I've only just bought and installed Mobilesheets (windows 10 version) on my PC). It looks perfect for my pdf music library.
My PC Screen is over my digital piano with the keyboard sitting on the Piano.
But now I've started using it I find that the only keys on the PC keyboard which do anything are :
<left>
<right>
<page-up>
<page-up>
Have I missed something obvious or there really no keyboard support ? it's very inefficient to use the mouse...
Is this program for tablets only?
If you go to Settings->Touch & Pedal Settings->Pedal Actions, you can map keys to actions. This is currently designed around pedals (and there are only 6 switch pedals max), so you can only assign 6 keys. I may add a more elaborate key mapping configuration dialog for PC's a later point so users can configure an unlimited number of key mappings.
What kind of actions do you need to be able to perform with the keyboard? The app is definitely easier to use if your screen has touch support. It will be tedious to do things like select songs otherwise (you'll have to tab around and then use the arrow keys to select things).
(05-04-2019, 12:51 AM)Zubersoft Wrote: If you go to Settings->Touch & Pedal Settings->Pedal Actions, you can map keys to actions. This is currently designed around pedals (and there are only 6 switch pedals max), so you can only assign 6 keys. I may add a more elaborate key mapping configuration dialog for PC's a later point so users can configure an unlimited number of key mappings.
What kind of actions do you need to be able to perform with the keyboard? The app is definitely easier to use if your screen has touch support. It will be tedious to do things like select songs otherwise (you'll have to tab around and then use the arrow keys to select things).
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for your reply.
I'm currently using a USB 3-way pedal unit which I've mapped keys to send <left> <right> keys, etc..
> What kind of actions do you need to be able to perform with the keyboard? Pretty much all the main app menu functions - searching and opening songs, navigate through the pdfs, start & stop the metronome /media . Ideally all user configurable...
>The app is definitely easier to use if your screen has touch support. From a keyboard perspective its just not very usable or intuitive at the moment :-(
Even if I had a touch sensitive screen it would be inefficient because of the continuous back-and-forth between screen/keyboard, rather than keyboard/mouse.
I'm in front of a digital piano so, want my hands away from the (piano) keyboard a minimum of time...
If I'm in the Songs section there is no way to select the Search input bar from the keyboard other than hitting the <tab> key 9 times...
Then I can nicely narrow the song down by typing it's name. At this point the menu is displaying only the song that I've selected - and the intuitive thing to do would be to press the <return> key to load it, but that doesn't work... Instead I'll have to press the <tab> key another 9 times and then press <return>.
Once I'm in full screen mode - I can navigate back and forth through the music, but can't return to the songs menu (i'd expect the <backspace> or the <escape> key to do this )if I want to go back to select another song... instead I have to reach for mouse and several clicks to go back.
It seems like it would be really useful to have keyboard support - even for tablet use - then a user could pair to a bluetooth keyboard and have very speedy access to functions in the app (and it would be even more useful to be able to configure user-defined keyboard shortcuts).
It would be nice to start and stop the metronome by hitting the space bar...
I'm afraid It doesn't seem very practical to use on a Windows 10 PC at the moment - which is a real shame for me. This looked like the perfect app for my pdf music collection...
Is it likely that you might be able to add some keyboard support in a future?
05-04-2019, 12:24 PM (This post was last modified: 05-04-2019, 12:24 PM by Zubersoft.)
Yes, I can certainly work on this in a future update, after I've finished the annotations rework. I think most users with a tablet aren't going back and forth between a screen/keyboard though, so the same inefficiencies aren't present. The app was originaly designed around tablets, not a monitor with just a keyboard, so I'll have to do some work figuring out how to make it all easier to use in that scenario. It sounds like you may need the screen with additional key/action mappings to be implemented for this to all work as you desire, as me just fixing the searching and song selection won't be enough by itself.
You can assign the backspace or escape key to the "Return to Library" action to go back to the library screen. You can also assign the space bar to start/stop the metronome with the pedal actions.
> Yes, I can certainly work on this in a future update, after I've finished the annotations rework. That would be really great - if you want me to do some testing - please get in touch!
>You can assign the backspace or escape key to the "Return to Library" action to go back to the library screen.
>You can also assign the space bar to start/stop the metronome with the pedal actions.
Thanks, that's helpful. I wasn't aware that you could assign the Pedal Action settings could actually do that - I thought they just applied to extra pedals not keyboard keys...
I've set up the <spacebar> to start/stop the metronome - that's great.
