Icons next to categories in the Palette

• Jul 21, 2022 - 01:04

I tried to search for this topic to see if it had been discussed before, (apologies if it has been covered ad nauseam) but the searches that came up were mostly related to customizing the icons within the menu once a category has been opened. I stumbled upon someone else’s suggestion of this idea in a post when searching to see if alphabetical listings were a possibility:

https://musescore.org/en/node/105766 the post by cadiz1 on April 13 2016

The idea would be to replace the arrow next to the category (e.g. > Clefs) with an image (e.g. image of a clef next to the clef category). Personally, I think this would be a much more immediate signal to the brain for locating the desired category.

Although I am a beginner using notation software, I was surprised to see that even some of the veteran users posting Musescore tutorials were struggling to find the relevant category in the Palette: “To do that we go to Dynamics...” (mouse scrolls a few times through the Palette list) “... ah, yes, there it is, Dynamics...”


Comments

I have inserted an image roughly depicting what the palette icons might look like. It is only a quick mock-up using screenshots of the very small icons from within the Musescore Palette, and so the images aren’t very sharp. However, I think that the icons look good, and that they would be acceptable to a lot of users. Perhaps there could be the option to show/hide the icons so that everyone can be pleased.

Attachment Size
Palette icons mock-up.jpg 34.5 KB

In reply to by Dilaco

@Dilaco
I agree that your icons do convey useful information, a great idea!

Another suggestion: clicking either the icon or the Palette title should open up the contents of that palette. In MS3, only clicking on the arrowhead opens up the palette- and clicking on the palette title does nothing!
IMHO that was a backward step from the previous design in MS2, where clicking on either the arrow or the title would open the palette.

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