How to switch to tab edit mode

• Nov 18, 2016 - 10:40

I read the page on guitar tab and tried to follow instructions but they are confusing to me;
I want to enter the fret numbers when the string is selected, yet the number pad changes note value instead of fret number/pitch

The instuctions themselves say that I need to NOT be in note edit mode (opposed to tab mode which I should want). This makes sense. Yet what I see in the video example is the note mode is activated and the instructor simply says to enter numbers from your keyboard to insert your fret/pitch. But still it just changes the note duration value with me.

Yet, in another forum question, similar question is asked. Someone answers that that the note edit/tab edit thing may be confusing and that you need to be in tab edit mode but nowhere i can find where you go to tab edit mode.

I'm on a mac running El Capitan.

Thanks in advance


Comments

In reply to by kuwitt

I tried the same thing;

Note input mode turned on, select the string of the TAB staff with the blue rectangle and input a number, this time with the 'main field' of the keyboard. Still only the value of the note duration changes...

Strange.

I did discover though, that letters on my (AZERTY) keyboard seem to correspond with fret numbers ascending from the letter a. Kind funny but for now this works I guess.

Cheers,

In reply to by jeetee

Nah, the best comment would be "just switch to another editor for that" ...

Seriously, most laptops do not have a keypad either (and most desktop Macs used to come with a full keyboard).

It strikes me as very odd that the function of the main row of number keys depends on the kind of keyboard you're using; you'd expect that these always control note duration, that the row below always controls fret number (when not entering notes?!) and that the numeric keypad doubles for that function if one is available.

I also don't understand why you cannot simply double-click the fret number in a tab and edit the text, just like you can edit a fingering instruction. Earlier I had a tab that had a very awkward, maybe even impossible fret combination for a particular chord. I even tried adjusting it by adding a string number to the offending note, but that instruction seems to be ignored for tab generation! I found no other way to correct the tab than to enter the chord anew, this time working from the top note.

In reply to by rjvbertin

Users can redefine shortcuts to meet their specific needs. A large part of the shortcut logic is based on a row of numbers at the top followed by a group of letters under that have basically the same logic in most wester languages (a,b,c...). They also allow for a numeric keypad, which we know some computers just don't have.

Unfortunately, when you get to different countries, pressing shift + a number is different from one country to the next (US v GB for example). If it weren't for this, they could have easily made the numbers across the top consistent then shift + these numbers do something different (like fret number) rather than relying on the numeric keypad but this is not the case. Since practically none of the shifted characters on the number part of the base keyboard is used, I would suggest those without a numeric keypad use those instead and redefine any character that this causes a conflict with.

In reply to by mike320

Sure (and the only reason I haven't yet started doing that is because there are so many shortcuts AND it isn't alway clear that there is a shortcut for a particular button, via the tooltip for instance).

But why not implement a possibility to edit via point-and-double-click; MuseScore is WYSIWIG/GUI and just about any other textual object can be edited that way...

In reply to by rjvbertin

If you change to an existing shortcut, you will get an alert so that is not a problem. There are 10 numbers on the keypad. If you think 10 is a lot then there are a lot.

As for implementing point and double click? That does something different in normal note input but I'll let someone more familiar with tab entry address weather that's a good idea. As for WYSIWIG, they is another consideration and that is playback. In normal note entry you can double click a notehead and move the note without changing the pitch. This is sometimes done intentionally so I would be opposed to this in principle in standard note entry. BTW, you can drag a note to another string but keep at the same pitch. Note entry with the mouse for tab just doesn't exist so adding any mouse interaction would not be trivial. These are just things to consider. I'm not trying to say stop thinking about it.

In reply to by mike320

When I say point-and-double-click I mean on the fret number string in the tab notation, to make that string editable. You can do this in TuxGuitar for instance (and thus probably also in Guitar Pro). I don't really see a need to move these objects around with the mouse.

In reply to by rjvbertin

As a matter of fact I just discovered 2 things:
- In note edit mode, it is indeed the main row of number keys that allow to change fret numbers directly
- In any mode, grabbing the fret number object with the mouse and dragging it to different strings doesn't change the note but updates the fret number accordingly.

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