Synthesizer panel — interface suggestion
In previous versions of MuseScore, soundfonts could be managed by going to the Window menu and selecting Synthesizer. There you could browse to locate a chosen soundfont file and use it for playback and audio export.
In the MuseScore 2.0 betas so far, the Synthesizer panel can be found under the View menu. When you click the Add button, you might expect to be able to add a soundfont from a location on your computer. But you can't. A search through the manual explains that you can only use soundfonts placed in a specific folder ahead of time, which can be managed through MuseScore Preferences.
Nothing wrong with that. But my suggestion is this: when you click Add, and the window with the list of soundfonts appears, there should be some text in that window. Or a tooltip should appear on hovering over the window, or the Add button.
It needs to say something like this: "Soundfonts must be placed in a designated soundfont folder. Soundfont folders can be managed in the Paths section of the General preferences pane."
Alternatively, there should be a Help button somewhere around the place with a link to the relevant page of the manual.
Comments
I think because I went into so much detail nobody actually read what I wrote. Here's the main point:
In the Synthesizer window, the button to "Add" soundfonts doesn't work the way it did in MuseScore 1.x. There needs to be a Help button, a tooltip, or something, explaining.
The text could say something along the lines of "Soundfonts must be placed in a designated soundfont folder. Soundfont folders can be managed in the Paths section of the General preferences pane."
In reply to I think because I went into by Isaac Weiss
Not a bad idea, but then, one could say the same about a hundred other dialogs and buttons - it would be nice if they had context help available. For now, though, I think the best we can hope for is good documentation in Handbook.
A context help system might make an interesting Google Summer of Code project, especially if combined with other "beginner mode" ideas that have been tossed about over the years. Remember "Clippy" from Microsoft Word?
In reply to Not a bad idea, but then, one by Marc Sabatella
That might be the intent of a Help button—it would simply link to the appropriate page of the Handbook. But I'm looking at this not as a beginner, but as a composer who knows my way around MuseScore 1.3 really well, and I thought the soundfont manager was broken at first. There's a serious missing link there, connecting two entirely different segments of the interface.
In reply to That might be the intent of a by Isaac Weiss
Whether you needed help because you are accustomed to a previous version or because you are a beginner seems immaterial to me. Either way, help would be a good thing. I just don't see what makes this particular case so special - again, there are hundreds of places where for whatever reaosn someone might need help.
In reply to Whether you needed help by Marc Sabatella
It's because it seems less like "I don't know what to do here" and more like "It's not working," that's all.