and get it over with. To eliminate the keyboard from the picture, right click really is the way to go. No reason it couldn't be both of course. Nice thing about Ctrl is that it could also be made so the act of pressing Ctrl changes the "shadow note" (mouse pointer) from note to rest, making it ever so slightly more discoverable.
In reply to My thinking is that a… by Marc Sabatella
And as (similar ;) mentioned I agree with this:
There are different user behavior. On the one hand users, who are using shortcuts to inserting notes and rests. For this user group there's a good work flow to enter notes/rests.
On the other hand there's a user group, which prefer to use the mouse for input. For these users I could imagine would it be a better user experience by using the right click for rests, while the note input mode is active and no further keyboard shortcut would be necessary (and a shortcut "0" wouldn't make really sense for these users).
But as you mentioned the ctrl+click for Mac users, in my opinion the ctrl key would also be a good place holder in general.
Wouldn't it make more sense to use right click therefore, when the note input mode is active?
In reply to Wouldn't it make more sense… by kuwitt
That would lead to the speed menu for the rest or note you are clicking on.
So it's just five lines of code to make right click enter a rest in note input mode (also to make it enter a note if the rest icon is ticked). I see that in master, the code is moved elsewhere and Ctrl+click is reserved for an insert command, and I'm not currently able to build, but in principle the same approach should work.
If people think it's worthwhile, I could submit a PR for this.
In reply to So it's just five lines of… by Marc Sabatella
Given that Ctrl+click is more work than simply pressing 0, I'd like to go with right-click. However, while on 2.x right click is not active in note input mode, in master/3.0 it is. So that's a problem. Either way, I worry it's not discoverable. So probably of limited value. But still, it seems it would be so easy to improve this if we could agree on a UI for it. Still open to suggestions!
In reply to Given that Ctrl+click is… by Marc Sabatella
Could also be a bug of the master, because the right click (ctrl+click) inserts a note and opens at the same time the context menu, at least in the version, I've just downloaded (maybe in a newer one it's fixed). Above, when I insert a note above or below the note line system, the context menu offers me entries like "General style...", "Page settings..." and "Load style" while the note input mode is active.
But in general I wonder, how useful are these entries for the note input mode. Most of range selections are only possible outside this (for example click and shift+click, shift+arrow right and so on) which is closely connected for me to copy/cut and paste). Also other entries of the context menu are not really necessary during the note input process for me.
If there are reasons, why it could be useful, I miss - then I would prefer to have an addition short cut for the context menu.
For me I would like to have the note/rest input via shortcuts (which is possible), and beside the note/rest input via mouse (which is only possible for notes by default but not for rests without activating/deactivating the rest symbol of the toolbar ) for a better feeling of usability.
In reply to Could also be a bug of the… by kuwitt
I'm inclined to agree it might be unintended that the right click menu is active in note input mode for master. If so, then it would be great as far as I am concerned to disable it again and make right click enter rests. As I said, that much is a trivially easy change and I'd love to get it in for 2.2 as well. But not if there really is some long-term plan for doing something else with right-click in note input mode.
There has also been a discussion about the possible implementations of the right click menu here: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/3535.
I've placed a new pull request (https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/3609) for the implementation of the right click menu version described here: https://musescore.org/en/node/99536.
Additionally in this version the described menu also opens up if you right click on a notehead in "note edit mode" Right clicking on a selected note in the "note edit mode" opens up the normal menu which lets you cut, copy, paste, delete etc.
(If you would like to try this version of right click menu without building the master branch, I have build an evaluation version based on MusesScore 2.2. You can download it here: https://bitbucket.org/19JoHo66/musescoretestversions/downloads/ and place it in your MuseScore2.2 installation folder. Please keep in mind, that this version is only intended for the evaluation and testing of the right click menu)