Some quick observations about 4.02
Hadn't checked upon the progress of MuseScore4 since about a year ago, but with a quick 5 minute session I noticed the following
1) Score creation: Tabbing into Title/Composer/Subtitle information fields doesn't work but skips to "Cancel" button
2) No page-width shortcut exists anymore (useful for resetting after zooming-in/out)
3) Backspace key only works on first occurrence, doesn't delete further (didn't last year either, apparently not considered too important since undo ctrl-z offers similar functionality)
4) Noticeable lag going from selection of a rest to a note in playback and highlighting. It's only about 1/3 of second but that's enough for me to [feel it] which doesn't occur in MS3
5) Palette search -- initialization takes about 2-3 seconds on my machine, as well as cancelling. That's too bad.
6) Shortcut: no "Apply Current Palette Element" (or most recently used/topmost) shortcut available. That became a staple to using MuseScore 3 a few years back. Too bad to see it missing.
7) Access menus via Alt+[letter], then do something like update a shortcut. After saving the shortcut, the focus is still on the menu, requiring another [alt] rather than automatically focusing upon the score. Not that important, but felt kind of corny for an application to do that.
8) Shift+[0-9] shortcuts don't work for me. It's not a shift problem in itself: shift+V works for the stress, but a [shift+1] which registers as a [!] doesn't actually work. This is a regression also of course, and fwiw a big problem for someone like myself.
That all doesn't sound like much, and it's not, but those alone makes me unwilling to try to use MS4 for note entry work. Good luck with all the (hopefully) progress going on, if anyone reads this!
Comments
Ad 1) The navigational possibilities have been extended in MU4.
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/accessibility#navigating-ui
So in 'Project Properties' with Down from 'Work Title' to 'Source' and the File icon (press Space to open). Then with TAB to OK, Down to 'New property' Down to 'Cancel', Down to 'OK'. etc. Up works the other way around.
Notice the difference in categories where it makes sense to press Tab.
ad 5) https://github.com/orgs/musescore/discussions?page=9
ad 6) An important omission especially for reasons of accessibility.
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/13281
ad 7) Explore the workings of pressing F6 and the shifts in focus.
In reply to Ad 1) The navigational… by MichLeon
Thanks for bringing point 1) and 7) to my attention.
[Properties panel]:
9) In drop-down menu of font-selection, [A-Z] doesn't seem to work for quick navigation. Actually ended up inputting a note onto the score after pressing two letters, which seems kind of crazy...
Nor, after selecting a font, does Up/Down traverse the list.
However, font selection in style settings seems to work as expected with [A-Z] + arrows.
10) Maybe this is to be slightly expected, but opening a file initially created from version 3.6 and performing changes for much longer than the auto-save timeout definition never once actually auto-saved, and a crash occurred when pressing a few buttons in the properties panel - result: back to square one. Maybe a warning about this would be in order if that's the reason why it didn't auto-save...
11) Page width view doesn't center and fill the screen for a score properly like in 3.6 with the [Limit scroll area to page borders] plus [Vertical] view on, still get borders showing above and to the side, which is a waste of screen real-estate:
![pagewidth borders.png]( "pagewidth borders.png")
12) Minimum frame size (circle/square for text) is forced at 0.10sp it seems, whereas MS3 allows for 0.0x. Forcing in this instance seems a loss rather than a safeguard.
13) Feels kind of lame to have to press the ... expansion to [save as default], especially if there are like 4 attributes that each need this, albeit hopefully only has to be performed once and for all. MS4 loses some feeling of 'slickness' here. Maybe a save all attributes easily accessed would make up for the extra work, but maybe that'd go against the new design specifications for which the design team was aiming.
...On the flip side, having a [styles settings] button for certain items directly through the properties panel is nice.
14) Another annoyance: Properties panel when placed on opposite side instead of as a tab with the palettes will lose this setting when closed and re-opened. As with MS3 on my machines, there is a slight lag that is incurred with the properties (or inspect in 3) open while traversing score/note-entry, and in MS4 this same lag exists. Closing it removes the lag, so using a keyboard shortcut to open/close it on demand is nice, but here in MS4 it doesn't re-appear in the same location as when previously viewed, but again as a tab with the palette, forcing the user to acclimate to one position for now if doing this often.
15) Search palette command (shortcut) doesn't bring focus onto the palette tab, so if the properties panel tab is active, the command appears to do nothing, yet it is taking keyboard input "secretly". Especially bad since 14) has the properties panel in the same pane by default after closing/opening.
16) Seems like having more than one shortcut for a command isn't 'officially' supported anymore. Was useful in 2.x-3.x.
17) Shortcuts lack "Escape" command, unlike MS3:
![cmd_escape.png]( "cmd_escape.png")