Selection and page dragging
Hello all,
Currently with MuseScore 1.3, if I make a selection and click anywhere else which is not another bar then the selection is lost. This behaviour is not very good in my opinion, because it does not allow you to drag the page around to find the beginning/end point for your selection (if you are holding Shift down). Surely you can navigate with PageUp and PageDown keys, but that is really not a good method in my opinion. Sometimes you just want to click on something just beyond the screen, and in those moments dragging the page would be trivial. If this would be implemented, then it would be better to create another shortcut for deselecting something (ESC, Ctrl+D, etc. - you name it). I believe that implementing this feature would make MuseScore more intuitive and practical to use.
Best,
Gilberto
Comments
Yes that is annoying, and this is fixed in 2.0. Clicking an empty spot will not deselect what you have already selected.
In reply to Yes that is annoying, and by schepers
Fantastic, I am really looking forward to 2.0!
Ciao gsagostinho, if you are holding Shift down use the navigator to move between pages
In reply to Ciao gsagostinho, if you are by Shoichi
Hi Shoichi, thanks for the tip, I was actually aware about the navigator. It just seemed to me that the most intuitive way was to still have the option to drag the paper, and I am glad they added this feature in version 2.0. Take care! Gilberto
Click outside a selection does still clear it in 2.0 builds, as it does in all other programs I am aware of. How else would you propose clearing a selection? And why is page up / down or navigator "not a good method"? Isn't that how you'd do in virtually all other programs? That or using the mouse wheel or scroll bars (MuseScore equivalentL: navigator), and that works in MsueScore as well. Or am I missing something?
In reply to Click outside a selection by Marc Sabatella
I assumed he meant when ctrl-clicking multiple objects, and you click just far enough away to deselect everything. That's been fixed, but there may be other things the OP wants to do, like dragging the scroll while ctrl is down, or retain the selection when just dragging, which you can't do.
In reply to I assumed he meant when by schepers
Right, it's the last one - dragging with a selection - that he specifically mentioned. To me, having a click *not* clear the selection woudl be counter to how every other program I know works.
Indeed, though, it's nice that *ctrl* click on nothing no longer clears the selection.
In reply to Click outside a selection by Marc Sabatella
Hi, thanks for your reply. IMO, the navigator is "not a good method" because I don't like to leave it open, as it occupies a lot of the screen and I prefer to see more of the score I am working with, particularly if it's an orchestral one.
As for the behaviour I describe, I have seen other programs using it - I am pretty sure that's how Sibelius works. As for how you are supposed to deselect, I think with Sibelius you have to either press ESC or click somewhere else without holding Shift (I have to confirm the exact shortcuts as I recently migrated to Linux and I don't use Sibelius any longer, but I can do this if anyone is interested).
Best,
Gilberto
In reply to Hi, thanks for your reply. by gsagostinho
I found an example of what I am talking about on youtube. At 3:00-3:01, she has a staff completely selected and yet she is able to click and drag the page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bACpL_MaKgQ
I find this to be very intuitive, but once again I am a former Sibelius user, so that would obviously be the case :)
Last but not least, one more behaviour about selections in Sibelius which is good is that by double cliking on a staff you select all bars across a system, and triple clicking in a bar selects the staff throughtout the whole score. This becomes very handy when dealing with larger scores. Do you think I should open one more post for this type of behaviour?
Best,
Gilberto
In reply to I found an example of what I by gsagostinho
Dragging is different from clicking. So I don't think there would be any particular reason we couldn't someday allow a *drag* to not clear the selection. But a *click* must. That's the way all programs work; it's universally expected behavior.
Double clicking to select the staff on one system or triple click to select the staff for the whole score is a good idea.
Meanwhile, note MuseScore provides quite a few useful shortcuts that may just be different, not necessarily worse or better, from Sibelius. In some cases they might be more like Finale or some other program. I don't think it makes sense to copy any one given program too much.
For scrolling, as I mentioned, in addition to the navigator (which can be resized as someone mentioned), there is the mouse wheel. That's the easiest / most natural way I think, particularly on touch pads where it is mapped to gestures like two finger swipe or swiping along an edge. Plus the page up/down keys. Dragging the canvas probably my *least* most commonly used method, in part because you are limited to only short motions, but also because of the risk of accidentalls dragging an element on the score instead of dragging the canvas.
For selecting, try combinations of Shift with arrow keys, home, and end. Also these plus Ctrl. For instance, Shift + End selects to end of system - same thing you describe Sibelius as doing with double click, I guess. Shift+Ctrl+End selects to end of score.
In reply to Dragging is different from by Marc Sabatella
You are of course right about the difference between clicking and dragging, and also with the fact that a click does indeed clear the selection in Sibelius, but dragging doesn't. Sorry for the confusion, it has been quite a while I don't use that program and I am starting to forget how it works (which is something good!).
Indeed I will adapt my workflow around the possibilities of MuseScore which, as you pointed out, are plenty. My initial post was just a suggestion of something that I immediately missed when starting to use MuseScore, and to this day I still find myself insisting in trying.
And it's great to hear about the double and triple click, I will open a new post about it.
Thanks again for the detailed answers and take care,
Gilberto
In reply to Hi, thanks for your reply. by gsagostinho
Keep in mind that you can resize the Navigator (in both 1.3 and the builds for 2.0), so it needn't occupy any more of your display than you wish it to.
In reply to Keep in mind that you can by [DELETED] 448831
Sure, MuseScore is perfectly usable as it is and I can get used to it, I simply made a suggestion of how to improve something that could be better in my opinion, that is all!
In reply to Sure, MuseScore is perfectly by gsagostinho
And likewise, I simply made a suggestion of how to improve your own experience using MuseScore by mentioning a feature of which you seemed not to be aware. You claimed, after all, that the Navigator 'occupies a lot of the screen' when it in fact does not - or, at least, need not. If my suggestion didn't prove useful, I'm sorry.