Label Tracks
- Gale wrote by email 10May13: I tend to agree, but a custom TOC may be sufficient to see the wood for the trees. Possible candidates for separate pages would be:
- Creating and selecting labels
- Removing labels
- Editing labels
- Labels Editor - Gale added this suggestion by email 13May13
- A landing page with split off pages would still have to address in summary how to create, select, remove and edit labels.
- Peter 11May13: Ed also voted on the Manual email list to add a custom TOC to aid navigation. So I will do this as a first step and then we can consider further.
- Peter 11May13: The more I look at this page the more the two sections Creating and selecting labels and Editing labels look tutorial-like and thus probably would benefit from being spun-off onto sub-pages of their own - of course leaving summaries of how to approach these tasks.
- Gale by email 11May13: I think we should keep the idea of a split on the back burner, though a custom TOC would probably do for now. Labels are a major but still somewhat underdeveloped feature so e.g. if new buttons or right-click menus were added to them, or features to select multiple labels, it would expand the page further.
- Gale by email 13May13: I'm not going to stand in your way if you want to develop separate pages in your user space as you usually do. I think it will come to having to split pages off sooner or later if label features expand.
- Peter 14May13: OK I'll mark that as a future project for myself. At the moment it's still a bit of a work-in-progress so I'd like it to get to a bit of stability before I start deconstructing/reconstructing it (otherwise I have to mirror all changes).
- 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.
- This is probably P2 and may not be regarded as a release blocker.
- Peter 11May13: There are 30-odd pages that would require updating and a low ROI for the amount of effort involved. Are we happy to leave these for now and downgrade the P2 to a Px to retain a placeholder?
Contents
- Features of a label track
- The Label Track Drop-down Menu
- Creating Labels
- Adding labels while playing or recording
- Selecting a label
- Removing labels
- Editing labels
- Importing and Exporting Labels
Features of a label track
- Labels can be used to annotate or mark, with text labels, selected points or regions of audio.
- The labels can be moved, modified or deleted.
- They provide a convenient way to mark different songs in a recording then export them to differently named audio files using
.
- Example of a mono track with a label track which has a region label and a point label.
The Label Track Drop-down Menu
- Name
- Displays the "Track Name" dialog where you can give the track a new name. Useful in multi-track projects to provide a visual indication of the content of each track.
- Font
- Displays the "Label Track Font" dialog where you can set the font and font size of the labels. Note that this applies to all label tracks.
- Moving Tracks
- Tracks can be moved up and down using the menu items.
- Move Track Up: Moves track up.
- Move Track Down: Moves track down.
Creating Labels
Suppose that you have a recording of an interview and you want to annotate the questions and answers so you can easily jump directly to a particular question or answer later on. Initially, you may have something like the image below. Without any annotation it's almost impossible to tell them apart just looking at the waveform.
Here, we select the first question with the mouse (below). This may require listening to the audio several times to determine the exact boundaries of the selection.
Now click on , or type its keyboard shortcut ( CTRL + B on Windows/Linux or CMND + B on the Mac). This creates a new label track and a blank label outlining the current selection (below).
The cursor is automatically positioned inside the label, just type the name of the label then press Enter (pressing Enter allows you to use any current keyboard shortcuts normally--you could press Space to listen to the selection again if you wished). In the image below we've typed Question 1.
After this question comes the answer from the person being interviewed. We'll select this one by starting from the right side of the answer and dragging to the left. Note that a vertical yellow guide appears when we get to the edge of the first label, making it easy to line up the two labels (below). It's common for the next label to start exactly where the previous one ends, but it's not necessary.
Once again, click on to create the next label, then type its name and press ENTER.
In the following image, we've added even more labels.
And here is a complete label track with several labels
Alternative Method Using Point Labels
In the example above we used region labels to mark the interview segments. We could just as easily have used point labels.
For example, we could click in the audio track at the beginning of the first question then click on to create the point label.
Similarly, we could click in the audio track at the beginning of the first answer then click on to create the second point label.
Either method is equally valid. Region labels have the advantage that clicking in the label text selects the audio spanned by the region label, which may be useful in some situations.
Adding labels while playing or recording
You can also create point or region labels while playing or recording. To mark a point while playing or recording, use the command or its keyboard shortcut CTRL + M. This adds a point label at the current Audio Position indicated in Selection Toolbar.
To mark a region while playing or recording, click and drag the selection region while you are listening to the track, then use the same Add Label at Selection command (or CTRL + B shortcut) as when adding a region when the track is stopped.
Selecting a label
When you click inside a label to select it, the label is opened so its name can be edited, and the cursor point or region of audio the label corresponds to is restored. The cursor point or region will also be selected in any other currently selected audio tracks.
Use Tab on your keyboard to select forwards to the next label, and Shift + Tab to select backwards to the previous label. If no label is selected but the Label Track has focus (shown by the yellow border), Tab will select the first label then cycle forwards through the labels, and Shift + Tab will select the last label then cycle backwards through the labels.
Removing labels
Removing labels without moving back any following labels
These methods let you remove labels without moving back any labels that follow to right of the removed labels(s). The labels to right thus remain synchronized with their audio.
