disabling the color change key shorcut?

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disabling the color change key shorcut?

2012-07-16 12:37 am

I wonder if there is a way to disable the the color change key shortcut (slash). Since it's by the the "enter" key it sometimes happens that while striking "enter" it gets unintentionally striken too, and since I type without looking too much at the screen it is only after some time that a realize all the mistakes I have done in the way... And the color cannot be changed by selecting a note and striking the black color tab. Only the stem color will change, but not the notehead. Strange... So I need to erase all the colored notes and re-enter them again, re-beam etc. Not the end of the world, but a little annoying.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #1 – 2012-07-16 01:46 am

Suggestion ...

Low-tech solution. This is going to sound like a joke, but try it anyway.

Put a piece of sticky tape or a felt pad or some similar object on your "/" key. After a few tactile trials you'll know instinctively when you're about to touch that key, and will avoid it.

Suggestion: best not to put an upside-down thumbtack there. It works, but that's an extreme fix.

Cheers,

Joe

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #2 – 2012-07-16 02:46 am

In an unused area to the right of your icons (default layout), right click and be sure Notehead is checked. That toolbar will contain various noteheads followed by an empty square on the right. Normally the leftmost notehead (ordinary note) and rightmost square will be highlighted (appear to be "sunken" and brighter). If you hit the backslash key by accident, the highlighting will disappear. Either click on that square or continue to hit the backslash until it's highlighted.

HTH

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #3 – 2012-07-16 03:46 am

It makes sense providing I have noticed the color change has occurred before entering a note. As I said, I seldom look at the screen while typing, relying on my ear and shortcut keys. So my question is if I did not notice that I have typed a colored note by mistake how will I later be able to change its color?
if you select a different color from the toolbar, there is no problem changing the color later. But if the change of color is caused by the back slash key, the note color cannot be changed, not by toolbar nor by slashback key, nor by note properties. I can't, anyway.
If it's a bug that I have discovered I want it called on my name, or better still, on my mother in law's name.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #4 – 2012-07-16 04:06 am

Google:

Quote

microsoft keyboard layout creator

You should get a link to download: Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator
In about 20 minutes of reading the help file, I was able to create, install and enable a layout that maps the backslash to nothing and remaps Ctrl+Shift+Backslash to "\"

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #5 – 2012-07-16 05:36 am

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-16 03:46 am

But if the change of color is caused by the back slash key, the note color cannot be changed, not by toolbar nor by slashback key, nor by note properties. I can't, anyway.

It can by note properties. Select the changed notes, go into note properties and select the drop down on "notehead color" to say "Default".

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #6 – 2012-07-16 08:01 am

Exactly that I did Richard, but the result was that the red notehead remained red, and on top that another head turned a little red too, mine.

Changing the keyboard set up seems a fair solution, thanks Rick

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #7 – 2012-07-16 09:12 am

Well it worked for me - but I must admit that the whole color change thing is a bit suspect.
If you select notes and then hit the \ key, you get a completely differently result to when you hit the \ key and then enter a note.

I too like Rick's idea and will also follow it up. I'm fed up with hitting that key by mistake. Too close to the shift key and is always getting accidentally hit, especially if you use more than one keyboard and so the key spaces are slightly different.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #8 – 2012-07-16 09:36 am

Yes' it's true: when you hit the back slash key or choose the red tab from the toolbar and afterwards enter a note, its color stays forever, like in the washing powder commercial. When you select a note and then change its color there are no problems changing it later to another color. Another one to the wishing list I guess.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #9 – 2012-07-16 12:46 pm

Rather than disabling the shortcut, perhaps a change of shortcut is in order...

Why not make it the | character - same key, but you need to use <shift>

As I know Eric monitors these threads perhaps he will consider such a change. I must admit, I find it an irritation too.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #10 – 2012-07-16 01:56 pm

Why not just eliminate the / shortcut. I don't imagine that the change color note is used that often Rikbel

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #11 – 2012-07-16 02:09 pm

Quote from: rikbel – 2012-07-16 01:56 pm

Why not just eliminate the / shortcut. I don't imagine that the change color note is used that often Rikbel

There was quite a lot of work and discussion some time back when it was being implemented. IIRC particularly for those who write for bells.

