Touchscreens, graphics tablets and notation

2008-09-13 11:37 am

Hi all,

After having a break from noteworthy-style notation input (i.e. arrow keys up/down + enter), I was thinking, has anyone else thought of the possibilities of using a touchscreen/graphics tablet with noteworthy? I reckon it would be more natural to new users, but it would be interesting to see whether it is any faster.

Touch screens may become more popular in the "near" future, with systems such as Microsoft Surface and technologies such as multi-touch being implemented. (therefore a higher proportion of users may have access to touchscreen features)

Anyway, that's just throwing it out there. Currently I believe that the best way to use a tablet with noteworthy is to "right-click" on the spot of the note, then "left-click" on "note", which actually proves to be quite intuitive... (the tablet I'm currently using tracks the location of the pen even when it is not touching the surface, so effectively each spot on the tablet is mapped to a spot on screen. The button is the right click, and the tap is the left click, so to place a note I push the button then tap down, hitting the note button due to my unsteady hand)

I suppose the main weakness would be the need to change note durations... maybe if some handwriting recognition software for musical notation existed...

Any other ideas on pros and cons?

Re: Touchscreens, graphics tablets and notation

Reply #1 – 2008-09-13 11:44 am

I tried it, and it's not too difficult to do with my pad.
I found it difficult to right-click on the spot of the note. I think that if this were really to be accustomed for, there would have to be a feature where you can just tap on the spot of the note, and it would be added. I did it by clicking on the spot of the note and then pressing Enter.
Note durations are no problem, you can just tap up on the toolbar on the note duration boxes.
The main other issue I found was barlines. Unless the tablet's pen has some sort of programmable key to use for Tab...