Editing, resizing and moving Labels

Peter 20May13: ToDo-2 Ready for editorial review and merciless editing.

Peter 11May13: ToDo All images with range labels are not strictly Connie compliant:

• On W7 latest alpha I always see the label just above and abutting the thin rectangle showing the label not partly obscuring it. The obscuring shows on XP so I assume this images was taken a while back and this is a subtle behavior difference W7 v. XP
• Connie would also require a deeper default track with the gain and pan sliders showing in the TCP.

• Bill 29May13: Let's leave these images as is. IIRC we opted for the shallower track height given the number of images on the page.

Methods for changing labels: moving them, resizing them, changing their text content.

Contents

1. Changing the length and position of labels with the mouse
2. Moving a point label
3. Expanding a point label
4. Moving and resizing a region label
5. Adjusting the junction point where two labels meet
6. Moving a label when there is a selection
7. Using cut, copy and paste
8. Using the Context Menu
9. Keeping labels synchronized with their audio

Changing the length and position of labels with the mouse

You can move a label by clicking and dragging its circle handle. You can change the length of a label by clicking and dragging its triangle handle.

Holding Shift while dragging reverses this behavior, so that dragging a circle handle changes the length of the label, and dragging a triangle handle moves the label. For example, this lets you resize a label by holding Shift while dragging its circle handle, then release Shift to move the resized label without having to move the mouse pointer to its triangle handle.

In the case where two labels meet you can adjust the junction point where they meet by clicking and dragging their shared circle handle.

Moving a point label

You can move a point label by clicking and dragging its circle handle:

Before	After

Expanding a point label

You can expand a point label into a region label by clicking and dragging either of its triangle handles:

Before	After

Moving and resizing a region label

You can move a region label by clicking and dragging either of its circle handles:

Before	After

You can change the length of a region label by clicking and dragging one of its triangle handles:

Before	After

Adjusting the junction point where two labels meet

You can adjust the junction point where two labels meet by clicking and dragging their shared circle handle:

Before	After

Moving a label when there is a selection

The illustration below shows what happens if you click in a label to select it, press Enter, then move the label.

Before	After

Contrast this to what happens if you click in a label to select it, then move the label.

Before	After

Using cut, copy and paste

The following examples of cutting labels with Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut will move back any labels that follow to right of the removed label(s). To cut the label without moving following labels, use Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Split Cut.

Cutting and Pasting Region Labels

You can cut and paste region labels using Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut and Edit > Paste, but you have to make sure you don't select any audio, or you will end up cutting and pasting audio where you probably didn't intend.

In the image below, the label was selected by clicking in it, then the audio track was unselected by shift-clicking in the Track Control Panel of the audio track (this can also be done with the keyboard by ENTER, UP then ENTER). The label was then cut to the clipboard with Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut:

To paste the label at a different point in the audio track, either a) click in the audio track at the point where you would like the label to begin then shift-click in the label track to select it; or b) click in the label track at the point where you would like the label to begin. The label can then be pasted to that spot using Edit > Paste.

Cutting and Pasting Point Labels

You can also cut and paste point labels, but the procedure is tricky. In the image below, the point label is selected for editing as in the above example with a region label, but there is no selected region in the label track.

What happens next depends on the setting of the "Select all audio in project, if none selected" preference in Tracks Preferences:

• If that preference is not selected, Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut will be disabled and pressing CTRL + X will do nothing.
• If that preference is selected and you do Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut, all audio and labels in the project will be cut to the clipboard.

To cut and paste a point label to a different location, first select the text of the label as shown below. Note the difference in appearance of selected label text (the text is highlighted separately from the box) versus a selected label (where the entire label box is highlighted).

Do Edit > Remove Audio or Labels > Cut - the text of the label is cut to the clipboard, leaving a label with no text. Press DELETE to delete the label. Click in the new location for the label and do Edit > Paste Text to New Label:

Using the Context Menu

ToDo Peter 10May13: the drop-down context menus are not Connie compliant - they are not W7 Basic / Audacity 2.0.4

• Bill 29May13: These are Mac images, which I believe is OK - W7 is not mandated, just preferred.

There is a handy feature where you can select an area of text in a label then right-click to cut, copy or paste over (if there is text currently in the clipboard) that text. This allows you to click in another label, right-click, then paste that text in. So in our example you could select and copy "Question" and then paste it into the appropriate labels without having to type that word every time. The example below shows one way this can be used.

Click in a label, then select the label text. Note the difference in appearance of selected label text (as shown below - the text is highlighted separately from the box) versus a selected label (where the entire label box is highlighted). Right-click in the label:

Now select the range of audio corresponding to the second question and click on Track > Add Label at Selection. Right click (control-click on a Mac) in the new label:

The text "Question" will be pasted into the label, and all you have to type is "2" to complete the label. Alternatively you could select the range in the label track instead of the audio track, then Edit > Paste Text to New Label to create the label with that text.

Peter 31May13: commenting out this section - we are experimenting with placing this on the landing page.

H2 Keeping labels synchronized with their audio H2

In many cases if you delete audio preceding a label you will want the label to move back so that it still relates to the audio it related to before the deletion. To achieve this, drag the selection down into the label track before deleting. Keyboard users can include the selection in the label track by pressing DOWN then ENTER. See Selecting using the keyboard.

To keep labels synchronized after deleting audio without having to select in the label track, enable Sync-Locked Tracks at Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks. This feature define groups of Sync-Locked audio and/or label tracks, such that a length-changing action in one track of the group affects all the others in the group, whether they are selected or not. For example, enable Sync-Lock Tracks when you want to insert audio and move the labels along as well as the audio.

See the Sync-Locked Track Groups page for more information.

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