Remove one or multiple labels at once: Select any region that extends beyond the label(s) to be removed (without reaching other labels and without selecting in any audio tracks), then choose . You can also use the Split Delete shortcut CTRL + ALT + K instead of the menu.
Remove an individual label: Open the label, remove the text then press Backspace or Delete once to remove the empty label. This can be achieved in several ways, for example:
- Single-click before the first character in the label text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home), then press the Delete key until the text is removed, then press Delete once more.
- Single-click before the first character in the label text (or click anywhere in the text then press Home), then hold Shift and press End. Now press Delete twice.
- Single-click anywhere after the first character in the label text, then use first Backspace then Delete if needed until the text and label are removed.
- Peter 10May13:I agree with Ed that this is awkwardly worded and may not be the most natural way which I always thought was to place the cursor at the end of the label and press DELETE repeatedly to remove the text and then one extra time to remove the label itself. But what this really shows is the cack-handed label handling that we have in Audacity. We do really need a Delete Label function imo. I seem to recall that recently on the forum we were discussing the possibility of adding such a command the drop-down menu that you get when you right click a label - did that just run aground?
- And now that Gale has taught me the trick of using split delete I find selecting in the label track and using Ctrl+Alt+K the easiest and quickest way of accomplishing this task.
- Gale 10May13: It was confusing before. It said "Single-click in the text of an individual label, then press the DELETE or BACKSPACE key (as appropriate) on your keyboard until the text is removed." What it actually means is that unless you click before the first character, you have to use both DELETE and BACKSPACE, or the operation comes to a halt. I find that a horrible way to delete, personally, and it ignores the fact that some Apple keyboards don't have BACKSPACE. So we cannot have that as the only method. I agree that BACKSPACE fails in what I wrote, sorry.
@Peter: If you place the cursor at the end of the label. then press DELETE, nothing happens. You meant BACKSPACE :=) Yes I support Steve's label delete if he makes it discoverable with a button or right-click, otherwise it adds too little.
Attempted rewrite above (which doesn't mention drag-select all the text then DELETE or BACKSPACE twice). An alternative would be to leave the first sentence as is and then only give one (or no) examples. Also I converted to kbrd template as these are not Audacity shortcuts, but standard keyboard use.
Ed 10May13 : I made a tiny change but I'm now very happy with this. @Peter - if you are happy go ahead and delete this editor note. - Gale 11May13: Thanks, Ed. I disagree with making the former note the final bullet point. That method has nothing to with removing the text as the label removal method. I made two sections (1) for removing an individual label (2) for removing one or more labels (the former note content, but not in a note). Also I tweaked the "BACKSPACE and DELETE" method again because it wasn't clear even then. And then I realised we give no keyboard method to remove an individual label (short of Labels Editor), so I added that too. Still OK?
- Peter 11May13: @Gale: I'm sorry but I just don't agree with what used to be the note (copy below) becoming reworded and sub-headed as "Remove multiple labels at once:". That implies that this cute trick is perhaps restricted to the removal of multiple labels. Sure the smart ones will figure out they can use it for single label removal - but there is no need to imply such a restriction as this may cause some readers just to gloss over it if they want single label removal. And I thought that this trick was so cute and so useful, after years of struggling with label deletion, that I thought that it deserved some promotional prominence (I am an ex-Marketeer as well as an ex-mathematician :-} ) which is why I decided to encase it in the note div. So my *definite* preference is to re-instate the note as-was - maybe even adding Top Tip: as a preface.
- Gale 10May13: It was confusing before. It said "Single-click in the text of an individual label, then press the DELETE or BACKSPACE key (as appropriate) on your keyboard until the text is removed." What it actually means is that unless you click before the first character, you have to use both DELETE and BACKSPACE, or the operation comes to a halt. I find that a horrible way to delete, personally, and it ignores the fact that some Apple keyboards don't have BACKSPACE. So we cannot have that as the only method. I agree that BACKSPACE fails in what I wrote, sorry.
- And now that Gale has taught me the trick of using split delete I find selecting in the label track and using Ctrl+Alt+K the easiest and quickest way of accomplishing this task.
- Peter later 11May13: actually I now realize that the above note is not strictly true in all circumstances. If you have your preferences set to "Retain labels if selection snaps to label edge" (albeit this is not the default setting for this preference) then when you have a range label with the selection over it and abutting to its edge and then use Ctrl+Alt+K then the range label will remain but be shrunk to a point label. Similarly a range label can be shrunk in this way when the selected area is over part of the range label. I *really* don't want to get into such subtleties and intricacies here (the page is complicated enough already) rather I would reword the note more simply " ... select any region extending over the label(s), then choose ... "
- Gale 12May13: I felt the cute trick note was a bit weak before on pointing out that you could deal with multiple labels. Actually this is dexterous mouse use (think if the labels are close together and you want to remove one in the middle). The cute method can be done with keyboard only, but with many steps. I think extending "beyond" is a little clearer than "over". Does it look better now? I prefer to use the note div for "Keyboard use" as elsewhere.
