In the pattern editor there might be a slightly different approach that would improve the use of area selection with the mouse. I’ll try to explain this with an example:
Select a track in the usual way (left click, hold and drag down to create the selection, or similar operation). This operation will select all subcolumns of the track.
If you now click and hold on the selection area, you can drag it to move it. Ok!
What happens if you want to alter the selection area on top of the already created selection area? Well, you need to destroy it to recreate it.
That is, if I want to keep the number of consecutive lines selected, but this time only select the volume subcolumn, I won’t be able to do it in one step because I have to destroy the existing selection area.
In this particular case (see the other possible cases), I should be able to press and hold “ALT”, and that entire selection area of the entire track would become the selection area of the subcolumn where you left click.
In other words. It is not possible to transform an existing selection area, you must destroy it first, when this should not be necessary. If you click on it and drag, it will drag the entire surface area, you cannot transform it into a single subcolumn by pressing “ALT” (or whatever modifier command is relevant).
The behavior could then be on an existing area:
- If you click and drag, drag the selection area.
- If you do ALT + click and drag, it will transform the selection area to select subcolumns, without the need to destroy previously (currently, ALT + click and drag also drags the entire selection area. I don’t think I should do that).
Combining modifier commands with the mouse click is a huge advantage in making the whole control of things more fluid, avoiding unnecessary steps. It would be possible to take this as a general idea to improve the issue of area selection with the mouse by combining it with the modifier commands:
“The modifier command + click takes priority over the existing selection area and drag”.