Using Ctrl+Shift to cumulatively select objects with several selection boxes
Currently:
- Use Shift to select objects using a selection box
- Use Ctrl to cumulatively select different objects by clicking on each one
Feature to be added :
Using Ctrl+Shift to cumulatively select objects with several selection boxes
Wouldn't this be nice or do I miss something already existing ? :-)
Comments
Not sure I follow using SHIFT to select anything. But I admit to being an old guy who doesn't know much.
Please tell us of an example and the steps you are taking.
"do I miss something already existing ?"
You have perhaps missed the possibilities from using the "Select similar" function in the right click menu. As the label indicates this allows you to select multiple objects with similar characteristics - for example all staff text objects, all staccato marks, all notes with a pitch of C# etc.
This is not exactly what you are asking for but for a lot of purposes it might do what you need (didn't Mick Jagger sing something about that?)
Another point that might have been missed is that Musescore currently has two types of selection:
- CTRL+Click creates a list selection which is indicated by the selected items being highlighted individually.
- Click on first item, SHIFT+Click on another item or dragging a box creates a single range selection which is indicated by a a blue surrounding rectangle
Each selection type can be acted on in its own way - there may be some actions that can be performed on either type of selection but some actions only work on one or the other. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/selecting-elements for more detail.
I think that what is being asked for here is that SHIFT+CTRL+Click would create a third type of selection; a multiple range selection. The difficulty arises when one considers what actions could be performed on such a multiple range selection. Copy and Paste would seem particularly difficult. For example, should the ranges be pasted next to each other or in the same relative position as they were when copied? All potential actions available for multiple range selections would need to be identified and the results defined. I think it is that identification and definition bit that is difficult rather than the creation of multiple ranges.
I seem to recall this being suggested either on the forum or on GitHub but I don't remember where or when. I think that one conclusion was that while multiple range selections would be nice in some circumstances, the "select similar" function allows many tasks that might otherwise need multiple ranges to be carried out quite efficiently
In reply to "do I miss something already… by SteveBlower
Hello Steve,
thanks for your answer.
Yes "Select similar" doesn't fit the exact request as it selects all objects of a category and not only objects that you want to select and that may belong to different categories.
I confess I don't really understand the issue about "what to do with these multiple range selected objects" as you already managed this with the single cumulative CTRL function. I mean, using CTRL+Click, you can select different notes in different bars, then if you copy/paste this selection anywhere else, it pastes nothing. This choice to paste nothing was obviously implemented to avoid the complex questions you've rightly pointed out in your message.
=> I don't ask this new SHIFT+CTRL+Click I request to behave differently from CTRL+Click
It's just a more convenient way to proceed when you have a lot of notes to select.
Concrete example (see figures on the image below) :
Imagine I have a repeated 4-notes chord (fig.1) and I want to transpose down only the 2 upper notes of each chord (so I get fig.2). Imagine also I have to do this in 3 bars (not consecutive, bars 5, 7 and 9 for example, not represented, just imagine).
With the current CTRL+Click, I need to click individually on 8 notes x 3, so 24 clicks before I can use a transpose tool (and I take the risk to lose the selection if I miss one click).
With the new SHIFT+CTRL+Click, I can just draw a selection box (as shown on fig.1) that will select only objects touched by the square, and this 3 times (for bars 5, 7 and 9), so there's only 3 clicks before I can use a transpose tool, which is really, really, really far more convenient...
Don't you think so ? :-)