- Peter 13May13: Looks much better now Imo. I like the fact that not only is the "cute trick" strengthened but particularly I like that it comes ahead of the cack-handed ways of doing this. I'm happy with the way it is now.
Removing labels (or regions of label track), moving back any following labels
You can remove labels or regions between labels by selecting over or between labels, then choose or . If you remove part of an area inside a region label, this will reduce the length of the label. Labels following to right of the removed labels will always move backwards according to the length of the removed selection.
When removing parts of the label track you may often want to remove the corresponding audio too, so that the remaining labels still relate to their original audio. To remove the audio region as well as the label region, either drag the selection upwards to include the audio track or enable Sync-Locked tracks.
is not strictly true in all circumstances. If you have your preferences set to "Retain labels if selection snaps to label edge" (albeit this is not the default setting for this preference)
Removing all your labels
You can also remove all labels at once by removing the label track entirely. To do this, click in the track and choose . Alternatively, click the close box in the upper-left corner of the label track.
Editing labels
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
Cutting and Pasting Region Labels
You can cut and paste region labels using and , 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 :
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 .
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, will be disabled and pressing CTRL + X will do nothing.
- If that preference is selected and you do , 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 - 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 :
Using the Context Menu
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 . 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 to create the label with that text.
Labels Editor
launches a keyboard-accessible Labels Editor. This shows all the labels at once in a tabular view, similar to a spreadsheet. Each row represents a single individual label:
Use the Arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate easily left, right, up or down between the table cells and rows. Closing the editor with a label row selected selects that label in the label track (without opening it for editing). Pressing SPACE will then move the view to the start of that label and play the audio from the start of that label.
To open a cell for editing, use F2 or double-click. To confirm the edit, press Enter to move down into the same cell in the next label, or Tab to move into the following cell for the current label. Similarly, hold Shift and press Tab to move back to the previous cell for that label.
Opening the Start Time or End Time cell for editing lets you use Left or Right arrow keys to move between selected time digits, then Up or Down arrow keys to increment the digits. Alternatively you can type the number wanted for the selected digit. Labels Editor shows the selection format currently chosen in Selection Toolbar. To change the format temporarily to some other unit of time or to samples, audio CD frames or film frames, use the context key on your keyboard or click the downward-pointing arrow to right of the digits.
Navigating into any cell in the row for that label (or selecting that cell with the mouse) selects that label for action by the following three buttons:
- Insert After: Insert a single label into the list after the selected label
- Insert Before: Insert a single label into the list before the selected label
- Remove: Remove the selected label without moving back any following labels.
After using either Insert button, type the label name, then Tab into and open the Start Time and End Time cells in turn to set the position of the new label.
Import... and Export... buttons: These respectively import a labels file or export all the labels to a text file (irrespective of which labels are selected). The buttons for import and export are equivalent to the File Menu commands for importing and exporting labels as described below.
Moving a label to a new label track: In the row for the label you want to move, open the cell under the "Track" column. Then select New... 
, press Enter on your keyboard (or use the Label Editor's button), type the name of the new track then press Enter. This will move the label in that row to the new track. The new label track is now selectable in the Track cells in all rows.
Creating a new empty label track and adding a label to it: Use either Insert button to add a new label row, then open the Track cell in that row and choose New... and press Enter as above to allocate that label to a new track. It is often easiest to do this by selecting the top row then inserting before that row. The new row then remains selected after naming the new track, then you can Tab into the other fields as needed to name the label and set the label position.
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You cannot save empty labels that have no label text using Labels Editor, even if you are editing an existing label track that contains empty labels. Any empty labels will be removed from the label track(s) after closing the editor, unless you press Cancel. |
Keeping labels synchronized with their audio
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 . 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.
Importing and Exporting Labels
Existing labels are saved whenever you create an Audacity project. Audacity labels have a tab-delimited plain text format that can be opened by any text editor or spreadsheet program. The format looks like this:
0.450000 → 0.450000 → point label- 1.400000 → 3.100000 → region label
- 4.150000 → 4.150000 → Question 1
- 5.700000 → 5.700000 → Answer 1
- 8.100000 → 8.100000 → Question 2
- 9.800000 → 9.800000 → Answer 2
The first column has the start time in seconds, the second column has the end time, and the third column has the name of the label. Start time and end time are identical if the label marks the cursor position rather than a selection region. Values are separated by tab characters (which will often appear as an arrow in text editors, as shown above).
Sometimes it may be useful to use these labels in another program (for example if somebody wanted to know the time where each piece of an interview starts or stops), or to import a labels file that someone has shared with you.
You can export labels using the Edit Labels editor window, or by choosing . By default the exported file has the same name as the current name of the label track. If there are multiple label tracks, the labels of all those tracks are combined into a single label track in the exported file, which by default has the same name as the current name of the last label track.
Labels can be imported using the Edit Labels editor window, or by choosing . Imported label tracks are added to the bottom of all existing track types in the project, just as when you import an audio track.
If you use a Windows application to create the file, you may have to use "Save As" and look for a specific option that saves with UTF-8 encoding.
