Devices & Shortcuts

With forScore 8, we introduced the Devices panel, allowing forScore users to connect to Bluetooth Smart accessories that are both versatile and power efficient. Some people use it to connect to their iRig BlueBoard pedalboard to turn pages and more, and others use it to improve their annotation abilities with a smart stylus: we launched the Devices panel with support for FiftyThree’s Pencil and Adonit’s Jot Script, and added support for Adonit’s Jot Touch and Wacom’s Bamboo Fineline with forScore 8.1 a few months later.

Bluetooth Smart devices offer much better battery life than older Bluetooth devices and, for devices like a smart stylus, can give developers like us enough information to implement features such as palm rejection and pressure-sensitive drawing. There’s one benefit that may not seem as obvious, though, and that’s how forScore can use buttons on one of these devices. In the ‘Page turners & shortcuts’ section of forScore’s settings panel, you can map these button presses to specific forScore actions. Just tap one of the actions, then press the button on your device. Now any time you press that button, forScore will perform that action.

There’s more, though: since forScore can communicate directly with these kinds of devices, we can tell not only when a physical button is pressed, but we can also tell when it’s released. That means we can do two different things for a quick press or a longer press and hold. So now your single-button stylus can perform two separate actions, or your two-button Jot Touch can perform up to four. And, for the ultimate power user, the iRig BlueBoard lets you connect two additional pedals through auxiliary jacks for up to twelve possible actions, assuming you can remember them all!