Status Bar

Peter 13Aug14: ToDo-2 This newly published page is ready for review and merciless editing.

The associated Talk page carries a critique of the Status Bar messages (and related rollover messages).

Currently the only links to it are from hovering over the relevant part of "Bill's-amazing-imagemap" and from the On-Demand Loading and the Recording length pages - do we need/want other links to it?

• Gale 14Aug14: Thanks Peter. I tweaked parts of it. I can't think of anywhere else to link to it, unless we want a FAQ for Actual Rate (see below).

  Should Mixer Toolbar be second section? Users should adjust recording volume before recording.

  I'm not sure why non-default images are used in some cases e.g Selection Format of hh:mm:ss + samples and Sync-Lock on in the ODL image.

  Can you please going forward remove the link from new images given "no linking" is now the general policy. It looks like we need a second Img template because the colon we indent larger images with doesn't work with the existing template for some reason. I'll make that new template soon.

The Audacity Status Bar is to be found at the bottom of the Audacity window. It cannot be relocated or floated. Its function is to display messages about recording or playback, to indicate parts of Audacity that are being hovered over by the mouse, and to provide hints about how to use Audacity.

Audacity version

Each time you launch Audacity the Status Bar will show the version of Audacity that you are running:

You can always check what the currently available version of Audacity is at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ .

Mixer Toolbar

When you hover over the sliders in Mixer Toolbar the Playback and Recording volumes are displayed in the left-hand section of the Status Bar.

Actual Rate

Gale 14Aug14: I don't know if the details I added are wanted here or somewhere else (a FAQ?), but I think if we don't say a bit more it just invites questions. Even what I wrote is very simplified. I am mildly in favour of a FAQ which could mention "Error Opening" - notice that the new Actual Rate appears even when "Error Opening" appears. But this is only a P2.

When you start playing or recording the Actual Rate in the right-hand section of the Status Bar updates to display the active sample rate. "Actual Rate" when playing should be the rate communicated by Audacity to the sound card. "Actual Rate" when recording is the rate communicated by the sound card to Audacity.

In general terms, the actual rate for playback will be the project rate chosen in Selection Toolbar. If the sound card does not support the rate you choose, Audacity will try to resample the audio to the highest available (or next higher) rate supported by the card, and this rate will appear as "Actual Rate".

When recording, the actual rate sent by the sound card to Audacity can often differ from the chosen project rate, depending how the "Host" chosen in Device Toolbar handles the card's settings in the operating system. For an explanation of how this works on Windows Vista and later, see the sample rates section of the Windows 7 Wiki page. If the "Actual Rate" is different from the project rate then Audacity will resample from "Actual Rate" to the project rate.

Recording length

When recording, the audio data is written to your hard disk. For example, if you record without having yet saved a Project, the data is written to Audacity's temporary folder specified in Directories Preferences. Therefore, the amount of time you can record for is limited by the available disk space on the drive you are writing to. There are no other restrictions on recording length. As soon as you start your first recording in the current project window, the left-hand section of the Status Bar gives a clear indication of how long you can record for, based on that remaining space:

The "Disk space remains" message will continue to display thereafter as soon as you leave the mouse stationary for a couple of seconds.

The time remaining will be less at higher project rates and higher bit depths because these will require more disk space. See Quality Preferences for details.

Reading files directly using On-Demand Loading

When reading imported uncompressed_files files directly from the original files, the percentage of the waveform that has been computed is displayed in the left-hand section of the Status Bar. When multiple files are being imported, the Status Bar will display the overall percentage of the multiple tracks that has been computed. To make the Status Bar display the percentage completion of a particular track, move the mouse over that track.

File:Status Bar ODL 76 percent.png

Other Status Bar displays

When you hover over any track in the window the left-hand section of Status Bar displays "Click and drag to select audio" advising how to make a selection in the track. When you release the drag or otherwise hover over the left or right edge of a selection, the Status Bar message changes to advise that you can click and drag to move that selection boundary.

Many other buttons and tools in the Audacity window will display the name of the button or tool in the left-hand section of Status Bar when you hover over the button or tool. Buttons in Transport Toolbar that display a Status Bar message include in parentheses the current keyboard shortcut for that button.

Grab Handle

The small hatched triangular area at bottom right of the Status Bar indicates where you can drag with the mouse to resize the Audacity window up, down, left or right on any operating system.