Also, open climb on the MCP? If Scottish said 'climb now FL230' and I am on the Edinburgh GOSAM1C Departure in managed altitude and heading, how do I set the aircraft to climb straight to FL230, ignoring SID altitude constraints along the way - A quick way, instead of deleting the constraints in the MCDU Flight Plan page?
Well, it is called the FCU in airbus speak, not the MCP. And if you want to go in to open climb/descent simply pull the altitude select knob.
Unlike the boeing the airbus does not go into descent on its own if a lower altitude is selected and one hits the top of descent. It will continue on at the cruise altitude, give a scratch pad and PFD message "DECELERATE" but does nothing. Something i see a lot with freshly released pilots that transitioned from the boeing to the bus, and yes, it has happened to me as well. In that case either pull or push the altitude selector knob, pull gives open descent, push managed. If you push it slightly before the TOD it will initially go into a roughly 1000 fpm descent until it captures the managed path and follows that down.
That pushing/pulling thing is something one has to get used if coming from a "button" plane like the boeing, even after more than a year i sometimes still get it wrong, but watching the FMA (which is key) it is easily cought and corrected. I have no idea how that is simulated on a screen though.