>I think most users with a tablet aren't going back and forth between a screen/keyboard though, so the same inefficiencies aren't present.
Yes, I understand that - although I don't think there are that many people out there using windows tablets now compared to windows laptops?
And the same problems that I'm having will apply to a windows laptop using a touchpad or a mouse (or even if it has a touch sensitive screen I suspect)...
>It sounds like you may need the screen with additional key/action mappings to be implemented for this to all work as you desire.
> as me just fixing the searching and song selection won't be enough by itself. Actually just fixing the searching/song selection on it's own would be a great help to me, because most of the time when I'm going to the Library list ((songs tab) I want to select another song... :-)
I've just assigned the L key to go back to the library when I'm in PDF mode.
So it would be really helpful to have the following functionality:
Have an assigned shortcut key to highlight the text in the find song input box (maybe alt-F or ctrl-F)
then pressing <backspace> immediately clears the text and shows all the songs, or entering text starts displaying the filtered results.
If there is only one returned filtered song result, then pressing <return> opens the pdf, otherwise pressing return puts focus on the first of the returned filtered results - then can use the <up> or <down> keys to navigate before pressing <return> to open the selected PDF...
I don't want to detract from the program because it's sofeature rich
... but the above would be really useful for me (and maybe some other users)
Thanks for for your help - it's great to see that the App is in continuous development...
Quote: I think most users with a tablet aren't going back and forth between a screen/keyboard though, so the same inefficiencies aren't present. The app was originaly designed around tablets, not a monitor with just a keyboard, so I'll have to do some work figuring out how to make it all easier to use in that scenario. It sounds like you may need the screen with additional key/action mappings to be implemented for this to all work as you desire, as me just fixing the searching and song selection won't be enough by itself.
I agree with Shawn though. Can't speak for other users, but I often use MSP on my (no touch) desktop W10 machine to prepare setlists or to maintain my archive (especially for filling out written annotations or fields like composer, genre etc. it's really a benefit to have your normal keyboard). Also on W10 a user is inclined to use MSP and not the companion. All the more because the syncing has become much more efficient and easier with the sync feature or simple because of the relative paths.
Also I believe that it would be again very beneficial to have better keyboard support for those who like to have a "stationary installation" on top of a piano or something (like that in that other post recently). There are a lot of screens, mini pcs or all-in-ones which don't have touch support but would be great for this use.
So, while of course MSP comes from tablet use and will stay that way you shouldn't underestimate the usefulness of MSP for W10 devices without touch support.
Thanks for the tip with the pedal functions. I wasn't aware of this workaround and I must have missed it when I complained some time ago about the lack of keyboard support in W10 myself.
>Also I believe that it would be again very beneficial to have better keyboard
>support for those who like to have a "stationary installation" on top of a piano or something (like that in that other post recently).
>There are a lot of screens, mini pcs or all-in-ones which don't have touch support but would be great for this use.
Hi BRX,
I don't know if this will help you, but I've just been using AutoHotkey to map keyboard shortcuts to mouse clicks/positions in MobileSheets
(like Alt-F to put me into the search bar and highlight the text so I can just start typing immediately to narrow down the the selection)
And although very fiddly (have to be sure to run Mobilesheets in fullscreen only) ,this is really helping me with the keyboard navigation...
Now I can get down to to exploring the amazing features of Mobilesheets ...
(05-09-2019, 08:09 PM)itsme Wrote: Hi Shaun,
That's a great idea for a helpful workaround. How about sharing your AHK scripts? Thanks in advance.
Hi,
Yes, I will definitely do that - I'm not an AutoHotkey expert (just started learning) , so I'm happy to post here, maybe someone else could help me...
I'm doing some research to see if I can address some issues but should get to put up a listing in the next couple of days...
05-11-2019, 08:37 PM (This post was last modified: 05-11-2019, 09:10 PM by ShaunHH.)
