I just wondered if anyone has a usecase for this button in the desktop version of Dorico:
As I have understood, this button comes from the iPad-version, where it probably makes a lot of sense to trigger popovers this way. I just don’t see any usecase for it in the desktop version (take your hands off the keyboard to click something to toggle the popover to take your hands back to the keyboard to type something in the popover (?) ) and it makes the right panel needlessly complicated. And if there are reasons to keep it, the contrast ratio of it could be a lot better (at the moment it’s 1.09 to 1).
No doubt this will help people who don’t remember the command to call up every popover. There are a few that I don’t use very often, so I can’t always remember on the fly what makes them “pop up” but I do know the basics of what I can type into them. I suppose this would help people like me. I’m sure you’re right, that it’s an import from the iPad development, and for most people on desktop it is probably moot, but it isn’t entirely out of place to keep it in both versions.
also, some symbols (like rehearsal marks) only appear with this keyboard mode on, and they don’t appear anymore with the paint-brush mode on (as they are purely triggered by a shortcut).
I sometimes use it just to remind myself what the correct popover is - for example, if I want a trill, my tendency is to think “playing technique”, but no - “ornament” - shift-o.
I think it’s really handy for new users getting used to the popovers and it would have been helpful to me when I started.
I will say this though - can we have some tool tips when we mouseover them please? That would help even more getting used to popovers.
The new Notation box layout is neater. A tad more complicated, but it definitely looks better.
On the issue of popovers mode (the keyboard icon) not having panels, I think there’s an opportunity to have panels in popover mode filled with information about what can be entered in the popover box. For example: I’m coming to grips with the new Note Tools Popover. There are 6 pages in the 4.0 manual detailing what entries can be made. Rather than reach for the manual, scroll to the right page and find what I want, if it was all there in a panel after clicking on a popover, it would be lot quicker and seamless.
Several additional icons have appeared on v. 4.0. The one that took me a long time to figure out is a quaver with a plus sign beside it. This icon lights up when in insert note mode (I dont mean insert mode), and personally I have no use for it, as I use shft-I, and being able to see the caret reliably tells me that I am in insert note mode. The keyboard icon, mentioned at the top of this thread, is another of the same sort.
Perhaps Dorico programmes could add a preference that would hide these and similar icons for those that find them unnecessary.
