Musescore editor alters user input
Musescore seems to want to second-guess what I am about to input. If I select a voice, then a note length, the voice changes to some other one. If I select a rest then a note length, the rest is de-selected. There are many more examples - dotted notes, etc. Musescore is probably trying to be helpful but this behaviour is irritating and leads to extra keystrokes and a need for care, and moreover doesn't occur consistently. Can this behaviour be switched off?
Comments
First enter note entry mode (N), then select voice(, then duration, then pitch).
If you select voice first and then go into note entry mode, MuseScore reverts to voice 1.
See also https://musescore.org/en/handbook/voices#instructions
BTW: welcome back after more than 6 years of absence (forum wise) ;-)
(and MuseScore behaved that way ever since)
In reply to First enter note entry mode,… by Jojo-Schmitz
Yeah - but I'd rather it didn't matter!
If you can post the precise series of steps you are following, we can do a better job of helping you understand what is happening and why.
In reply to If you can post the precise… by Marc Sabatella
From Jojo's post I understand that all is well if I work from left to right. I have (for some reason) a habit of working from right to left, so I select voice first, then rest or note length, and finally click 'N' to enter note entry. This resets some of my earlier selections. I noticed this behaviour before (some years ago, as Jojo notes) but had hoped that perhaps the newer version had a way to avoid it.
In reply to From Jojo's post I… by Dougie
By "left to right" I guess you mean, you are using the toolbar? It's more efficient if you can get used to the keyboard shortcuts - N for note input mode, 1-9 for durations, 0 for rest, letters for notes, Ctrl+Alt+number for voice, etc.
But so you know, when you press N, MsueScore doesn't "alter" anything - it just doesn't look where you think it is looking. Instead of taking its voice setting and duration from the toolbar, it is taking it from whatever you have selected - the same way it decides where to begin note input. It would be very counterintuitive if you went to the trouble of selecting a very specific note before pressing "N" and then found note input starting somewhere else or with a different duration than that of the note you so carefully selected.
Also, pressing a voice button while not in note input serves a very important function that is not related to preparing for note input mode: it moves the selected note or rest into the selected voice if possible. So the voice buttons perform two different functions depending on whether you are in note input mode or not - they either prepare you for the next note, or they change the current note. It's exactly the same for the duration buttons - while not in note input mode, this is how you change duration, but in note input mode tis is how you prepare for the next note.
So hopefully understanding how things are intended to work will allow you to take advantage of MuseScore better, using the buttons to either change the current selection or to prepare for the next note, depending on whether you are in note input or mode or not.
In reply to By "left to right" I guess… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, that's helpful. I realised that it was context-sensitive in some way.