I posted this awhile ago, got no notice.   But in reading the Reference Guide, the documentation says one thing and the program, Sonar Plat, does another thing:
 
Page 1370: "In the Track Inspector, force Sonar to play the trumpet track a whole step lower by entering -2 (negative 2) in the Key+ field and pressing ENTER".
 
Try it for yourself.   If you are not accustomed to sonar's current wild state, you'll be shuddering for half an hour.
 
Of course the REAL design flaw is the choice of number keys as adamantine choices for screen sets. 
 
 

williamcopper
I posted this awhile ago, got no notice.   But in reading the Reference Guide, the documentation says one thing and the program, Sonar Plat, does another thing:
 
Page 1370: "In the Track Inspector, force Sonar to play the trumpet track a whole step lower by entering -2 (negative 2) in the Key+ field and pressing ENTER".
 
Try it for yourself.   If you are not accustomed to sonar's current wild state, you'll be shuddering for half an hour.
 
Of course the REAL design flaw is the choice of number keys as adamantine choices for screen sets. 
 
 

I'm not sure what you are saying. I use the transpose key field all the time in the Inspector and don't have a problem with it. I do use the mouse wheel or pointer to go up an octave or down an octave.
 
You may wish to try and use the number keys on the keypad with numlock. 

Maybe the Ref. Guide doesn't make clear that you need to double-click the field or focus it and hit Enter first to enable editing the value... otherwise your numeric keys will change screensets by default.

Can't be done.   Unless I have somehow upset a configuration preference or something, you CAN NOT enter a value into the field.   And of course, you think you have placed your cursor in the field, start typing numbers, and the screensets go wild.  
 
As to using it, yes I have to use it all the time, but drawing the little slider for a french horn, for instance, exactly 7 half steps down, takes an annoying degree of focus and precision mousing to get the right number. 

Bring the field in focus by clicking on it
Hit ENTER to open up the spinbox
Use the typewriter key numbers to enter the value
Hit Enter to save the value
 
The numeric keypad + and - will also adjust the value whether the spinbox is open or not as long as the field has focus. So too, the mouse wheel and SHIFT+wheel.
 
The numbers on the numeric keypad are the screenset shortcuts.

Hitting Enter works for me. Also with the field focused you can use +/- keys to increment/decrement by half-steps or square brackets, [ ], to inc/dec by octaves.

Clicking the field and pressing Enter works for me, as noted by others.
 
Some research on earlier versions shows that the "Key+" field widget changed between Sonar X1 and Sonar X2.  In X1 the field was identical in appearance and function to the "Time +" field and the text box and spinner could be exposed by double clicking on the field.  In X2 and later, the field widget gained a slider and now requires pressing Enter to open the text box with spinner.
 
Agree that the documentation should more clearly explain how to use the field due to the widget change.

williamcopper
Of course the REAL design flaw is the choice of number keys as adamantine choices for screen sets. 

 
Sonar is quite flexible when it comes to keyboard shortcuts.  Suggest binding the number keys to another function, such as Note duration (1=Whole Note, 2=Half Note, etc.) followed by binding Shift+number to the View | Screenset functions.

I found a neat way to enter values into the Key+ widget use the plus or minus key of the key pad. Each press will change it one value. You can use a mouse click to center it. The wheel to change value or the pointer to drag the value slider to a value. In other words there are a ton of way to enter data into this widget.  The OP is right about entering data with the number keys that doesn't work. 

Thanks to all.  I had gotten used to double-click being exactly the same as click-enter; never tried click-enter, but that does work for numeric input.   One more little thing to remember, but it works, and that's great.