Selecting just part of chords with shift-drag
I find myself in this situation fairly frequently. I might have a bunch of chords, and want to select just the top few notes of each of the chords, and cut and past those notes to a different staff. (Or even just delete them.)
I can shift drag, which seems to select the notes (see image 1), but then when I release, it selects the whole chords (see image 2). I do know that it's possible to have the kind of selection I want because I can control click each of the note heads individually to build it (see image 3).
Why isn't the default behavior with shift-drag to create a selection of the elements that are highlighted while I'm dragging?
| Attachment | Size |
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| Screenshot from Screencast from 2025-03-06 12-22-58.webm - 1.png | 251.27 KB |
| Screenshot from Screencast from 2025-03-06 12-22-58.webm - 2.png | 297.96 KB |
| Screenshot from Screencast from 2025-03-06 12-22-58.webm - 3.png | 284.79 KB |
Comments
> "Why isn't the default behavior with shift-drag to create a selection of the elements that are
> highlighted while I'm dragging?"
Because this program isn't written that way.
A Shift+drag works the same as clicking one note, then Shift+clicking on another: these action multi-select from the first note clicked or dragged over to the last, including all notes between. And the notes in a chord are stored sequentially in the file.
In reply to > "Why isn't the default… by TheHutch
For a more detailed explanation read this section of the handbook https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/selecting-elements and note in particular the difference between a list selection and a range selection. The former is what you get when you add elements to a selection with CTRL+Click, the latter what you get with SHIFT+Click or SHIFT+ Drag.
In reply to For a more detailed… by SteveBlower
Yeah, I did read that section, and I suppose that's the crux of it: why not make shift drag do a list selection? That would give the user an additional, useful tool, one that complements the shift click.
Because at the moment the only way to get a list selection of the top 2 notes of those chords is a huge pain: control clicking 12 times.
In reply to Yeah, I did read that… by MarcEvanstein
(I feel especially strongly that this should be the case given the way that musescore previews the selection you are creating during the dragging process. It's currently misleading the user.)
In reply to (I feel especially strongly… by MarcEvanstein
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/25028 which I think covers what you are hoping for