Hotkey for deselection

I would like a keyboard shortcut to move the cursor just next to the end of the current selection and then deselect it.

I have been using the Shift key and the arrow keys to create selections, to transpose or change durations; after that, if I want to insert new chords, I have to move all the way to the end of a row, and then move the cursor back to where I want to insert the data. While it might be good to have the arrow keys move single-note selections, it becomes much more inconvenient to return the cursor to the desired position, using either the arrow keys or the mouse, because the selection behaviour is inconsistent with text editors.

If I understand correctly, [x] then [v] should do it, but only when you’re selecting contiguous notes, which should be the case when using Shift key and arrow keys to select notes.

Doing so immediately overwrites the clipboard.

[Right Arrow Key] -> [Tab] -> [Shift]+[Tab]
or
[Right Arrow Key] -> [Space] -> [Space]

If the selection is made from the right to the left using Shift + Left arrow key, the cursor would appear before the last note instead of at the beginning of the selection, so neither of these works. And in any case I still have to make 3 key strokes or 2 (ignoring the initial Right arrow key) instead of 1.

The cursor on the other track accessed by pressing Tab also returns to the beginning of a row if no notes followed after the cursor.

Even if the selection is made from the right to left, the cursor would still appear after the end of the last note. And I thought you wanted to move the cursor just next to the end of the current selection, not to the beginning of it?

Which is exactly why a separate hotkey should be made for deselecting because I have not seen a single application where the selection itself has to be moved before separately deselecting and moving the cursor to the proper location. (In Notepad pressing the left or right key without Shift will deselect immediately, but the way the cursor moves is not how Hookpad handles it because Hookpad allows moving the selected note/chord.)

One thing to note is that Hookpad allows Shift-selection towards both directions at the same time, and the underlying cursor position is recorded immediately to the left of the first note selected. So the “beginning note” of the selection might be ill-defined, and the “end note” of the selection could shift from one end to another at a single keystroke; this behavior is, as you pointed out in your original post, inconsistent with most text editors.

I agree that the implementation of a deselection hot-key is preferable for more convenient navigation. Though I’d more like to see note selection, cursor navigation and note modification (transpose/change duration) all decoupled via different modifier keys or mode switch keys (like [Insert]), as that’ll solve the deselection problem altogether by freeing up the rest of the Arrow keys for each mode and possibly bring Hookpad’s editing behavior and “feel” more in line with most text editors.

Sorry i couldn’t be of more help.

Great discussion guys. I’ll take a look and see how easy some if this stuff is to implement.