Speed keys are absolutely essential when if you would like to be an expert Velvet Singer user. We optimized the software for the speed use and for our advanced users. But it really isn’t difficult to get your chops going! We believe that all of our customers can achieve a very high level of proficiency by memorizing a few simple speed keys.
You can click around the top menu bar to discover them. For example, the records menu shows speed keys assigned to Command+N, D, E, T, J, R and S. (On a Windows machine, these keys are the same but with Ctrl+ instead of Command). In the Auditions module, these speed keys will do the following things:
- N = New Audition
- D = Duplicate Audition
- E = Delete Audition
- T = Omit Audition (from the found set)
- J = Show All Auditions (if you only have a small found set)
- R = Modify Last Find
- S = Sort
Highest Priority Keys
If nothing else, each Velvet Singer user should memorize these six speed keys. It should take you about 1/100th of the time it would take to memorize an aria!
Command+ on Mac / Ctrl+ on Windows:
- 1 = Main Menu — then the first letter of the module (ex. “A” to go to auditions)
- 2 = Dashboard
- N = New Record
- J = Show All Records
Control+ on Mac / Ctrl+ on Windows:
- Down Arrow = Next Record
- Up Arrow = Previous Record
Once you arrive at the Main Menu (Command+1 / Ctrl+1), you can type ahead to navigate to the module. For example, type “A” to navigate to the Auditions module from the Main Menu. Type Command+1 to open the Main Menu then type “F” to navigate to the Finances Module.
- A = Auditions
- F = Finances
- R = Repertoire
- C = Contacts
- P = Projects
- E = Events
- M = eMail
- J = Journal
Show All Records may not be an obvious need but it made the list of highest priority speed keys because you may find yourself “stuck” viewing only a subset of records. For example, if you go to your Repertoire module and find “Mozart”, you may find only three (3) records out of twenty (20) or so. You navigate to the record you wanted (Dies Bildnis) and found out that you have performed it 14 times in public. You have what you need, but now you flip to the list view and only see three (3) records! Simply fire off Command+J (or Ctrl+J) to show all twenty (20) records again. It is essentially an “undo” button after finding data.
Scrolling to Previous and Next records also may not seem like it is worthy of recognition, but it is the speed key we use the most. In a list view you can certainly use the mouse to scroll through the records but on the detail view it can be slow to use the rolodex in the upper left hand corner to find what you need. Using Control+down arrow is the way to go. (While we are on this topic, fn+down arrow on Mac / PgDn on Windows scrolls through an entire page in list view.)
We followed-up with a few Northwestern Master’s students in a great spot over in the Library. This time I plugged in directly to a high-resolution flat screen TV. So much better than projectors. Way to go Northwestern.
We took the self-management questionnaires again but this time I shortened the discussion in order to transition to some new material. That said, once again I heard some great commentary as a result of the questionnaire exercise. We talked about mission statements and goals. My systems engineering professors used to preach that Goals should be:
This was the first class that I ran the software demonstration “skit” and most (but not all) of my little jokes landed right on cue. More importantly, the underlying message of the demonstration seemed to resonate: every step of your process can/should get documented, and it can be fun and easy. It doesn’t matter exactly how you do it. You will see huge payoffs by going through the process of being more deliberate and specific about what you “journal.”
I think the next thing we need to add is a hands-on tutorial & training session. I handed out exercises at the end of this short seminar, but I think we need to carve out a bit more time to do leave singers with a good set of skills.
This was the first installation & setup “workshop” that I have run and it was quite enlightening to see the array of computers and operating systems. Great testing for me, and the singers were hugely appreciative.