a few simple ergonomic suggestions on zooming, sliding, solo, repeat, window on foreground

• Nov 28, 2014 - 02:02

Having used Sibelius quite a bit in the past (but now having definitely changed to Musescore :) ), I miss a few very small ergonomic features when composing:

- When sliding a note up and down, I'd like to hear the different notes that I'm sliding past, so to say. Now you only hear the note once when clicking, not during sliding.

- When zooming in/out, the anchor point is the top-left of the page. This is very annoying, when for instance working on a bit on the right side of the paper, and wanting to zoom in on it. You have to drag then after zooming again, to find the exact bit again. Using the centre of the page as anchor point would be better, or even cooler: using the selection as anchor point!

- Sibelius has the option that it plays solo, when selecting a bar from a single instrument. Thats a very easy way of quickly isolating one part, and allot easier then going into the mixer.

- Speaking of the mixer: it would be cool if the mixer (and other windows) could stay on the foreground. When working fullscreen and wanting to change the mixer during playback, its really annoying that the mixer gets lost behind the main screen.

- I use the R-shortcut quite allot during composing, in order to repeat a group of notes, or more often: a single note. Repeating a group works fine by first selecting them with shift. But when having a single note selected it doesn't seem to work. :(

I've only been using Musescore for a few hours now, so maybe I'm overlooking a few of these. But they really don't seem to feature yet, while they seem quite simple to implement.

Comments

• Nov 28, 2014 - 08:44

Hello! Thanks for the feedback!

1/ If you use the up and down arrows on the keyboard the notes will sound. I can understand that one would prefer to have the note sound when sliding up/down but I guess other will prefer not... So a choice has to be made. An option is always possible but too many options...

2/ I guess you zoom with the combobox in the toolbar? You can also zoom with scroll or gesture and it will be centered on your mouse pointer. Changing the behavior of the combo in the toolbar would be nice indeed.

3/Not sure how that would work in MuseScore.

4/I guess you are on Mac? On all other platforms the mixer should be on top. We didn't find a way to make it happen on Mac yet. Help is welcome. See #15629: Mac: Play Panel doesn't float above main window

5/ You can select a single chord with shift + click to make it repeat

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• Nov 28, 2014 - 11:28

Both many thanks for the quick feedback!

First of all: I'm on a Mac, using version 2.0

- SLIDING NOTE UP AND DOWN
If you use the up and down arrows on the keyboard the notes will sound. I can understand that one would prefer to have the note sound when sliding up/down but I guess other will prefer not... So a choice has to be made. An option is always possible but too many options...

You're right about the up-down key: that seeems also quite a good method. Although it's quite nice to be able to draw a note, and by holding the mouse, dragging it until you find the sweet spot for your composition and then releasing the mousebutton to place it. (actually currently the note is placed right away when clicking - for this feature it would need to be sliding (and sounding) until you release the mouse button).
It's not an essential feature, but for eg. for many ex-sibelius users quite a nice option. Maybe it might deserve to be an option in the preferences?

- ZOOMING IN/OUT ANCHOR POINT
I guess you zoom with the combobox in the toolbar? You can also zoom with scroll or gesture and it will be centered on your mouse pointer. Changing the behavior of the combo in the toolbar would be nice indeed.

I used the Command+ shortcut (which I'm used to from Photoshop etc).
I just noticed that in 1.3 I could zoom with Command-scroll, but in 2.0 that doesn't work (yet).
I might not use the Command+ often anymore when the scroll-zoom is working in 2.0 too. But might still be worth a little fix?

- PLAY SELECTED BAR SOLO
Not sure how that would work in MuseScore.

See image attached! :) I suppose this is quite clear? Would be a cool handy feature while composing!

- MIXER ON TOP
I guess you are on Mac? On all other platforms the mixer should be on top. We didn't find a way to make it happen on Mac yet. Help is welcome. See #15629: Mac: Play Panel doesn't float above main window

Yup, I'm on Mac. So I'll just see if that issue will be fixed sometime. For the time being, I found out I can quite sufficiently use Command-` to get my windows back to the foreground.

- REPEAT 1 NOTE
You can select a single chord with shift + click to make it repeat

Cool! :) Many thanks!

Attachment Size
141128-solo-playback.jpg 101.68 KB

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• Nov 28, 2014 - 16:38

Hmm, Cmd+scroll doesn't work on your Mac? Might be Mac-specific, or even specific to your particular mouse. Works fine on my Windows & Linux systems.

I'm not sure I'd like the solo feature you mention - I wouldn't want playback behavior to change simply based on what I happened to have selected when I hit play. But maybe a separate shortcut for "play selected staves only".

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