help entering notes from keyboard

I'd like to enter the notes shown in the attached file into a blank measure.

There are two tied 1/8th notes, followed by 2 normal 8th notes followed by two quarter notes.

If I press: 4 b s a ESC g

Then it enters a B slured to an A, the ESC disables the slur for the next note, but then g, changes the A to a G.
Is this the expected behavior?

However, if I press: 4 b s a ESC g RIGHT g
Then it enters a quarter note for the g, because moving the cursor to the right changed the default duration of the impending note. Is this a bug? Should "4 b s a ESC RIGHT" have the effect of undoing the 4?

What is the correct way to turn off slur for the next note and advance the cursor to enter the next note?

I would really like to be able to enter notes by the keyboard without having to take my eyes off the paper score which I'm trying to capture.