Lock notes
It is horribly easy when editing a score, to tidy up slurs, and so on, to knock a note from its rightful place. I have seen professionally published scores looking a bit like this:
A "lock notes" function would disable anything which changes the notes. For people (perhaps young ones) with perfect hand-eye coordination, perfect memory, perfect pitch, and general perfection, this might sound silly, but I think it would be very helpful to many of us.
Comments
I'm not sure how useful "lock this set of things, but not that" would be, but "lock this score, period" (can't modify it at all) would be great. Sadly, some things that are "really only looking" like changing page format or Concert/Transposed pitch, or making all invisible objects visible, modify the score.
In reply to I'm not sure how useful … by [DELETED] 1831606
I agree a "read only" mode would be useful but especially if it allowed certain "non-destructive" operations like those.
Right now, we kind of have a read-only mode - if you use the View / Score Comparison Tool, and compare against a "last saved" version, you get a tab with a read-only view of the state of the score when it was last saved. I seem to recall it was implemented as a quick hack, intercepting the command interpreter to just not allow any commands through. Probably this could be adapted to allow this to be a flag set on any score, but to then also let "some" operations through.
In reply to I agree a "read only" mode… by Marc Sabatella
Maybe a menu with a checklist of object-types you could modify -- a button for "None" would read-only them all, then you'd permit "only slurs" ... inchoate idea...
In reply to Maybe a menu with a… by [DELETED] 1831606
If you open a score which you've carefully made read-only to the file system, it should act as other editors do, i.e., prohibit modification of the score and complain if you try, unless you explicitly override.
In reply to I agree a "read only" mode… by Marc Sabatella
Well, we have the Selection Filter that can already limit by element type, but I think limiting by command is maybe more relevant. I'm not so sure there needs to be user control over this, though - could be a hard-coded list, just the things that one might be likely to want to do with a read-only score, like toggle concert pitch.
I imagine we have a similar use case in mind - making educational materials a student can browse without fear of messing up.
In reply to Well, we have the Selection… by Marc Sabatella
Well, yeah, but the OP wanted "I want to modify slurs, but not notes". I'm not sure how reasonable that is (but he/she is the OP!)
In reply to Well, we have the Selection… by Marc Sabatella
I'm a new user learning to do harmony exercises. I've got a simple course that gives me a set of notes in a cadence, and my task is to add the bass and other notes from the chord to create a pleasing harmony. It would be really useful for me to be able to lock the notes from the exercise so that they're fixed. Otherwise, what's happening is that I can't remember which notes came from the exercise and which came from me. So having user control would be extremely useful for this user.
In reply to I'm a new user learning to… by babag123
You wrote:
I can't remember which notes came from the exercise...
Consider this:
Before you harmonize anything, select all the given "set of notes in a cadence". Open the Inspector and change those exercise notes' color to, say, red. Next, proceed to enter your harmonies (as black notes).
When you are done, you can select all notes and, in the Inspector, click 'Reset to style default' to easily restore the black color.
In reply to You wrote: I can't remember… by Jm6stringer
Great, thank you
In reply to I agree a "read only" mode… by Marc Sabatella
I absolutely agree. I want to distribute a score to a bunch of non-computer-technical singers but it would be a full time job teaching them what not to do. Instead we'll have to use the online player. This is a major setback because I'm trying to come up with a way to sing together, and the additional delay through the web player may be unacceptable.
In reply to I'm not sure how useful … by [DELETED] 1831606
It would be nice to use MuseScore as an ear training device and or a part singing tutor.
I send all the singers in my choir a file that has the complete score, their parts and then a score with their part muted out. They can learn their part, practice it with other parts and or the rest of the parts they don't sing.
The ability to stop editing in these files would make it user-proof.
In reply to It would be nice to use… by SRaybourne
Note that the mobile apps are designed more for that use, so you might try that.
In reply to Note that the mobile apps… by Marc Sabatella
Can you tell me which ones you referring to?
In reply to Can you tell me which ones… by SRaybourne
There are different ones for iOS, Android, and Kindle, but if you go to the store for your particular mobile divide and search for MuseScore, you'll the one(s) offered for your device.
Not to cast anything negative on the proposal which may have use, it strikes me that any professional publication that has such an error has poor editing practises.
In reply to Not to cast anything… by xavierjazz
I don't understand what this means. Not only are only a fraction of the users of MuseScore professionals, but it is dreadfully easy for even a skilled professional to accidentally click something while scrolling or dragging or whatever and not see immediately what he or she did.
In reply to I don't understand what this… by [DELETED] 1831606
It means that if an editor let such an obvious mistake through when the low note belongs an octave above he should be fired.
In reply to It means that if an editor… by mike320
I see. As I said, most MuseScore users work for themselves.
In reply to I see. As I said, most… by [DELETED] 1831606
It seems an obvious thing to see with cursory inspection. It was not proofread. I find it difficult to believe that a professional, one who gets paid for his/her work would be so cavalier.
I too work for myself and I too make errors. However, I re-read what I write.
