Create Palette of Custom Fretboard Diagrams?

• Jun 14, 2019 - 01:51

Somehow I've gotten the impression this can be done, but I don't see how.

Comments

• Jun 14, 2019 - 03:33

From:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/fretboard-diagrams#creating-modifie…
It states:
"Custom diagrams can be saved to a custom palette if desired for future use."

For custom palette, see:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/palettes#custom-palettes
It states:
"To add an existing score element (such as a line, text, dynamic, fretboard diagram etc.) to a custom palette:
•Press and hold Ctrl+Shift (Mac: Cmd+Shift), then drag the symbol onto the palette."

If you do not have a custom workspace (with custom palettes), see:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/workspaces#create-custom-workspace
It states:
"The Basic and Advanced workspaces are preset and cannot be changed by the user. However, MuseScore allows you to create your own workspaces which are fully editable."
...and then shows 5 steps how to create one.

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 13:15

>> Press and hold Ctrl+Shift (Mac: Cmd+Shift), then drag the symbol onto the palette." <<

Thanks, jm: that's what I was missing.

I must say, I'm not a fan of these actions that have no visible presence in the user interface. Keyboard shortcuts are great, but I think they should always be accompanied by a menu option. In this case, an option on the shortcut menu obtained by right-clicking the keyboard diagram seems the obvious choice.

I appreciate your help!

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 14:03

To make MuseScore completely accessibility friendly (usable by a blind person), you should be able to work without a mouse at all. When it comes to things like customization, that is not as important as the ability to edit the fretboard diagram, which is now in the process of being made easier for a blind person than it was in 2.x since they can now select the fretboard diagram, switch to the inspector and have access to the diagram pieces. There needs to be a little more work to make it possible to edit the diagram without a mouse though.

You need to be aware that there are things that have no menu equivalent. Moving items to a custom palette is currently one of those things that is not possible. When you create a custom palette, what do you name it? (forgive me I'm brainstorming) If you have 50 custom palettes how do you tell MuseScore which palette you want your item moved to? Perhaps something like

right click
Copy to custom palette
You get a pop up that says "Select destination palette" and stays up until you either click a legal palette or click cancel in the dialog is what you have in mind. Also allow the user to press F1 to open the handbook page where this is explained using both ctrl+shift+drag and the right click method.

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 14:30

>>
right click
Copy to custom palette
You get a pop up that says "Select destination palette" and stays up until you either click a legal palette or click cancel in the dialog
<<
Something like that, yeah; although I'm not able to think of another action that causes a popup to be displayed while the user goes off somewhere else to click something. Can you think of an example of that?

Could instead present a menu of all custom palettes consisting of fretboard diagrams. (Can you have more than one?) Then default to adding the new diagram (in a new square), but provide the option for the user to click instead over an existing diagram (to replace it).

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 15:00

You can put anything you want in any custom palette. This is a good thing, because it may be useful to someone to create a palette with 10 mostly unrelated items they use constantly to avoid switching palettes for every item. Someone else may have different palettes for their 6 string guitar, 6 string guitar using drop D tuning, their 6 & 7 course lutes, ukulele and mandolin.

MuseScore provides a lot of flexibility for the user.

I can't think of anything MuseScore does like what I described. I just couldn't think of any other way to put this in the right click menu and have it make sense to the user. Without feedback it would be as useful as ctrl+shift+drag (the current only method) and far more frustrating because the user would need to know what is going on and have a way to get out of move to palette mode. No feedback would require the user to read the manual or ask what's going on in these forums and that's what you want to avoid. I learned how to use the program by reading the manual and at times fixing the manual because it was either inaccurate or out of date. I realize reading manuals is now frowned upon, so there are attempts to make this less necessary, although it's still the best way to learn how to use the program.

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 19:15

Back to the menu of palettes idea: all of the palettes in the standard workspaces have names, so I assume that a name is one of the things you have to supply when creating a custom palette. So if they all have names, Musescore could simply drop down a list of the palette names plus some kind of (Cancel) choice. Once a palette were selected, it could be given a bold outline or some such and the cursor placed somewhere within it as a starting destination. Cancelling at that point could be done by clicking anywhere outside the highlighted palette.

Even though the latter action wouldn't be "documented" in the UI, I'm pretty sure it would be the first thing I'd try, as a user, if I wanted to change my mind.

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• Jun 14, 2019 - 22:46

>> the new item is always added to the end, and it should stay this way. <<

Reason?

I can see that being an annoying limitation if I'm building a palette of fret diagrams (as I discover the need for each), and want them organized either by chord name or chord type (for example).

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• Jun 14, 2022 - 04:22

You have to press and hold Cmd & Shift starting before the drag, and depending on your system you might need to hold it the entire time. Also, on systems other than macOS, it's Ctrl instead of Cmd, so perhaps try that. It definitely works in general, but hard to way without standing next to you what might be going wrong.

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• Mar 31, 2020 - 22:55

Don't feel bad. Been using Musescore for years. I decided to learn the guitar. I started to make scores with fretboards. It took me two days until I found this post on how to add a custom fret to a pallet. Somehow I skipped the instructions to hold down command and shift. Uggg two days!!! lol

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• Sep 1, 2021 - 00:09

Man this was needlessly hard to figure out. I feel you here.

Logically, this should be included in the context menu. It's not even in the keyboard shortcuts in the app preferences.

This app has gotten a lot better in terms of usability since I first encountered it, but man it's hostile to new or infrequent users. The docs are pretty impenetrable as well :-L

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• Sep 1, 2021 - 03:35

Feel free to propose a design that you feel would be subjectively more intuitive to you personally, and then if enough others agree, it could potentially be adopted.

Meanwhile, since this thread was started a couple of years ago, palette customization has been simplified greatly. See for instance the nice big "Add Palettes" button at the top of the palette that wasn't there a while back. And items can now be moved between palettes by simply dragging, which seems pretty intuitive to most people I think. Only the command to add from the score is hard to discover, but that's where the Handbook comes in.

Realistically, it's just not reasonable to expect all esoteric / advanced feature to show up in context menus - they are deliberately kept streamlined precisely for the benefit of new or infrequent users - to avoid overwhelming them with too much information. But that's also why there is a free Handbook, and a free Support forum :-).

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