Arrow-Key-Navigating Bug - Dorico 1.0.10

First: Great update, keep going!

Found a bug: When navigating with right-arrow-key (only right) in Page-View in Write-Mode:

  • When navigating from note to note to next page a note in wrong instrument will be selected
  • When navigating in Engrave-Mode it stays in correct Instrument but selects random elements, not only note-heads.

System: Windows 10 Build 1607 (Redstone 1)

I can’t reproduce the first problem. I can imagine the second one being a feature, as you often want to be selecting different elements in Engrave mode as opposed to just notes in Write mode. Besides, in Engrave mode it’s not really random selection: it cycles through all the editable elements.

In both write and engrave mode we allow to navigate between those elements that are otherwise selectable with mouse (so for e.g. you can’t navigate to a stem in write mode, as it’s only selectable in engrave mode). It is not selecting random element, but trying to find the closest element in the direction of navigation. (with a bit of a leeway, to make sure that everything is reachable via keyboard navigation).

However, we do constrain write mode left/right navigation to stay on the same stave, so your first issue is definitely a bug. Would you be able attach an example score, where that happens?

I see this behaviour in any score with more than one line. The more lines, the more confusion :laughing:
If there are some lyrics in score it sometimes just selects the text of the lyrics staff instead of the correct note.
In the example score I attached, there it once just skipped an entire page selecting something in wrong staff.
Beethoven-Symphony No. 4 Mov. 2.zip (86.7 KB)


Thanks, I can see the problem in the update version. The good news is that it works as expected in my developer build, so it’ll be fixed in the next update.

As for the lyrics, that is expected behaviour, as the navigation code is not constrained to notes only.

I’ll just drop this idea here as it occurs to me, and perhaps discuss it later elsewhere:

I think it would be useful to have a mode where arrow keys DO select only notes up & down.

So it’s supposed to be normal that, while skimming throuth a voice using the right arrow, at a sudden Dorico has selected the lyrics instead? That’s not really useful.

I will add my experience here : when navigating through a vocal score, when changing from line one to line two, the lyrics get selected (which is no use when working on the music in write mode. But could be useful if working on the lyrics… not at the same time). The real issue is that once I finish navigating through the page, it stops ! I cannot go further only with the arrow keys, I have to click on the first note of the first system of next page in order to go on. I guess that is not the expected behaviour.

[edit] I find now that I can get to the next page navigating using the down key — as if next page was “under” the previous one. This is really not intuitive at all and might be changed, don’t you think ?

Navigating using left/right arrow keys on a single stave with two voices is not at all intuitive. The order going right is different than the order going left. It jumps between voices in a seemingly random fashion. Notes are skipped, etc. I have no idea where it’s going to go next, although it does so consistently. So it is repeatable, but confusing.

It would seem that the useful thing to do is stay on a voice when navigating left/right. Switch voices when navigating up/down. When encountering chords, navigate to all notes in a chord before moving to the next note/chord.

Adding here some of my experiences with arrow key navigation. I’ve attached a screen recording of me moving around with arrow keys. I’m using KeyCastr, so you can see in the lower left corner what keys I’m pressing. Sorry for the bad quality, I had to compress it quite a lot so I could post it in the forum.
Moving with arrow keys.zip (849 KB)
In the chord in bar 2 it seems that arrow keys move visually rather than semantically. When G is selected and I press up, I would have expected that A flat would have been selected - even though Dorico has moved it to the right to avoid collisions. This is probably a design decision, so this is just feedback that at least for me it wasn’t what I intuitively expected.

The other ones seem more like bugs than design decisions. When I select Violin I’s E flat in bar 4, and press down, I would have expected Violin II’s C in bar 4 to be selected - not Violin I’s G in bar 5. When I select Violin II’s C in bar 4 and press right, I would have expected Violin II’s C in bar 5 to be selected, not Violin I’s E flat in bar 5.

My test file is also attached.
Testing arrow keys.dorico.zip (1.86 MB)

Hi Veli,

Thanks for the report. Both of the bugs have been fixed since 1.0.10, so it should be better in the next update.

I have a situation where using the right arrow key to move through a melody on my tenor sax part it jumps down to the bass line which is three staves down. It is at the point where alt click copied the music duplicate the section. It doesn’t happen with any of the other instruments

Dear Barrysebastian,

As András has just written ten days ago that this behaviour had been fixed in next update (coming next week), I would advise you to be patient, and report the problems that have not been fixed in that update when we get a chance to have it !