Capo Element UI issues persist from MuseScore 4.1 to 4.2
I mentioned the following capo element issues in a post shortly after MuseScore 4.1 was released.
I expected the bolded issues (below) would be easy fixes and appear in v4.2 ... but they are all extant.
The main problem is that the capo element cannot be selected, deleted or moved ... and its default location is pretty tight to the staff.
Additionally, because the capo element goes on the clipboard (along with notation, text, etc.) I also found it complicating simple copy/paste editing. In the first measure of a piece I had a complex guitar chord with split voicing. It was a repeating phrase I want to copy and paste it many times. But since the capo element came with the bar of notation I had to wrestle with MuseScore.
• I deleted the initial chord in measure one (which was on the first eighth note)
• then copied the remainder of measure 1
• then I had to prepare the destination measure by setting the full measure rest to an eight note
• then I could selected the second eight and, huff puff, finally paste
• but still I had to reconstruct the initial complex guitar chord with split voicing
Sure would have been simpler after the paste to simply delete the capo element. Come on MuseScore 4.3!
Capo element issues
• No support yet for a full capo + a partial capo, or multiple partial capos
... or a mix of full capo and one or more partial capos.
• Singe-clicking the capo element opens it, so there's no option to select and delete it.
• Similarly there’s no option to move the element from its default position, because
clicking to drag opens it.
• Double-clicking the capo element quickly toggles its dialog opened and closed.
I'd recommend double-clicking to open the element, and single clicking to drag or select.
• Weirdly there’s no OK/Apply options. Just Escape or click outside of the dialog to dismiss it.
(Seems mobile design leaking into the desktop domain.)
• As mentioned under pros, there’s an option to enter a capo description manually,
after pasting unfortunately there’s a typing limit of 40 chars.
But after closing the capo element dialog the displayed text only only 35(?) chars show.
The manual description affords no option for line breaks
(despite the default description displaying on two lines.)
scorster
Comments
I responded in the issue, but to be clear, you absolutely can delete, move, or otherwise work with the selected element despite the presence of the popup. You can also set the default position however you like - adjust one as desired, then use "Save as default style for this score" in Properties. It does seem, however, that there is no dedicated Capo section in the Style dialog, that seems an oversight worth opening an issue for.
In reply to I responded in the issue,… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Mark!
I responded to your Github comments.
My closing thought on Github reply was that perhaps we need another Mac user to weigh in on the Capo element behavior. Here on my Mac the method of selecting and opening the Capo dialog seems at serious odds with MuseScore's overarching UI/UX.
Just to be clear:
• On your system a click selects the Capo element without opening its dialog?
• Can you drag the capo element when its unselected?
scorster
In reply to Thanks Mark, I responded to… by scorster
Clicking opens the popup, that's entirely by design. The whole point is to make the settings easier to discover and access, without requiring one to use the Properties panel. If the popup didn't popup that would defeat the point.
Nothing you describe is Mac-specific. All behaviors are exactly identical to what they would be without the popup, with only one minor exception - a second click is required if you wish to drag the element. That should not be a common operation given there are so many superior ways of adjusting position of elements.
In reply to Clicking opens the popup,… by Marc Sabatella
Mark wrote> Clicking opens the popup, that's entirely by design. The whole point is to make the settings easier to discover and access ...
Is this all to avoid looking "all 2005" with fully functional modal dialogs, like Format>Style? Or is it based on some serious foresight into making MuseScore mobile.
Clearly it's easier to open a popup dialog because a single click is literally half the effort of a double click. But in so many ways, clicking the Capo popup is like a scene from Wallace and Gromit. The convenience comes back to bite.
If double-clicking the Capo element opened an old-school modal/modeless dialog (or even the current popup) I wouldn't have encountered any confusion or inconvenience. So I'm not sure I get your point the inspector ... except that MuseScore 4 seems hell bent on Inspectorizing everything—and it has a seemingly needless aversion to dialogs, which has increased over time. As stated my main complaints with the popup are that there's no option to Cancel, and there's not option to move the popup.
And here's a rocky part of the ride. The Capo popup is apparently anchored to the right edge of the element's text. So as the element's text expands or contract—depending on the settings—we play Whack-a-Mole with the buttons. Anchoring the popup to the left side of the text would cure that. Was this really all about maintaining visual surveillance of the text changes, or was it just a UX oversight?
I keep wondering if popups are mobile design creeping into the desktop milieu ... and I'm too old school to appreciate it. So move over grampa, right?
scorster
In reply to Mark wrote> Clicking opens… by scorster
I don't think it's about "looking" any particular way - unlike previous version of MuseScore where the interface was designed by people who know C++ programming but little about design, MU4 has a full-time dedicated team of design professionals. So, I can't speak to any specific decisions made regarding specific elements, but in general, rest assured it's based on sound understanding of user interface design. I don't know that looking ahead to mobile has had anything to do with it, but it's certainly possible.
Now, if there are glitches in certain details the design, like weird things happening of the text gets longer than anyone had expected the text to get, by all means, report them. But the design itself seems solid and very usable.
BTW, the move from modal dialog to always-available panels that update live started with MuseScore 2 and is a fantastic thing by any possible measure. Modal dialogs are hard to discover, don't update the score dynamically, and block you from doing any other work from being done while changing parameters. That's why for the past 9 years, each release has ma naged to move more functionality out of those awkward modal dialogs and make it more easily usable. The work isn't done - things like time signature properties, for example, still require modal dialogs - but yes, there would be no reason to return to dark ages of everything requiring modal dialogs.