Easier access to Measure Duration field
I'd like a way to change Measure Duration more easily. I find it cumbersome to have to open Measure Properties, then use the mouse to select the Measure Duration, type in the number, then close the window. That's a lot of switching from mouse to keyboard and a lot of steps. Here are some ideas I have about how it might work more quickly
- When you open Measure Properties, have the Measure Duration selected by default. At present the default field selected is the Staff Number. (I doubt that anyone uses that frequently.)
- Another way to make this more convenient would be to enable the user to move from field to field using the TAB key. This would mean that when you opened the Measure Properties window, you would be able to move to the Measure Duration field by tabbing, avoiding the use of the mouse.
- It would be really nice to be to be able to use a keyboard command that would allow you to select a measure, press the keyboard command and have just the Measure Duration field pop up, with the number of beats pre-selected, so that you could then just type in the desired number of beats, press return, and, bingo! all done.
Or maybe there is a way to streamline this feature that I have not thought of.
In general, I prefer to use keyboard commands rather than mousing around whenever it is practicable; and, while it isn't very sexy. I love having the ability to customize the keyboard commands. Streamlining the transcription process is something to which I hope you will give a high priority.
Comments
Could you file an official bug report (Help / Report a Bug from within MuseScore) on the fact that tab doesn't work in this dialog? We are trying to make all dialogs keybaord accessible.
Under normal circumstance, changing actual duration would be a farily uncommon thing - probably not the most common use for that dialog. Especial;ly now that we have split and join commands in Edit / Measure - it should actually be very rare to need to explicitly alter measure length via the dialog. Can you explain your use case?
Note you can move from measure to measure within the dialog using the arrow buttons at lower left. I don't know if the plugin framework supports the necessary properties, but I guess it's not out of the question that a custom command could be added that way.
In reply to Could you file an official by Marc Sabatella
I love the Join Measure feature; but, then there are extra rests left over that need to be eliminated. For instance, when writing out chant, as I am doing a lot at the moment, I frequently end up with a lot of measures that have somewhere between 11 and 21 beats (sometimes as large as 35). These random size measures usually result in extra rests that need to be gotten rid of. I do this by going into the Measure Properties window and reducing the size of the measure after I have finished writing out the notes. I seem to run into the need for random sized measures even when I am writing out normal (non-chant) music, so I am surprised that this doesn't come up more often for other people.
I'll be glad to file a bug report about the tab issue. I didn't realize it was a bug; I thought it was just a thing no one had thought of yet.
In reply to I love the Join Measure by Jake Sterling
Why not simply split the measure at the first "extra" rest, then start the next measure there, joining it if necessary to the next measure? Or just delete the measure of rests? The case of chant is one of the main reasons split and join were added, and I would think you do do pretty much an entire score without needing anything else.
Anyhow, it's not that the need to change actual duration never comes up for most people, but just very often. And again, with split and join, you can usually avoid needing the dialog at all.