I imagine it is also a very good tool to have for teaching small children.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #12 – 2012-07-16 02:58 pm

Quote from: Joseph Roberts – 2012-07-16 01:46 am

Put a piece of sticky tape or a felt pad or some similar object on your "/" key. After a few tactile trials you'll know instinctively when you're about to touch that key, and will avoid it.

Hehe, it crossed my mind too.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #13 – 2012-07-16 09:00 pm

Quote from: Lawrie Pardy – 2012-07-16 02:09 pm

There was quite a lot of work and discussion some time back when it was being implemented. IIRC particularly for those who write for bells.

I imagine it is also a very good tool to have for teaching small children.

Maybe the bell ringers would find the shortcut and the teaching of children useful but I would guess that the number of users that are more inconvienced far exceeds the number of bell ringers or students. The feature would still be available for those who use it
I also type in notes by sound and have to delete more than a few and start over

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #14 – 2012-07-16 10:06 pm

Quote from: rikbel – 2012-07-16 09:00 pm

I also type in notes by sound and have to delete more than a few and start over

You should not need to delete anything because it is not the default color. Simply select the entire staff (or what looks wrong), and invoke Properties...
On the Visibility tab, change 'Item color' to Default.
On the Notes tab, change 'Notehead Color' to Default.

On my list of NWC shortcomings, this issue does not even register

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #15 – 2012-07-16 10:27 pm

Sorry Rick, I did that and it does not work like you say.
I suspect that you tried to change the color of a note after being entered on the default color. In this cases changes can be made in all directions. But if the entered note is originally created with a different color than the default color it later cannot be changed to default/black color, only the stem changes color, while the notehead remains colored.

Quote from: Rick G. – 2012-07-16 04:06 am

Google:You should get a link to download: Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

At the microsoft site where I hoped to get the software you suggested all downloads fail to start.
In the meanwhile, I'd like to suggest a quite simple solution.
I downloaded an Italian keyboard where near the enter key there is an accented "a" that is not an active shortcut in NWC. All the letters and numbers in the italian keyboard remain in the same place as in the USA keyboard, only the syntax signs are "misplaced". So you could have the Italian keyboard for entering notes , durations etc. and whenever a syntax sign is needed (like in a text or as a shortcut to staccatos, slurs etc.) you could go back to the USA keyboard by a single click. My preference would be to learn by heart where the syntax signs are on the Italian keyboard, so I'd hardly need to switch between virtual keyboards.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #16 – 2012-07-16 10:40 pm

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-16 10:27 pm

Sorry Rick, I did that and it does not work like you say.

With respect LEON, it works exactly as Rick describes.

The most important part of Rick's description for this problem is to set the "Notehead Color" to default on the <Notes> tab, not the <Visibility> tab where the rest of the note, or the entire note if there is no specific notehead colour, is affected.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #17 – 2012-07-16 10:41 pm

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-16 10:27 pm

Sorry Rick, I did that and it does not work like you say.

Perhaps you could post a clip of what you cannot change...

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #18 – 2012-07-16 10:47 pm

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #19 – 2012-07-16 10:53 pm

It changed back for me.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #20 – 2012-07-16 10:57 pm

Quote from: Richard Woodroffe – 2012-07-16 10:53 pm

It changed back for me.

Ditto

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-16 10:27 pm

I downloaded an Italian keyboard where near the enter key there is an accented "a" that is not an active shortcut in NWC.

The 'United Kingdom' keyboard layout maps the key next to the backspace to '#' (both shifted and unshifted)

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #21 – 2012-07-17 12:09 am

My apologies for being head strong and impatient.
I realize now that the backslash or toolbar buttons only change the notehead color, while the stem color should be changed in the "Item color" which is to be found elsewhere. I never thought there should be a need to have a notehead in one color and a note stem in another, and this is what confused me.

Without taking anything off my apology I' d like to add thet even though versatility is a good thing, if does not have a real purpose it complicates things and creates confusion.

