Timeline

Bill 22Apr11: extensive changes - have I got this right?

• Gale: 24Apr11 Think so - see if you like my design changes. In what I call the "legend", how about images for "selected region", "editing cursor" and with "playback start position cursor" attached to it?
• Bill 24Apr11: Perfect. The legend before the examples is much better, as is the bold header above each example. Added cursor images to the legend.
• Peter 24Apr11: Looks good to me to. A couple of points about the Quick-Play region:
  • Selecting a Quick-Play region and releasing the mouse will not only interrupt any existing playback - it will also interrupt any recording that is ongoing... We either need to document this recording-interrupt behavior on this page as a warning to users, or log it in Bugzilla as a bug to be fixed.
    • Gale: Bill's added it as bug 385 though I think it is no more than an enhancement issue if it as an issue at all. I've documented it below.
  • It is also possible to select a single-point Click-Play "region" by clicking in the timeline and releasing the mouse...
    • Gale: It would appear to already be documented below.

The Timeline displays a horizontal ruler above the tracks measuring time from zero (the start of the track). Depending on zooming the ruler may span minutes of audio or give a "close up" view of a few seconds or fractions of a second.

Legend for symbols displayed on the ruler

• The selected region: (when present) is shown as a shaded region on the ruler. Pressing Play or Record on Transport Toolbar plays or records from the left edge of this region.
• The editing cursor: (always present when there is no selected region) is shown as a black vertical line. When "Quick-Play" is not active, the playback start position cursor is attached to it . Pressing Play or Record plays from this cursor position.
• The playback cursor: (when playing or paused during play) is shown as a green triangle.

• To start immediate "Quick-Play" playback from a particular point (even if the track is already playing, recording or paused), hover over the Timeline until the mouse cursor changes to a hand, then left-click without dragging. Playback will continue to the end of the track.

• The record cursor: (when recording or paused during record) is shown as a red triangle.
• Quick-Play region: A selectable region that plays immediately "on demand", shown by arrowheads with a line connecting them.

• To start "Quick-Play" of a region (even if the track is already playing, recording or paused), hover over the Timeline until the mouse cursor changes to a hand, then drag in either direction and release. Playback will continue to the end of the Quick-Play region. Neither an already selected region nor the editing cursor is modified by Quick-Play.

Examples of the Timeline in use

Standard playback shows: The editing cursor (the black vertical bar) The playback start position cursor (the left-pointing gray triangle with short gray vertical bar to left) When Quick-Play is not active (see below) the editing cursor and the playback start position cursor are always at the same point on the Timeline, and together are called the standard cursor The playback cursor (the green triangle) - playback will continue until stopped..

Recording with no selection present shows: The editing cursor and the playback start position cursor (as above) The recording cursor (the red triangle) - recording will continue until stopped.

After clicking in the Timeline to initiate "Quick-Play": The editing cursor position is unchanged The playback start position cursor moves to the point clicked The playback cursor shows the current playback position.

After clicking and dragging in the Timeline to initiate "Quick-Play" of a region: The editing cursor position is unchanged The playback cursor shows the current playback position The "Quick-Play" region is indicated by the horizontal gray bar with arrows on each end.

After clicking and dragging in the waveform: Instead of the editing cursor, a shaded region shows the time range of the selected audio. The playback region is indicated by the horizontal gray bar with arrows on each end.

For other methods of navigating to playback points or areas, see Playing and Recording.