Custom shortcut definition with Shift/Ctrl/Alt failing in 2.1

• Feb 7, 2018 - 15:15

Hello all. I don't often define my own shortcuts, but I went in to add some shortcuts to defined actions in the Prefs --> Shortcuts tab in v2.1 on Windows... in particular, to create shortcuts for add-diatonic-interval-below actions (which I could swear used to be predefined with previous builds of MuseScore, but apparently no longer?).

For some reason, when I hit Define... and the Enter Shortcut Sequence dialog appears, my Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys on either side of the keyboard are not acknowledged or recorded as individual keys.

That means my only option is to assign, say, Shift-2 through Shift-8 to "add 2nd below" through "add octave below" is through something like what's in the screenshot (on a US QWERTY layout anyway - instead of letting me define Shift-2 as discrete keypresses, I'm being forced to the @ symbol). I can't define any new shortcuts using Ctrl or Alt - those keys are simply not acknowledged at all in the keystroke-catch dialog.

I've searched / looked through the docs and I can't find any reference to special escape characters in this dialog to allow the creation of shortcuts that would begin as usual with Shift/Ctrl/Alt or any combination thereof. Am I missing something?

Attachment Size
ms-shortcuts.gif 63.86 KB

Comments

If you are using the shift key on the numbers above the letters in the keyboard (the alphanumeric keyboard), it will report the character that would appear if you typed shift+the number. So on the alphanumeric keyboard shift+2 = @ not shift+2 in the defined keys. This is for several reasons. 1. Different keyboards have different symbols above a key. 2. MuseScore draws a distinction between the 2 on the alphanumeric key board and the number pad. So if you define the shortcut using the numeric keypad, you can define a different result using the number on the alphanumeric keyboard. BTW, I use ALT+Shift+2 for adding a second below and my shortcuts report it as NumPad+Alt+Down. I also allow for the alphanumeric keyboard for the same reason and it reports it as Alt+@.

Unfortunately every keyboard layout is different in terms of how things are reported to the OS and hence to Qt and thus to MuseScore, so it's impossible to support all layouts equally well. Some things will occasionally fall through the cracks. And in fact, you are totally right that there used to be Shift+number shortcuts to add intervals below notes. These were removed precisely because they caused problems on certain keyboard layouts (eg, French layouts where the numbers themselves required Shift already). So if you want those commands to have a shortcut, you'll just have to keep experimenting to find a combination that works with your particular keyboard.

However, even though Shift+2 displays as "@", that should still work just fine on US QWERTY. Are you saying it doesn't for you? Similarly, if I press Ctrl+Shift+2 in this dialog, it displays as Ctrl+@ and also works fine (eg, presisng Ctrl+Shift+2 adds a second below). Again are you saying it doesn't for you?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi Marc. Yes, unfortunately, that's exactly what I'm encountering, and why I posted because it seems pretty bizarre. If I press Ctrl, Alt, Ctrl followed by Shift, you name it, the Enter Shortcut Sequence dialog does not seem able to pick up on those system keys at all. (It picks up on Backspace just fine, though! :) )

I am experiencing this on the latest official build of 2.1 on a Win7 system (i7, 24GB/RAM). Haven't yet had a chance to try this on some of my other Windows 7 / 10 installations, but I will give those a shot later today.

As you and Mike320 point out (and as can be seen in the screenshot I posted too), I can assign @/#/$ just fine, and they work just fine as shortcuts - good thing I only need a handful of them, though. Since the Enter Shortcut Sequence dialog doesn't seem able to recognize Shift/Ctrl/Alt in any other context, that doesn't leave me with a whole lot of available assignable key seqs. (All preassigned Shift/Ctrl/etc shortcuts work just great and I can obviously see the Shift+/Ctrl+ mappings in the shortcuts list.)

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