[hack] Shortcuts for properties in properties panel

Another hack I share with the Dorico community.
I’ve just discovered that it is possible to use shortcuts to control properties in the properties panel.

I’ve set a the shortcuts Alt-L and Ctrl-Alt-L to add/remove laisser-vibrer slur.
It can be done by adding the following code in the %appdata%\Steinberg\Dorico 2\keycommands_XX.json file, in the shortcuts section :

{
		"UI.InvokePropertyChangeValue?Type=kNoteEndHasLVTie&Value=true" : [ "Alt+L" ]
},
{
		"UI.InvokePropertyEnableSwitch?Type=kNoteEndHasLVTie&Value=false" : [ "Ctrl+Alt+L" ]
}

This potentially gives a lot of possibilities to create shortcuts to improve productivity. It seems this can be done for all property in the panel.
To get the syntax, just use the macro editor and view the %appdata%\Steinberg\Dorico 2\script plug-ins\usermacro.lua file.

I hope we can soon have a full UI editor to assign shorcuts for properties. Dorico seems to have been design for it

Thanks Florent. This is potentially extremely useful.

Daniel has written on the forum that new shortcuts to acces the properties panel were going to be available in future versions…

@FlorentG

To get the syntax, just use the macro editor and view the %appdata%\Steinberg\Dorico 2\script plug-ins\usermacro.lua file.

There is no ‘usermacro.lua’ file on my Mac - I never dealt with Lua. Any hint as to where/what/how to get such file? Or to find the syntax for particular action in Properties panel?

TIA,
Igor Borodin

It is created when you record a Macro. Script > Start Recording Macro

Thank you Craig F (and of course FlorentG)!

Some of the scripts that I tried do work - e.g. opening Ornaments panel.
Yet, others don’t - e.g. with the panel opened, I can’t make a selection from the panel.
Here is the script:

"UI.InvokePaletteButton?PaletteIndicatorID=kOrnamentsArpeggioUp&PaletteSectionID=kOrnamentsArpeggiationPanel&PropertyButton=false&SetOldValue=false&Set=true&UseLocalOverride=0" : [ "Meta+Ctrl+Alt+A" ]

Any suggestions?

TIA,
Igor Borodin

I tried with playing technics too. I confirm it does not work for most of the features inthe right panel.

How do you find out the name of a property?

I would like to create shortcuts for:

  • triplet number visibility
  • triplet bracket visibility
  • triplet placement (values: all 4 of them)
  • pedal line sign appearance (values: off, none)
  • pedal line continuation type (value: off, hook)
  • erase background of dynamics

It’s probably not possible to create shortcuts that toggle (or cycle through all) values of a property?

And combining multiple properties (like pedal line sign appearance and continuation type, or both triplet number and bracket visibility) in one shortcut is probably not possible either?

The easiest way is to record a script that uses those commands, then read the script.

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Great, thanks @benwiggy ! That worked.

I think I know the answer already but just in case: there’s no such thing as an InvokePropertyToggleValue, InvokePropertyCycleValues or InvokePropertyNextValue alternative to InvokePropertyChangeValue=<value>, right? (That would divide the number of shortcuts I need by 2-4…)

I think some functions have a Toggle, like Accidental type; but others don’t.

I’ll take the liberty of plugging my ConsoleTools Lua framework here. Toggling and cycling properties is one thing that it really excels in.

Furthermore, the recently published Tuplets Tool Library gives you ready-to-use solutions for setting tuplet properties.

With the documentation that is included with the framework itself you can, with a little bit of determination, create the rest of the required tools yourself, in various degrees of sophistication.

I also have a Dynamics Tool Library in the pipeline and hope to publish it relatively soon; background erasure will be included in that.

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