One of the things I run to the documentation for most often is the list of possible popover commands for the popover I am using. Many (most?) of these commands are intuitive and I can guess the right command even if it’s not one I use often, but I still find myself having to look up, for example, how to input a breath mark.
Would it be helpful to automatically show a list of possible commands whenever a popover is activated? So when I type shift+H, there’s a temporary window right next to the popover that lists the commands I might be looking for?
One of the best things about Dorico is how keyboard-oriented it is. But if you’re doing something you don’t do often, that very keyboard-centric architecture can cost time looking for the proper syntax.
On a related note, I have a few other questions/requests:
Is there a reason “,” couldn’t be the command for a comma-style breath mark? Writing out “comma” feels odd.
Would it be possible for the popovers to more consistently suggest possible commands as the user types? It seems the Playing Techniques popover does this, but the Holds/Pauses popover does not, for example. When “,” didn’t work for my breath mark, I tried typing “breath,” hoping to see some possibilities appear, but nothing did.
Would it be possible to have more “keystroke tags” (I’m sure there’s a more correct name for them) appear when the user hovers over a button? Sometimes I’m not sure where to find the thing I’m looking for, so I browse the graphic buttons on the right panel. But when I find what I’m looking for, it would be really nice to be able to see what the proper popover command is for it, so I don’t have to go back to the mouse next time I want to use it.
There is a PDF list of popover commands in the Help pages:
though some popovers “interpret” a broad range of input – hence the phrase “This is not a comprehensive list”. Also, different popovers work in different ways.
Also, some popovers will recognise the smallest unique group of letters, so in the Repeat popover, S is enough for a segno and C for a Coda.
There are some easter eggs there. IIRC, writing “com” without the quotes in the popover is enough. Same with “fer” for fermata. You’ll probably get used to it
Yes, I’ve gotten very used to the ones I use often. But it would help me discover some of these “Easter eggs” if the list popped up for me when I opened the popover. Also if all the popovers made intelligent suggestions as I type, the way some of them already do.
As an easy example, the Cues popover guesses which instrument you want, so if I type “v,” I get Violin I, Violin II, Viola, and Violoncello, and as I type more, the list narrows. That’s probably the easiest popover to do that with, but the Playing Techniques Popover works the same way: I type “p” and get a list of possible commands to choose from, so it’s easy to find “pizz,” even if I didn’t know for sure what the command was and wasn’t sure how to spell “pizzicato.” Just as an example.
By contrast, if I open the Holds popover and type “ferm,” there’s no confirmation on screen that I have the right command. I just have to try it and see what happens. It would be nice if, when I tried “breath,” the popover had suggested “breathmark comma.” Because I would never guess such a long command (or breathmark without a space), but it’s obvious what it is if I see it.
FWIW, I think this feature request has already been made, although quite a long time ago. It’s probably somewhere in the (long, long, long) backlog for future implementation… and it’s indeed a good idea, especially when you haven’t spent the 10.000 hours.
Just as an example.