I constantly encounter two problems when re-spacing notes with the Measure Tool beat charts:
1. I cannot use the arrow keys for exact re-positioning, since one can only select and hold with the mouse.
2. I cannot select and hold more than one square at a time, so that groups of tones cannot be re-positioned at the same time, which is laborious and inaccurate.
Of course, I can do both of these things with the Note Position Tool, but there are many cases where this is not practical.
Hi John and all,
Great discussion on how to improve editing of beat charts. I follow a similar workflow to what John outlined. I've documented all these suggestions as FIN-5186. I know many users would significantly benefit from improved editing of music spacing as well as locking user edits from automatic changes by the application. Thank you again for the discussion,
Cheers,
Michael Johnson
VP, Professional Notation
MakeMusic
Hi John. To your 2nd point, you can move multiple notes by holding SHIFT (not sure if it's the same on Mac) and dragging. All notes to the right of the initial note get moved.
How often do you use the beat-chart? To be honest, I haven't found much use of beat-chart spacing as note spacing clears changes made using it.
I like your suggestion of using the arrow keys to re-position beats. It would be nice as well to be able to define the increment of a single nudge: 1/4 space, 1/2 space, 3/4 space, 1 space, etc. Another thing that might be useful is actually being able to select multiple beats, as you suggest, and select an "offset" at which to space them: Select a range, right-click, choose space at [desired increment]. Also, If there were a sense of permanency to changes made using the beat-chart like manual positioning, I would definitely find it more useful.
Hi George. Thanks so much for pointing that out! I have learned so much by contributing to the various notation forums, and yours is one of the best tips because I do use the beat charts extensively since I am moving multiple layers. I use the note spacing command on the whole score first, then turn off automatic note spacing, then do the final spacing by hand using the beat charts and the Note Position Tool, never again using the note spacing command, for the reason you mentioned.
I second your other thoughts and suggestions on this subject. The Beat Chart can certainly be improved.
The advantage of using the beat chart is that you will get all the notes on a specific beat in a score perfectly aligned horizontally. With Special Tools note position you don't get that.
Then, I really like the idea of being able to select beats/notes in the beat chart and move them with the arrows. Please, MM!
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