In reply to It seems an obvious thing to… by xavierjazz
Yes, of course it is obvious. No doubt the score was proofread, but after proofreading a note got knocked accidentally. No-one knows who knocked it, so no-one can really be fired. And anyway the real problem is that it is easy to knock a note in a way which really isn't obvious. I am just trying to suggest another tool which could help to reduce errors.
I agree that a playback/read/view-mode makes sense to have.
Aside from that, I've noticed in courses that people that frequently have this occurring are those that use the mouse to drag the view of the score. This indeed makes it easy to by chance drag the wrong thing, which indeed could be missed when doing a lot of dragging subsequently.
Once they switch to using scrolling to move around the score, most of those complaints diminish or vanish. Certainly as soon as they discover that you can scroll horizontally by holding Shift while scrolling normally.
In reply to I agree that a playback/read… by jeetee
Yes, dragging the score to get to the end. Discovering ctrl-shift-end (cmd-shift-fn-rightarrow) helped considerably to ameliorate this problem, but a read-only mode would still be very welcome.
In reply to Yes, dragging the score to… by [DELETED] 1831606
Let’s not forget: if you have completed your work and expect no further edits/revisions, in Windows you can right-click on the file name and check the option (I forget what it’s called) to lock the score. I assume apple and linux OSs have a similar option.
You can still open the score and “experiment” but if you attempt to save it the system forces you to give it a new file name.
Short of this, I can imagine a feature where you can check off the following line items selectively:
Lock notes
Lock dynamics
Lock articulations
Lock tempos
Lock lyrics
Lock staff text
Lock system text
Etc.
In reply to Let’s not forget: if you… by marty strasinger
Other editors (i.e., Emacs/Aquamacs) don't work that way. If they open a read-only file, they open it in read-only mode, and reject attempts to modify it. You can remove read-only mode, and if you try to save it, it will ask you if you want to overwrite the file system protection. If you want to experiment with a read-only file, you can remove read-only mode locally in the editor.
In reply to Let’s not forget: if you… by marty strasinger
It is called "Read-only" in Windows, and it is taking away the write permission on Linux/Mac for user, group and/or other.
Opening such a file in MuseScore shows the 'Save' icon and the File > Save option disabled
Not consistently though, after some changes and undos ... those become eneabled, but saving still doesn't wotk, a message box shows on trying this,
The following file is locked:
(filename)
Try saving to a different location.
File > Save as in same dir and under the same name is blocked by the OS then
As has already been said, it is quite easy to accidentally move an item instead of dragging the score so a read only mode would be useful.
Perhaps locking at the measure level would be practical. I rarely input a whole score in one sitting and it would be useful to lock the measures in a section that I've already completed. Of course there would need to be a means of unlocking if changes are subsequently needed.
In reply to As has already been said, it… by yonah_ag
The problems occur if the user mistakenly selects a movable item before attempting to drag the score. Therefore perhaps an option to disable drag/drop for movable items would be a better way to go than making the whole score read only. This would still allow editing/moving in all other ways than drag/drop. Could this be done just for the duration of the drag by holding down a key while dragging with the mouse? (e.g. shift + left mouse key, or does that already do something?)
(Personally, I would not miss drag and drop if it was permanently disabled; much better and accurate control of position is available via the inspector. However, some users seem to like it and each to their own.)
Regarding Ctrl+shift+End. This is useful if you want to go to the very end. However, I suggest that a more frequent use case is wanting to go to that bit that you think is somewhere around 5 or 6 pages from the end.
Dragging the score is a more intuitive way to find the place.
In reply to As has already been said, it… by yonah_ag
What if we simply disabled dragging the score? To me that's a much more effective solution to the problem os accidentally dragging elements while dragging the score.
In reply to What if we simply disabled… by Marc Sabatella
If this is not an attempt at humor, what do you mean?
In reply to If this is not an attempt at… by [DELETED] 1831606
I meant it "somewhat" seriously. It would be trivially easy to disable the score drag command. It's completely unnecessary, doesn't do anything the mouse wheel doesn't do more effectively. With score dragging disabled, people would get out of the habit of using it, and thus would no long accidentally drag elements when they are trying to drag the score because they would no longer be trying to drag the score.
Of course, there is no need to actually disable dragging, we could just strongly encourage people to stop dragging the score.
In reply to I meant it "somewhat"… by Marc Sabatella
I have very often needed to drag diagonally on the same page.
In reply to I have very often needed to… by [DELETED] 1831606
Doesn't your trackpad allow for that directly without the need to drag? I thought that was one of the features of the Mac trackpad. In any case, it still ends up being at least as efficient in most cases to simply scroll horizontally then vertically, or vice versa. I literally don't think I've dragged a score in years nor seen any benefit to being able to do so.
In reply to Doesn't your trackpad allow… by Marc Sabatella
Oh, I see, that's not dragging --- got it. No, I never ever want to grab a score and drag it. But while scrolling a score in that fashion, occasionally a finger slips (so it's no longer "two fingers") and some object is affected. Maybe the OP meant that, too.... ?
In reply to Oh, I see, that's not… by [DELETED] 1831606
Very possibly, but I was responding to a latter comment, "The problems occur if the user mistakenly selects a movable item before attempting to drag the score", which seems pretty clear.