Suggestion for "select all alike" feature.

• Oct 24, 2019 - 04:58
Reported version
3.2
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project

In a different thread there's been some discussion about the great selection feature in MS3. It is the feature that lets users select all of the same type of objects in a score or staff.

For example, I was working on some guitar TABs (for kids) and wanted to color the numbers. To do so, I can now do the following:

1) control click on a TAB number, which opens a menu. Then put the cursor over "select>more".

Selection Menu 1.png

2) next, click on "more" which opens a window, where I can check appropriate check boxes.

Selection Menu 2.png

After checking 3 check boxes I complete the task and all of the same numbers on the same line/staff will be selected.

This process works fantastic, but it is time consuming when the job requires this to be done multiple times. It would be great if there would be an added option in the first popup menu, to simply "select all of the same number/pitch" then perhaps add "in same staff" as well as "in same staff and line".

I am not sure how much work it would be for the developers to implement this change in an upgrade of MuseScore, but I think it would be a great addition. And I also believe that once it is there people would be more likely to discover this feature because there would be less steps to get to it.

Thank you for your consideration.

Attachment Size
Selection Menu 1.png 62.78 KB
Selection Menu 2.png 57.72 KB

Comments

To me the problem with this is that while you personally might happen to use the "same pitch/string/staff" command often enough to want it on the first menu, most people would find it a waste of space. But then, someone else would want "same voice" on the first menu because they use that option a lot. And someone else uses the duration option a lot, so they want that. Someone else wants pitch but not string or staff.
Eventually the whole "More" dialog is reproduced in the first menu.

But, this is the sort of thing telemetry data could help with - if we discover which combination of options in the More dialog actually are used most commonly, then potentially we could take the most common such combinations and promote them.

Meanwhile, though, I see some more general ways to improve the situation, such as adding a "Repeat last select command" to the menu. Or remembering the last-used settings in the More dialog.

BTW, for the particular application of color-coding notes, it is the sort of thing a plugin would be well-suited for.