Lose focus on delete
At the moment, if one selects a note and deletes it, the program loses focus. It would be very useful if stayed focused on the resulting rest rather than losing focus.
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Agreed, and this is already implemented for the next release :-)
In reply to Agreed, and this is already by Marc Sabatella
Goody! That's one of my most predictable aggravations.
Is this a general fix? Will the next release also keep track of my current position when I delete ties or slurs, or edit lyrics, or just hit Escape once too often?
In reply to Goody! That's one of my most by Seamas
Well, no - that's deliberate. It would be unusual and for many people undesired to have a program select something else automatically after clicking an element and presisng Delete. After clicking an element to select it, pressing Delete should delete it, and a second press (perhaps accidental) generally does nothing in msot programs. The only time where multiple presses of Delete would delete multiple elements one at a time is in a mode where there is a "cursor", so deleting an element moves the cursor to another element. This is what we tried to emulate with the change I mentioned, but cursors only apply to notes and rests. There is no concept of a cursor for slurs, etc.
In reply to Well, no - that's deliberate. by Marc Sabatella
Okay, I guess we're talking apples and oranges here. I can see why you wouldn't want a note or rest to immediately get focus after deleting a tie or lyric or hairpin or other anchored element, but MuseScore seems to lose all idea of my position in the score.
If I escape out of note entry to delete a slur or something, then when I hit "n" again I'm thrown back to the beginning of the page, or sometimes to the beginning of the score. If I hit Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Right I'm positioned to the starting clef as if I'd hit Ctrl-Home; Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Left moves me to the end bar like Ctrl-End. I'd expect MuseScore to at least remember what measure I was on, even if it doesn't automatically give focus to a note or rest. I see similar behavior when deleting other anchored elements.
What I'd like to see is that if I delete something anchored to a note or a measure, then hitting the left or right arrow keys (or at least Ctrl-Left or Ctrl-Right) will result in the focus going to a note at least somewhere near where I was working. At the moment, if I delete something, I apparently have to use the mouse to get back to where I was.
In reply to Okay, I guess we're talking by Seamas
You are supposed to click somewhere to tell MuseScore where you wish to begin note input - otherwise it has to guess. Remembering where you last clicked something would be one way to guess, but it's likely to be wrong an awfully lot. Like if you deleted something, then scrolled 50 measures later intending to enter some notes, then forgot to click something, then pressed "N" - you'd be thrown back to that spot where you deleted something 50 measures ago. Right now MuseScore assumes you want to start somewhere within the current view if you have nothing selected, which is a whole lot better than jumping to some random place.
If you are seeing yourself thrown to the beginning of the score upon pressing "N", it must be because you *do* have something selected there.
But indeed, it would be nice if the cursor motion commands had a simialr logic where they would try to select something reasonable. Right now it's only note input that does that logic.
In reply to You are supposed to click by Marc Sabatella
I've only been thrown clear to beginning of score a couple of times, so maybe that was my own error. But the usual effect is that I'm thrown to the first bar of the current page, which isn't all that satisfactory. I prefer to work from the keyboard as much as possible without resorting to the mouse.
One common circumstance for me is that I've placed a note or phrase a beat or so off where it should be. I select notes from the keyboard, press Ctrl-X, and then have to click almost exactly where I was just working to paste back in. If MuseScore would remember even an approximate position, so that using the arrow keys would put focus on a nearby note, my mouse use would be greatly reduced.
I'll write up a feature request that MuseScore make a "best guess" about how to respond to left and right arrows in situations like this.
In reply to I've only been thrown clear by Seamas
Well, as I said, it's already the case for the next release that if you delete a note, the underlying rest is selected. I hadn't thought about this use case, but I just tried it and it does work very well. So you can do cut and paste of notes & rests using keyboard only.