Shortcut Management and Shortcut Lists
The main focus of my summer project for MuseScore is shortcut management. MuseScore is used by a vast array of users who use different operating systems, input languages and keyboard layouts. As a result, in many cases, there are conflicts in the default keyboard shortcuts. With a shortcut management system, I aim to resolve these conflicts. The basic idea of the shortcut management system is detecting the user’s keyboard layout and then appropriately loading a list of default keyboard shortcuts to avoid any conflicts. This means that different keyboard layouts will have different lists of keyboard shortcuts. The software now runs a startup wizard that asks users to input their keyboard layouts and then automatically chooses the required shortcut list. There is also a new functionality to save and load shortcut lists where users can customize their shortcuts in the preferences menu and save these customizations as xml files on their computer. It is therefore easy to create custom shortcut lists. Subsequently, they can load these files as they please. All these features will eliminate keyboard shortcut conflicts.
The main developer challenge lies in creating shortcut lists for different keyboard layouts and operating systems. Presently, different shortcut lists are maintained for Mac and Windows systems. Therefore, each shortcut list for a particular keyboard layout will have multiple versions depending on the OS. It is nearly impossible for a developer to create shortcut lists that cover all possible conflicts for different keyboard layouts. It is with this in mind, that I request the MuseScore community to contribute shortcut lists for different keyboard layouts.
If you use a keyboard layout which is not US QWERTY, follow the following steps
1. Download recent nightly {link}
2. Customize shortcuts in Preferences > Shortcuts
3. Save the shortcut file and attached it in a comment
4. List the changes you made, your language, OS, and keyboard layout in the same comment
Comments
a rather special case.
I run Ubuntu 17.04 with French BÉPO keyboard. As you see in http://bepo.fr/wiki/Accueil the UNDERSCORE is given by AltGr+SPACE
UNDERSCORE is used by Musescore to trigger a melism line.....but the one given by the above mentioned keyboard just act as SPACE. The turn around is to modify the configuration files by switching UNDERSCORE with the long dash located in AltGr+"8"
On another hand, and whichever the keyboard, as a Frenchman I think "do ré mi...." and the note shortkeys "A B C..." are not significant for me. An easier disposition is to use the 15 keys of the central line for the succession of notes, thus allowing redundance.
In reply to a rather special case. I run by robert leleu
Can you provide a shortcuts.xml for this?
For German (and some other languages) I'd like to have H being the shortcut for the note B, as that's the name in German, ideally B then would be the shortcut for Bb (again, in German), but the current system doesn't allow for this unfortunatly.
In reply to Can you provide a by Jojo-Schmitz
If you believe it makes sense, add a shortcut for Bb ?
In reply to If you believe it makes by [DELETED] 5
Well, we don't have a shortcut for e.g. Eb, so no real need fo have one for Bb I guess.
Except for the slight confusion that when typing B you get H...
In reply to Well, we don't have a by Jojo-Schmitz
Why not allow for the option of every note having a shortcut? It doesn't have to be defined by default. This would make it a single to enter (e.g.) G# in the key of F. Might as well include possibility of both G# and A-flat, but I wouldn't bother with B# or E# unless you really want to.
In reply to Why not allow for the option by mike320
Because single keystroke shortcuts are prety restricted? We only have 24 letters available and the vast majority is taken already
In reply to Because single keystroke by Jojo-Schmitz
I consider any key combination that can be entered at once a single key. Simply allow for entering any note using the keyboard, but don't define them. The user can then define his own shortcuts with any combination of keys he wants. You would want to define B as B-flat and H as B-natural for German note entry. An American might want to define B-flat using something like alt-shift-B (I haven't checked for conflicts with predefined shortcuts). I could define every flat note as alt-shift-note and every sharp note as ctrl-shift-note. If there are conflicts I can redefine the other shortcuts if I even use them. A French user may want to use something that makes more sense for their note names, which A, B, C... definitely do not.
I created a post on the french forum to gather comment on a shortcuts.xml for AZERTY: https://musescore.org/fr/node/238786
In reply to I created a post on the by [DELETED] 5
Do you want a Sheet Music?