musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Selection filter enhancements

Open
#32,532 0 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@avvvvve is already working on this.

Since Mar 10, 2026.

needs design needs review
Dominant language
C++
Stars
15.1k
Forks
3.3k
Avg merge
2d 2h
Merged PRs (30d)
91

Description

Your idea

I understand Selection filter dev is happening in stages over several releases per @bkunda comment in #29604. (See also #29602 and #23817.) Please consider the following enhancements.

  1. Modifier keys (shift or alt/opt) on Voice or Chord button press for single selection.
  2. User assignable shortcuts for the Clear all and Select all buttons at the bottom of the panel.
  3. Toggle panel sync with selection in the score.

I'd be happy to implement any/all of these if given the green light.

Problem to be solved

Consider this orchestration use case. The user has a piano sketch and wants to distribute chord notes to wind instruments. (1) Top note copied to Oboes, (2) Top and middle notes copied to the Flutes 8va and Bassoons 8vb, and (3) The bottom note copied to the Oboes 8va.

Image

This requires a significant number of steps:
For (1), it's straightforward. Select note in score, Cmd+C, select destination, Cmd+V.

For (2), it's more complex*. Select chord, in Selection filter panel, de-select bottom note, Cmd+C, select destination, Cmd+V. Note that the selection in the panel is now only the top note of a two-note chord. In order move 8va, user needs to re-select the bottom note in the panel, then Cmd+Up Arrow. Then Cmd+V in Bassoons (this time with both notes selected since bottom note was turned back on), then Cmd+Down Arrow.

For (3), not as simple as (1), but less complex than (2). Select bottom note in score, Cmd+C, select destination, Opt+Cmd+2 to change voice (which changes the note from (1) to voice 2 and clears the selection), re-select voice 1 rest, Cmd+V, Cmd+Up Arrow.

*There are other ways to do this, but none are significantly shorter.

Prior art

No response

Additional context
Proposal details
  1. Modifier keys (shift or alt/opt) on Voice or Chord button press which selects only that button and deselects the others. For example, right now in order to select only Voice 3, the user needs to de-select Voices 1, 2, and 4 (or press Clear all at the bottom of the panel and then Voice 3 at the top of the panel). This results in additional clicking or lots of mouse movement, respectively. It's also unintuitive in that the user's focus is Voice 3, but then needs to toggle other voices.

  2. User assignable shortcuts for the Clear all and Select all buttons at the bottom of the panel. (There is a select all shortcut, but it applies to the score, not the Selection filter panel.) This accomplishes the same goal as above, but is a slightly longer procedure; clear all-then select (2 operations) vs. modify-select (one operation). An additional benefit of a Select all shortcut would be quickly resetting the panel.

  3. Toggle panel sync with selection in the score. For example, selecting the top note and second note in the score activates those note selections in the panel for copy/paste. One would think that copying a multi-note selection directly in the score and then pasting elsewhere would work, but it doesn't today. Only chord selection, then note selection in the panel, then copy/paste works.

Checklist
  • This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Assessment

This issue has not been assessed yet.

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.