Continuous View and Long/Short Instrument Name change
Continuous View shows the "short instrument name" for each stave, if it's defined. For those that don't work with many instruments, we may delete the short names when a score is created and only leave the long name for the first system. This of course leaves the Continuous View a little bare as it shows no short staff name.
Could the way short and long names are viewed be changed to use a switch instead of checking if the text field is empty? This way, the short definition can be left alone, the "show short name" switch can be turned off, and Continuous View still has something to display?
Imported scores from 1.3 would have to be adjusted. If any instrument name field is empty, turn off the "show" switch.
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Comments
Something like this was discussed with respect to hiding instrument names for scores with one staff. I forget all the issues involved, but in the end, I guess it was decided this was not the best way to go. Not sure if continuous view is a sufficiently good reason to revisit that?
Another possibility is for continuous view to just use the long name if the short name is empty. Not ideal, perhaps, but less invasive, and I don't know that this use case is all that common.
In reply to Something like this was by Marc Sabatella
I find a UI where you need to delete the _program-generated_ info so it won't be used/displayed a bit strange. Keeping it around, but being able to switch it on/off, seems more logical.
However using the long name as a backup for display in CV would cause it's own problems. Try it and you'll see how it interferes with other things.
In reply to I find a UI where you need to by schepers
In most cases, no one needs to delete or turn off anything - that's kind of the point. Scores with only one instrument suppress both long and short names by default, although an option in style / general lets you display them anyhow. Thus, scores with one instrument do the right thing by default, and so do scores with multiple instruments. That's better then needong to delete or "turn off" names - it all works automatically. Going to a scheme where the user needed to take explicit action to avoid seeing staff names on single-instrument scores would be a step backwards, whether the action requires is deleting or turning off display of names.
As it is, it's only people trying to create non-standard scores - single instruments scores with staff names, or multi-instrument scores without - that need to take action.
Not sure what you mean about long names causing problems, or how you are suggesting I try it?
In reply to In most cases, no one needs by Marc Sabatella
Regardless of how you use MS, it's not the way I use it, and it _doesn't_ work automatically. Most of my scores are choral, either SATB or TTBB (2 or 4 staff) and piano. I will keep the long names around for the initial stave, but not for the other ones, hence the need to remove the short name. Being able to "turn off" the short instrument name using a toggle, without deleting the text, would be very helpful, and allow continuous view to use the short name. It's a very logical approach to a UI.
About using long names as an alternative in continuous view when the short name is deleted: try making the short name a long name, and then use continuous view and you will see what I mean by causing problems. CV is designed to use a short name, or a long name using multiple lines.
In reply to Regardless of how you use MS, by schepers
OK, I do see that there seems to be a formatting glitch with unusually long instrument names, but I assume that's fixable.
Anyhow, I'm not talking about ways different individuals might or might not use MuseScore - I'm talking about general conventions of music publishing. For most published music, staff names are used for multi-staff scores and not for single staff scores. I am not talking about long versus short names here; just whether names are displayed at all or not. That's the basic problem that was solved. Sure, there are exceptions, but this simple rule covers probably 90%+ of published music. And the way it is implemented in the development builds, this *does* work automatically in the standard cases; only the exceptions will require users to take explicit steps to override the default. Whether that explicit step is deleting an unwanted long or short name versus "turning it off" seems kind of irrelevant to me; I'm not seeing why one is perceived to be inherently better more logical than the other?
Inherent logical aside, though, I do agree that for this particular case - continuous view - it would be more *convenient* if the user who wishes to not display short names on their multi-staff score could turn them off rather than delete them, and thus keep them for CV.
In reply to OK, I do see that there seems by Marc Sabatella
My suggestion of using two switches to control the display of long and short part names would cover all the use cases. MS can still be "clever" about when to show/hide part names, but it would use the switches to control the names rather than making the use find the switch "hide instrument name if there is only 1 instrument" to override that behaviour.
1. New scores created with only one instrument would have both switches turned off.
2. Selecting and deleting the long or short name from on-screen would simply turn off the appropriate switch.
3. Imported 1.3 scores would be checked to see if part names exist, and the switches set appropriately.
4. Continuous View would still have something to display.
5. Can remove the "hide instrument name if there is only 1 instrument" switch.
This allows you to control part names and their display on staves from _one_ panel, using only two switches and does not require deleting the pre-defined part text, and possibly finding a switch hidden away on another panel. A much cleaner and simpler UI.
In reply to My suggestion of using two by schepers
What you suggest is more or less how it was done originally, but it was found to be not a good solution for several reasons. Again, I'm fuzzy on the details, but there were several issues with it. The main problem that I can clearly remember is, what if you create a score for one instrument - so the name is suppressed for that staff - and then add instruments later. Now you have a blank name for the first staff but names for the others. Conversely, what if you create a score for several instruments then remover all but one. There were also interaction between scores and parts to consider. Basically, a number of things were found to go wrong when using this approach that were all very nicely fixed with the new approach.
The current scheme, again, works perfectly/automatically in the most common general case - where multi-instrument scores are to be rendered with names, single-instrument scores without. It achieves the correct result in the most common cases with user intervention required ever. People who want to suppress names for multi-staff scores don't have to find or mess with that option - indeed, it wouldn't help, since it only affects single-instrument scores. People wanting to suppress staff names for multi-staff scores simply need to delete the name as they always have. Or, if we add a switch as you are suggesting, they can turn off the switch instead of deleting the name. But my point is, this should be divorced from the mechanism for controlling default visibility of staff names, since that approach was already tried and found to be wanting. The current approach of automatically suppressing staff names for single-staff scores is superior. But it can live in harmony with a switch as long as the default for the switch is always "on".