Request Brackets and staff spacer down & up feature be auto-selected when chosen from palette
Presently, when staff spacer up or down (from the Breaks & Spacers palette) is double-clicked to create a new spacer, the newly created element is not active; after creating it you have to double-click the new element to use it (by dragging the box/handle). The same applies to newly created brackets from the Brackets palette.
The logic being, there are few instances where you would create these items and not immediately want to grab the handles and edit the element. And, if you didn't, then simply clicking any other element or blank space would un-select it anyway.
And a somewhat related observation: if you create a hairpin from the Lines palette, it isn't auto-selected, but if you create it using the keyboard < or > shortcut, it is. Not really a problem, just wondering why the difference?
Thanks,
Comments
Not really sure about the history of things, but I do know that most things added from the palette get added via the same piece of code. That is, whether you are adding a hairpin or a fermata or key signature, some of the same code is involved. So there is some amount of consistency to be expected from element type to element type as a result of this fact, and since most palette elements don't have a special edit mode, it probably doesn't make sense to try to put elements in edit mode automatically when added in this way. Whereas for those few elements that can be added by keyboard shortcut, this is already done differently for each element type.
That's more an implementation-based excuse than a good user-based reason, though. We *do* special case some things, and could probably do more. For some things like spacers, it's pretty obvious that 99% of the time you will want to edit it after adding, so that's kind of a no-brainer. For others like fingering, there is ongoing debate over what makes the most sense, with some people arguing one way and others the opposite way.
Ultimately I'd like to see us add the ability to define keyboard shortcuts for *any* palette element - or at least, *some* method of applying them all by keyboard alone. As part of that expansion of the palette mechanism, I could imagine flags to control whether the new element is selected and whether it is placed into edit mode. Something to consider. Thinking about these issues - mostly about the keyboard control - is on my personal to-do list. Hoping to find the time soon to look at this, if no one else steps in first...
In reply to Not really sure about the by Marc Sabatella
If it would be a major effort to make a small list of elements different from the rest, I would think that the developers efforts could be better spent elsewhere. (This is, after all, only a minor inconvenience in the great scheme of things.) But if the effort is minor, your 2nd & 3rd paragraphs make a lot of sense for making this happen.
Thanks,