OK, this is my current AutoHotkey Script to help with Navigating (with Keyboard) in the Library screen in MobileSheets :
here's how to install/use it:
1. Install Autohotkey from https://www.autohotkey.com/
2. download the attached file MobileSheetsKeyboardShortcuts.ahk.txt
3 Rename the downloaded file to MobileSheetsKeyboardShortcuts.ahk ( i.e. remove the .txt extension)
4. Double click on the saved MobileSheetsKeyboardShortcuts.ahk file to run it
5.Open MobileSheets and see if it works :-)
**** IMPORTANT NOTES **** 1. MobileSheets MUST BE SET UP TO RUN IN FULLSCREEN MODE (in display settings), otherwise the XY co-ordinates of the selected menu items will change. This could cause unpredictable negative effects. Do not run windowed mode: this could result in random clicks on items on your desktop / or in other apps. 2. Because Menu item XY positions are relative to the screen size, the Script is set up to exit if screen resolution is not as expected. Extra screen resolutions could be added if you can work out mouse positions... 3. Menu positions change in the different tabs 4. This script has only had very limited testing on my own PC so use carefully at your own risk ;-)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview of the keyboard shortcuts: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Function keys 1 - 7 : Selects the chosen tab, and activates the SearchBox. (start typing immediately to filter results - or <backspace> remove filter).
* Alt-L : Selects/Activates the Searchbox * Alt-M : Activates the first returned filtered result (pressing <return> takes you to pdf screen) * Alt-D, Alt-U : Navigate up/down the filtered results (same as using the <up> <down> keys)
Not extensively tested, and probably not super reliable (as it's simulating mouse clicks), but it's useful enough for me...
;This script allows (very) limited keyboard driven navigation in the MobileSheets Library by simulating Mouse clicks.
;**** IMPORTANT NOTES:
; 1. MobileSheets MUST BE SET UP TO RUN IN FULLSCREEN MODE (in display settings), otherwise the XY co-ordinates
; of the selected menu items will change. This could cause unpredictable negative effects.
; Do not run windowed mode: this could result in random clicks on items on your desktop / or in other apps.
; 2. Because Menu item XY positions are relative to the screen size,
; the Script is set up to exit if screen resolution is not as expected.
; Extra screen resolutions could be added if you can work out mouse positions...
; 3. Menu positions change in the different tabs
; 4. This script has only had very limited testing on my own PC so use carefully at your own risk ;-)
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; Overview of the keyboard shortcuts:
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; * Function keys 1 - 7 : Selects the chosen tab, and activates the SearchBox.
; (start typing immediately to filter results - or <backspace> remove filter).
; * Alt-L : Selects/Activates the Searchbox
; * Alt-M : Activates the first returned filtered result (pressing <return> takes you to pdf screen)
; * Alt-D, Alt-U : Navigate up/down the filtered results (same as using the <up> <down> keys)
Global TabButtonsPositionY
Global SearchInputPosX
Global SearchInputPosY
;Check the screen Resolution is supported...
ScreenResolution:=A_ScreenWidth . "x" . A_ScreenHeight
if (ScreenResolution = "1920x1080")
{
;X & Y screen co-ordinates for the button pushes (for this resolution)
TabButtonsPositionY:= 24
}
else ; ... unsupported screen res - otherwise we exit the script
{
Msgbox, The MobileSheets AHK script will not work with this screen resolution - Exiting Script
ExitApp
}
#IfWinActive,MobileSheets ; We only want to send mouseClicks if MobileSheets is the active Window.
;The function keys select tabs 1 to 7 using mouse clicks, and then puts the mouse in the SearchBox
F1::SelectTab(TabButton01PositionX)
F2::SelectTab(TabButton02PositionX)
F3:: SelectTab(TabButton03PositionX)
F4:: SelectTab(TabButton04PositionX)
F5:: SelectTab(TabButton05PositionX)
F6:: SelectTab(TabButton06PositionX)
F7:: SelectTab(TabButton07PositionX)
!L:: SelectSearchBox()
; Select the first filtered item
!M:: SelectFirstSearchResult(FirstSearchResultPositionX,FirstSearchResultPositionY)
;Map the up & down keys to alt-U and and alt-D
; - so we I can navigate the list easily without moving hands from home position
!d:: send {down}
!u:: send {up}
If you change the extension you should be able to post it as file.
Just change the filename to something like ShaunsSkrip.ahk.txt and drop a note that the final ".txt" has to be removed to make it work.
(05-11-2019, 08:51 PM)itsme Wrote: If you change the extension you should be able to post it as file.
Just change the filename to something like ShaunsSkrip.ahk.txt and drop a note that the final ".txt" has to be removed to make it work.
Thanks - I was wondering whether to do that (and have now done so) as Windows hides extensions from most users...
I've made some modifications for the next update so that you can press Ctrl + F to select the search box and it will highlight existing text so you can clear it quickly if desired. Pressing enter with one value displayed in the list will load that entry. Pressing the down arrow will switch focus to the list so you can navigate to the song you want and press enter to load it. Hopefully these changes will help in the short term.
