musescore / musescore/MuseScore
UX: Enable Mouse Wheel Scrolling for ComboBox (Dropdown) Selections
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- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
- 15.1k
- Forks
- 3.3k
- Avg merge
- 2d 2h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 91
Description
Your idea
Allow users to cycle through options in a ComboBox (dropdown menu) by using the mouse scroll wheel while hovering over the element. Instead of clicking to open a list and then clicking again to select an item, a user could simply hover and scroll to "flip" through the available choices.
Problem to be solved
Currently, selecting options from dropdown menus (e.g. Font, Zoom) requires a multi-click process. This breaks the creative flow when a user wants to quickly "audition" different styles or settings. Enabling scroll-to-select makes the interface feel more responsive and reduces repetitive clicking.
Prior art

Additional context
- Safety: To prevent accidental changes while scrolling through the Inspector or Properties panel, the interaction should only trigger when the mouse cursor is directly centered over the ComboBox and there is no active page-scrolling (see #Prior Art).
- Default behaviour: I think this feature should be optional and maybe even off my default, as this may create unexpected behavior for some users.
- Addition?: I am uncertain if this should be applied also to number selectors (e.g. font-size), since those already have the arrow buttons for very granular changes.
Example for an object that would be affected by this change:
Example for an object meant in "Addition?":
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
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No source file or test is named. Start by locating the ComboBox implementation and existing mouse-wheel handling for the Font and Zoom controls, then determine how the Inspector or Properties panel distinguishes control interaction from page scrolling. Done means an agreed optional behavior works for dropdown selections without unintended scrolling; the scope for number selectors also needs resolution.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- desktop, frontend
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100