Option to turn off Note Entry Mode

• Mar 18, 2018 - 11:47

Please let me have the option to turn off Note Entry Mode.
Much of my work is proof-reading, editing, and just generally cleaning up other people’s work. It’s necessary to type N before any selection or edit to get out of NEM - again and again. All those extra clicks add up and it can be a disaster if I forget with random wierd things happening and a lot of Command-Z to undo the errors.


Comments

Note entry mode is off by default. If you have to press N to turn it off, it can only be because you pressed N and turned it on earlier. Also note that you can glance at the top left corner of the window to see whether you're in note entry mode or not.

In reply to by lilmetalkid1

You wrote:
It turns on when entering notes via the computer keyboard.

Do you mean that note entry mode turns on when entering notes?
How else would notes be entered... by entering lyrics? Of couse not!

It might just be me, but if I were a newbie and wished to enter notes, the first thing I would consider is to use something called note entry mode.
Then, when I was done entering notes, I would switch it off.

You also wrote:
Entering notes via keyboard is far more efficient than using the mouse.
You are sooo... correct!
Some people take a long time to figure that one out.

Just a thought that you might want to say "disable note entry mode" to distinguish from the usual turning NEM on or off. It seems like this is something that could/should be in Preferences – unless you need to be able to re-enable NEM while you're cleaning up other people's work.

I'm not sure there is much value to disabling note entry mode, but I can see value to "locking" a score to prevent any kind of editing.

In reply to by shoogle

Yes, maybe. But OP does want to edit notes (correct pitch etc.). So he/she asks for a special mode where one can edit but not enter notes. I don't think that's technically possible without major changes (and I'm not convinced it's even desireable). Of course OP might get away with removing the keybindings for note entry and restict editing to mouse and cursor key actions ....

In reply to by rmattes

Well I could see a padlock button with a dropdown arrow of different kinds of editing, such as note entry, text edit, moving/resizing, change inspector properties. Click the padlock to disable all forms of editing, or click the arrow to only disable certain kinds of editing.

In reply to by rmattes

I suspect the number of real-world cases where one has a need to edit pitch of notes but absolutely under no circumstances ever enter a new one is close enough to zero to not be worth any special code just for that.

However, the idea of some sort of (user-definable?) modes to restrict the interface to only certain commands is intriguing to me. I could see it being valuable in developing tutorials. This has been discussion in conjunction with an idea fo Google Summer of Code.

In reply to by rmattes

It's desirable because the default behavior of NEM is to keep the same length as the last note entered as you scroll along. Say I'm editing a complicated passage and want to change the notes but not the rhythm. I would find it immensely helpful to just be able to arrow-right then type the new note name in for each note in the melody, rather than editing each note then leaving NEM because it will continue to make every note the same length as the first when I type the letter in.

Hi!

I feel the same way. It would be more logical to not enter note input mode if A, B, C, D, E, F, or G is pressed but simply just change pitch of the selected note. The same way you don't enter NIM when you press a different duration to change length of the selected note. For me, it would be most logical to enter note input mode only when N is pressed. Can anyone say why it shouldn't be this way? :)

And there's some unlogical behavior too: Select a measure -> select note duration other than quarter note -> press A, B, C, D, E, F, or G -> you still get a quarter note...

In reply to by pekka.kurki

I have to say that I agree with pekka.kurki. Try to re-pitch a note this way, and not only are you left in note entry mode, but the whole chord (along with its articulations and lyrics, etc.) is deleted, and a single note is left in its place. It would be better if the note were simply re-pitched within the chord, and note entry mode kept turned off. If I want to replace the whole chord, I can turn on note entry mode myself.

In reply to by mattmcclinch

To repitch a single note in a chord, click it and use arrows to adjust it. You can also delete it and use ctrl+ a letter to add the correct pitch. It is very unlikely that anyone would want to change only the third note of every chord or even only one note in every chord, so having repitch change a singe note makes no sense. You can still add chords in repitch the same way as in normal note entry mode.

In reply to by mike320

Thanks for your reply, mike320. It is true that MuseScore offers multiple ways to edit notes within a chord. And I was not suggesting a change to Re-Pitch mode, but rather a change to the meaning of certain commands in ViewState::NORMAL.

Until I read pekka.kurki's comment, I couldn't figure out what the problem was, or what the OP was trying to do. Now I think I understand, and I can see how the current behavior might not be for the best.

In reply to by mattmcclinch

Yes, this has nothing to do with re-pitch mode. Perhaps we need to make a new discussion with better headline to get more brainstorming about this? It's not like you want to turn off note entry mode, but to change behavior of pressing A, B, C, D, E, F or G in a normal viewstate as you referred.

In reply to by mattmcclinch

FWIW, I would be perfectly happy to see pressing a letter key while in normal mode not put you into note input mode automatically but instead to act more like a repitch. This would be consistent with how other commands work in normal mode and to me more efficient. But I am pretty sure this was a deliberate design choice made to address concerns such as the one referenced above with the person who was having trouble figuring out how to enter notes. So the proposed change is a step forward to me and some others, but perhaps a step backwards for beginners just trying to figure out how to enter notes.

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