Save and Save As dialogue boxes fail to open when Title contains colon

• May 29, 2012 - 08:25
Type
Functional
Severity
S2 - Critical
Status
closed
Project
MuseScore

In MuseScore Version 1.2, Revision 5470, on Windows 7

Sometimes, after creation of a new score, when I click on "Save" or "Save As" the Save dialogue box fails to open. If I try to close the file, the Dialogue box to ask whether to save or discard the changes appears, but when I click save there, the save dialogue again fails to open. The problem seems to happen when there is a colon (":") in the Title of the score.

Workaround: Create a new score with a different title and copy everything to the new score and save. Alternatively, save online, or don't use colons in titles.

To reproduce the problem:
File -> New
for the Title, enter (without quotes) "a b:" (Essentially, you need a word, then a space, then another word containing a colon, e.g. "Exercise 3: G major")
Next
Add piano as the instrument
Next
Choose G# as the key signature
Next
Finish
Enter one note on the score (e.g. crotchet A in the soprano)
Press the Save button
... or go to File-> Save ...or File -> Save As
....and nothing happens.... which means you can't save your work.

It took me a while to work out the colon was the problem, but now I know I can work around it. Nevertheless, a fix would be nice.

Thanks,
Yvonne

Comments

• May 29, 2012 - 09:58

I am using Windows 7, if that helps. There is no error message for me - there might be a flash of the screen, but nothing else; it's as if you never pressed save or Save As.

Regards,
Yvonne

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• May 29, 2012 - 10:03
Title Save and Save As dialogue boxes fail to open when Title contains colon in some positions; thus your score cannot be saved ⇒ Save and Save As dialogue boxes fail to open when Title contains colon thus your score cannot be saved (1.2 and 2.0)

Now that's interesting because I have just reproduced the bug on my Windows XP Pro SP3 system in 1.2

And in 2.0 R5663.

You are entering the colon in the title in the Create dialogue?

To confirm steps to reproduce

1. New - Create Score
2. Enter a Title with colon eg Bach: Prelude I
3. Next - add instrument of your choice.
4. Finish
5. Save (or Save As)

Amended title slightly

Reply

• May 29, 2012 - 12:10

>You are entering the colon in the title in the Create dialogue?
Yes, that's right - MuseScore: Create New Score

Yes, your steps are correct.

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• May 29, 2012 - 12:51
Title Save and Save As dialogue boxes fail to open when Title contains colon thus your score cannot be saved (1.2 and 2.0) ⇒ Save and Save As dialogue boxes fail to open when Title contains colon

I can't reproduce with this result - maybe a Windows exclusive? In future reports, could you list the operating system too please (see this )?

The Save As dialogue box does appear, but the colon is replaced with a slash. Seems to be the opposite problem of this: #12552: Slash appears as a colon

Could this be a critical report? Not sure.

(BTW, I removed the version from the title because the focus is on the trunk - an instruction from lasconic.)

Using MuseScore 2.0 Nightly Build (5663) - Mac 10.7.4.

Reply

• May 29, 2012 - 21:47

If you create a new score and give it a title - any title - and then choose "Save" from the menu then MuseScore will default to saving it with the file name the same as the title and the extension ".mscz" unless you explicitly give it a filename.

If your title contains a colon - or a slash, or a question-mark etc. - then Windows will not accept it as the colon is one of a number of reserved characters which are not allowed in filenames.

Reply

• May 30, 2012 - 02:37

Yes, unerquark, I understand that a colon is an invalid character in a filename, but I may still want a colon in the title appearing at the top of my score. Once I have put a colon in the title in the "create new score" dialogue box, there is no way (that I know of) to remove it from the filename. The score is completely un-savable. You said "MuseScore will default to saving it with the file name the same as the title and the extension ".mscz" unless you explicitly give it a filename." However, I am UNABLE to "explicitly give it a filename" as you suggested. The Save & Save As dialogue boxes do not open at all. MuseScore should delete the colon from the title before trying to use it as a filename to save the score. Or, at the very least, it should let me know that the colon is the problem, and allow me to remove it manually. Currently it does neither. Editing the title after it is created won't change the filename, either. It took me quite a while to work out that the reason my scores couldn't be saved is that I had used a colon in the title. I would never try to put a colon in a filename, but I did not realize the title was being used as the filename without removing the colon, and this was stopping the Save As dialogue from opening. There was not even an error message! Even if Save doesn't work with a colon, Save As needs to work to let me change the filename!

Reply

• May 30, 2012 - 13:17

Yes: some action needs to be taken on this, as obviously it is a problem with Windows.

I can identify 3 solutions
1. A warning is displayed about this issue if a colon is used in the title at the Create score stage
2. It is made impossible to enter a colon in the Ttile field in the Create Score dialogue
3. The colon is automatically removed from the filename before being sent to the Windows file-saving routine.

As a temporary measure, Windows users should be alerted to the problem in the handbook - I will work on some suitable wording to amend the current entry.

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• May 30, 2012 - 14:37

I'd opt for the 3rd choice. Other non-allowed chars /slash, questionmark etc.) should get removed too. Removed or replaced, by e.g. underscore. And this pobably is not just Windows, in Linux the / would not be allowed at least (and I guess Macs have the same restrictions as Linux?)

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• May 30, 2012 - 15:29

Don't know about all flavours of linux but in ubuntu 12.04 running MuseScore 1.2 if you create a piece called One/Two and click on "Save" it just ignores the "One/" part and offers to save it as "Two.mscz". Don't know if this is by design or by accident. Windows, it seems, doesn't even get this far.

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• May 30, 2012 - 16:45

Here is a proposal for the change to the wording in the handbook - this would ne inserted after the words "Enter the title, composer, or any other information as shown above."

Please be aware that using characters in the Title field which are restricted by your file system such as : or / may result in you being unable to save your work. If you wish to use characters like this in your title, then edit your title after score creation.

Think that fills the bill - if you guys are happy with this I will commit it to the handbook.

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• May 30, 2012 - 19:19

Being as on testing the problem does not arise in Linux, I shall make it Windowws specific

Windows users please be aware that currently using characters in the Title field which are restricted by your file system such as : or / may result in you being unable to save your work due to a bug. If you wish to use characters like this in your title, then edit your title after score creation.

If everyone is happy with this I will commit to the handbook shortly.

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