IMHO the default option should be that the note and the stem should change color together, because this is the most common case, and because it's simpler. Of course you change color of both notehead and stem by entering the note in default color, select it and then change the color, but the previous option is still simpler. The longer path should be left to those that would find it useful to have a notehead in one color and a stem in another

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #22 – 2012-07-17 12:54 am

Hi Leon,
what you say has merit, but the current system was the result of some specific needs.

For example, by having the capacity to have heads different colours to the stem AND each other it is possible to enter chords with different colours for each head:

Code: [Select · Download]

|Chord|Dur:4th|Pos:-8o,-7o!7,-6o!6,-5o!5,-4o!4,-3o!3,-2o!2,-1o!1,0o|Color:0|Visibility:Default

This is very good in a teaching environment and for helping children in performance. It is my guess that a reasonable portion of NWC's market is probably the education sector.

It is also helpful for the aforementioned bell ringers - reduced number of parts as the colours differentiate the necessary bells rather than the presence or absence of a note/chord on an individual part.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #23 – 2012-07-17 01:05 am

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-17 12:09 am

I never thought there should be a need to have a notehead in one color and a note stem in another, and this is what confused me.

It is used in handbell notation and also has supposed pedagogical uses. My thoughts are here: Re: NoteWorthy Composer 2.1 Beta 13

User friendly version of Lawie's example:

Code: (nwc) [Select · Download]

!NoteWorthyComposerClip(2.5,Single)
|Chord|Dur:4th|Pos:-8,-7!7,-6!6,-5!5,-4!4,-3!3,-2!2,-1!1,0
!NoteWorthyComposerClip-End

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #24 – 2012-07-17 02:11 am

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #25 – 2012-07-17 02:53 am

Quote from: LEON – 2012-07-17 02:11 am

<snip>
Of course if most people - unlike me - use the program in conjunction with the soundbell program, it makes sense that the coloring default option should remain as is. But in the opposite case the default option should be: notehead and stem color in one click. Agree?

I really have no opinion on this as I rarely use colour on my scores, although I might start for things like flow control objects to make them easier to find in a hurry...

Of course, this is all moot if one is not using a colour printer.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #26 – 2012-07-30 07:03 am

Quote

I downloaded an Italian keyboard where near the enter key there is an accented "a" that is not an active shortcut in NWC.

Are you kidding me? :-)
In the italian layout the '\' key is just above the tab key and at the left of the '1' key.
As you can guess, I have your very same problems!

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #27 – 2012-07-30 10:36 pm

Quote

I downloaded an Italian keyboard where near the enter key there is an accented "a" that is not an active shortcut in NWC. All the letters and numbers in the italian keyboard remain in the same place as in the USA keyboard, only the syntax signs are "misplaced". So you could have the Italian keyboard for entering notes , durations etc. and whenever a syntax sign is needed (like in a text or as a shortcut to staccatos, slurs etc.) you could go back to the USA keyboard by a single click. My preference would be to learn by heart where the syntax signs are on the Italian keyboard, so I'd hardly need to switch between virtual keyboards.

Just out of curiousity, is the placement identical on all Italian QWERTY keyboards? In Canada, the usual extended keyboard set up for Microsoft has a different configuration than the Microsoft Natural keyboard I use on my desktop, both differ from the layout on my laptop, which again differs from the layout I had on my work laptop. If I use a keyboard configured for the Quebec market, it has characters my English Canada k/b doesn't. When I use a keyboard in Sweden, it is different yet again, since it accommodates the 29 letters in the Swedish alphabet. England's keyboards use different currency symbols, and I suspect other European ones do as well.

I agree with Leon that the user should learn how his/her own keyboard works with NWC, rather than expect NWC to adapt to the many different keyboard configurations that exist in its worldwide market.

Re: disabling the color change key shorcut?

Reply #28 – 2012-07-31 06:38 am

As far as I recall, the Italian keyboard layout is standard.

I'm so used to it that normally I type without looking at the keys, but this is dangerous: last week I went to Südtirol (that's still Italy) and I had a lot of problems because they use the German keyboard layout.
Not only the "strange" characters are in different positions, also the alphabetic ones are swapped.
This was quite surprising: the German keyboard layout is not "QWERTY"!
Guess how nice when I typed the passwords ("*****")...