Setting keyboard shortcuts for various Tool menus on Windows?

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willpadgett
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Post by willpadgett » Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:51 pm

Hi,

I used Finale on OS X for many years, and am missing a critical feature as I have migrated to Windows.

Before, I could press some combination of keyboard modifiers (control + cmd, maybe?), and then press a key on the middle row of the keyboard (A, S, D, F...etc), then select a Tool via a small popup window, and a keyboard shortcut for accessing that Tool would be assigned to Ctrl + (A, S, D, F...) .

This was a significant part of my workflow, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it in Windows. I have googled pretty extensively. In fact, I can't even find a global keyboard shortcut menu/editor anywhere in v26.

Does anyone know how to use this feature on Windows? Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks,
Will


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zuill
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Post by zuill » Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:55 pm

I personally don't use shortcuts such as you describe. However, there are several users here with quite a bit of experience with shortcuts. When they see your topic, I'm sure they will chime in.

Zuill
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"When all is said and done, more is said than done."

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motet
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Post by motet » Mon Jan 18, 2021 7:44 pm

One way is to press the Alt key. You'll see the T underlined in Tools in the menu bar. If you press T, then you'll see all the tools, and also underline letters you can type, or select with the arrow key. Thus, Alt-TM would select the Measure tool. This works in most Windows applications, by the way.

Another way is to use the TGTools keyboard remapper (a plug-in). I've got each of the function keys F3-F12 assigned to a different tool.

There is also a way to program the function keys directly in Finale. I think you switch to the tool, then use Shift-F4 to assign it to F4, for example, but I'm not sure of this, not having used it in a long while.

See also "keyboard shortcuts" in the manual for pre-programmed shortcuts.

willpadgett
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Post by willpadgett » Mon Jan 18, 2021 8:56 pm

Motet, I totally missed the fact that all the tools are available from the Tool menu with alt+letters. They're even biased towards the left hand...sweet!

Only problem I have with alt shortcuts is they sometimes are nonfunctional unless you click on the main screen for window focus.

I downloaded TGTools and will give it a good look-through. I'm sure this will be really helpful for several other things, too.

And most importantly, you've given the direct answer to my question...the Fnum keys work exactly like the function I was missing from Mac. I guess they just made a slightly different setup for the same process in OS X to stay off the Fnum keys.

You are the man!! Much appreciated! Close 'er up, boys

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motet
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Post by motet » Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:17 pm

There is a free version of a few TGTools included with Finale, which includes the keyboard mapper. In the full version it's called "Options." The full version is rather dated, though I still use a few things.

Bill Stevens
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Post by Bill Stevens » Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:51 pm

The way to set shortcuts on the Mac that you are remembering is Control-Option-Letter, then Control-Letter for the shortcut.

So that is not an option on Windows?

::: Bill
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heinzfan
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Post by heinzfan » Tue Jan 19, 2021 4:31 am

I've used FinaleScript to program specific functions rather than having to navigate through cascading menus. There's also MetaTools. I believe the help manual includes tutorial videos on both.
Finale 27, Windows 10, VST: Vienna Instruments/Ensemble/Synchron, Cubase, Kontakt 5

willpadgett
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Post by willpadgett » Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:02 am

Bill Stevens wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:51 pm
The way to set shortcuts on the Mac that you are remembering is Control-Option-Letter, then Control-Letter for the shortcut.

So that is not an option on Windows?

::: Bill
Indeed it is not. I tried every variation of modifiers and letters. They moved it to the Function keys.

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HaraldS
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Post by HaraldS » Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:11 pm

The existing methods like mentioned above make Finale very easy to use via hotkeys.

I would like to add programmable mouse buttons (like those to be found on gaming mice), Bome's MIDI Translator https://www.bome.com/products/mtclassic with which you can trigger anything inside Finale via MIDI commands and of course https://www.autohotkey.com/ which opens a complete world of keyboard shortcuts and automization. These three combined make Finale extremly powerful.
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motet
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Post by motet » Tue Jan 19, 2021 5:20 pm

Yes, I make heavy use of Bome's MIDI translator and can recommend it.

Anders Hedelin
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Post by Anders Hedelin » Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:12 pm

Maybe I'm missing something, but I always found it quite easy to program shortcuts for tools. On Windows it goes like this, you select a tool and press shift+f-key:
Program a shortcut for a tool.PNG
Program a shortcut for a tool.PNG (8.75 KiB) Viewed 3175 times
Of course the f-keys don't cover all tools but they are convenient for the ones most often used.
The downside of this is that it's document related, but that's something for MM to improve. (Meaning that you'll have to do this anew in every new document. For my part I always use the same programmings, so I could practically do it in my sleep.)
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motet
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Post by motet » Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:07 pm

Anders Hedelin wrote:
Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:12 pm
Maybe I'm missing something, but I always found it quite easy to program shortcuts for tools. On Windows it goes like this, you select a tool and press shift+f-key:
...
The downside of this is that it's document related, but that's something for MM to improve. (Meaning that you'll have to do this anew in every new document. For my part I always use the same programmings, so I could practically do it in my sleep.)
Yes, mentioned above, but not your good point about them being document-specific.

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HaraldS
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Post by HaraldS » Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:11 pm

Anders Hedelin wrote:
Tue Jan 19, 2021 6:12 pm
The downside of this is that it's document related, but that's something for MM to improve. (Meaning that you'll have to do this anew in every new document.
You can do this once to your default document, then all documents derived from this will inherit these settings.

Indeed, Finale would benefit from having one layer of programmable hotkeys in the program options which could be overriden by document specific hotkeys in the document options. Thus, you could have the best of both worlds while keeping backwards compatibility.
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Anders Hedelin
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Post by Anders Hedelin » Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:17 pm

HaraldS wrote:
Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:11 pm
Indeed, Finale would benefit from having one layer of programmable hotkeys in the program options which could be overriden by document specific hotkeys in the document options. Thus, you could have the best of both worlds while keeping backwards compatibility.
That would be ideal. Maybe in Finale 37...
Finale 26.3, 27.4.1
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motet
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Post by motet » Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:55 pm

The TGTools keyboard remapper is not document specific, so is preferable to the Shift+Fn thing, I think.

Anders Hedelin
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Post by Anders Hedelin » Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:17 am

motet wrote:
Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:55 pm
The TGTools keyboard remapper is not document specific, so is preferable to the Shift+Fn thing, I think.
That's a good tip, waiting for MM to shape up.
Finale 26.3, 27.4.1
Windows 10

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