Nonetheless, after I used the program for a while, a certain method to the madness began to emerge. Moreover, the program does what it can to keep the user interface intuitive. For instance, the cursor changes appearance to reflect the current activity, adopting the look of the selected tool and graphically indicating the editing mode. SmartScore's design strongly encourages the use of keyboard shortcuts to speed up the editing process, and indeed, just about every tool in the program has a key assigned to it. Musitek suggests positioning your left hand so that your index finger rests on the C key with your other fingers resting on the X, Z, and Control keys.
Some tools remain awkward to use.
You can toggle between the three tools with a keyboard shortcut, but they still remain cumbersome to use. Another shortcoming is the lack of horizontal repositioning capability. To help you better visualize voice assignments, SmartScore lets you view your onscreen notation in one of two color modes. In Part mode, each staff is assigned its own MIDI channel and appears with its own color. In Voice mode, individual voices within a staff appear as one of four preset colors, with each voice having its own MIDI channel and parameter settings.