At 6:49 AM 07/13/02, David H. Bailey wrote: >THAT is one feature that I think most Finale users would love -- the >ability to use tools "invisibly" -- the program would know which tool to >use so that we could work without having to use the tool palettes >unless/until we wanted to. > >So that WE could assign as many metatools as we wanted so that they >would be PROGRAM metatools, not specific to any underlying tool.
It's not entirely clear to me if you're asking to be rid of tools altogether. If so, I think that's undesirable as well as impractical. I like tools. They are what makes it possible to have so much flexibility in input. >For example, currently the number metatools do one thing in the >articulation tool, another thing in the expression tool, and yet a third >thing in the mass-mover tool. Yes. How could it be otherwise? Are you suggesting that the "3" key, for example, always does the same thing no matter what tool you're in? In that case the function the "3" serves in those other tools would have to be reassigned to some other key. Before long you're going to run out of easily accessed keys, and ultimately you're going to run out of keys altogether. It's only because of tools that all these things are possible. That said, I'm all for your idea of letting the user reprogram the keys. This is sort of like what you can do with a macro utility, but Finale could (1) make the program more compatible with serious macro-ing, and/or (2) have more in the way of user-definable macros built in. One problem that you're running up against here, I think, is that changing tools using the keyboard is not as convenient as it might be. Yes, you can choose them from the menu, so that means that any tool selection could be assigned to a macro. Thus, you could have your works-from-any-tool macro if you define it to start out with a menu selection that selects the appropriate tool. Nevertheless, that's clumsy, and I wish it were a lot easier to select a new tool using only the computer keyboard. I want there to be a certain keystroke which sends you to the master tool palette. Once there, I can use the arrow to move around between the tools, and then when I'm on the one I want I hit enter and it is selected. If this function is done by calling up a window like I currently (Fin Mac 2k2) with cmd-click, that's OK by me, though I imagine many users would feel better about it if this selection took place right on the palette itself, instead of in a window with a picture of the palette. Having the option to select the tool by entering its ID number (as in the cmd-click window) would be useful as an alternative option -- especially since this calls for identical keystrokes regardless of which tool you're starting from. Also potentially useful is if there is some way of asking for "return to previous tool". The latter would make it possible for macros which start out with a call to a certain tool and end with returning to whatever tool you began with. So now the other request: Couldn't Finale provide us with something resembling a genuine complete macro definition capability? Yes, I know, we can already do this with a separate utility, but it would be so much nicer to have it built into the program. They were able to give us a built-in *rhyming dictionary*, for goodness sake, is it too much to ask to have a built-in macro utility? It needn't interfere with all the keys already described. We just need on key -- maybe some function key -- which tells Finale to treat the next keystroke as a macro, regardless of what tool you're in and what that key would normally do. There would be some sort of method of defining these macros, in the usual macro sort of way, as an combination of keystrokes of unlimited length, possibly including the tool selections described above. That way you could set yourself up for a two-keystroke method of achieving just about anything you care to dream up. I believe this is more or less what David B is asking for, except without interfering with the existing scheme of metatools, tools, etc. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
