Transport Toolbar

Peter 25Nov14: ToDo-1 The red-bordered image (as per Bill's suggestion( will either need to be implemented or removed.

• Gale 26Nov14: I think the red-bordered image is un-necessary given we have Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context . Why not just link the original image to Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context#transport?
• Peter 26Nov14: We are trialling the red-boxed image here to see what it looks like as Bill said he might prefer to avoid having the Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context page by having in context images on each Toolbar page. The questions are a) do we like the look of the red-bordered image on the Xxx Toolbar pages and b) would this way also fulfill Koz' original request from the email thread that kicked all this off. I can live with a) quite happily, I rather like the context on the Xxxx Toolbar page. For b) I suspect the answer is yes - in fact it's probably better than having Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context as it provided the context followed by the detail of the Toolbar. I would vote +1 for Bill's suggestion.
• Peter 27Nov14: Following feedback from Gale in the related Forum thread I have removed the trialled red-bordered image - but I have made the toolbar image link to the in-context page.
• Gale 27Nov14: I did see the point that this could replace Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context but it would have been too confusing without having original and context image plus extra text. I am still (just about) OK with Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context but (yet again) I would suggest the supposed "problem" of context is a problem of helping less able users on the Forum. Because this is not a problem in the Manual (now we have a context image on Toolbars Overview), Toolbars_red-boxed_in_context looks odd/pointless. We could just as easily store these context images in the Forum, and not create pages for the sake of it in the Manual.
• Peter 27Nov14: Personally I really do see the point of the red-boxed in-context page. It is not just "a Forum issue" - one of the key target audiences for this Manual is Newbies and they need all the help they can get with the fairly complex GUI that we now have. Furthermore I, personally, would prefer to maintain such images here in the Manual where we operate the P1/P2 schema to note and manage important GUI changes. So my vote is +1 for retaining it.
  • Gale 27Nov14: We could still have a page like Linked but for images that are linked. I suggested on Toolbars red-boxed in context that to reduce the oddity we could have a thumbmail context image on each toolbar's page linking to the full-sized image and not to a page containing only an image. The image would be embedded in the Forum reply (much better for naive users than giving them a link they very likely won't click). We still give them a link to the actual Manual page that has useful content, and then they don't have to find the link on the page for the image to the page that actually has the content.
• Peter 27Nov14: Having just seen that Leland had removed his "rack" from the Edit Toolbar and realized that many images would need to be updated I am coming round to the idea of losing the Toolbars red-boxed in context page in favour of an annotated green-boxed top tooldock image or "Toolbars Overview", not least because we'll have the work to do all over again once 2.1.0 is released and the rack returns for the 2.1.1 alphas.
  • Bill 27Nov2014: I'm not concerned about the work required to re-do the in-context images for 2.1.1. It's just that I really don't like the in-context page as currently implemented, and as I've commented on that page.
    I could live with a separate in-context page for each toolbar that has nothing but the image and a link back to the toolbar's page. That way users could see the toolbar in context without the explosion of red-boxed toolbar images (it will be crystal clear where that specific toolbar lives), we could like to each of those pages in the forum if required and once a forum user goes to that page they have a link to the toolbar's main page.
  • Peter 27Nov14: +1 to Bill's proposal. That was the way I was going originally but thought at the time that a consolidated page might have got better acceptance - should've stuck to my original plan ... I will do some work on this tomorrow.

Ed 25Nov14 : in the intro div we have a grammatical error (fixed) as well as two bulleted items created out of a single sentence. The bulleted list looks "wrong" without a label; the second item on the list is a sentence fragment and probably should not have a trailing period. Personally, I think the bulleted list should be removed completely and the two items be made into a compound sentence:

Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback, recording and for moving to the project start or end; these buttons can also be controlled by keyboard shortcuts.

• Gale 26Nov14: Except that Connie does not like sentences divided by semicolons. I just made two sentences. I agree there is no need for bullets in such short text.

Transport Toolbar is a toolbar for controlling playback, recording and for moving to the project start or end. The buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts.

Gale 27Nov14: Why was this image made into an image map?

• Peter 27Nov14: so that it (rather than its sister image on Toolbars Overview page) can link to the in-context page. This is as I discussed on the Forum thread today and what I inferred from what you wrote yesterday in that thread.
• Gale 27Nov14: Are we using this as an image map? If not, why not the standard code to link an image to a page using custom hover text?:

Transport Toolbar showing default ergonomic layout of buttons, annotated - click on the image to see the toolbar displayed in context outlined in red

• Peter 28Nov14: I reverted to the unlinked standard image - Bill's annotated image provides sufficient context I believe.
  • Peter 28Nov14: and then I reverted to the imagemap so that I can link back to the topdock image in Toolbars Overview - I can't make the display text work with a non-dead link=
  • Gale 28Nov14: Sorry but I don't like using image maps when it isn't. Fixed, also explained what "context" means in the tooltip. I would not know what it means if we had not been having this conversation.

Transport Toolbar showing default ergonomic layout of buttons, annotated - click on the image to see this toolbar displayed in context of the default upper tooldock layout

Pause  Transport > Pause or P

Temporarily pauses playing or recording without losing your place. Click Pause a second time to resume.

You cannot edit a track (for example, run effects on it) while it is paused. Use Transport > Play/Stop and Set Cursor (or its shortcut SHIFT + A) to stop and set the cursor at the stop point, then after editing you can click the Play button to restart playback from that stop position.

Play  Transport > Play/Stop or SPACE

If an area of track is selected, only that selection will be played. Otherwise, playback begins wherever the editing cursor is.

• To loop-play (play the track or selection over and over until you stop), hold down SHIFT while clicking Play. This causes the button image to change to loop-play The Loop Play button. You can use the SHIFT + SPACE shortcut to start loop-play instead.

Gale 19Aug14: On Mac, neither CTRL or COMMAND perform Play Cut Preview due to bug 746 so text below is commented out.

• To cut-play (play audio either side of a selection to preview what deleting the selection will sound like), hold down CTRL (or COMMAND on a Mac computer) while clicking Play. You can use the C shortcut to preview the cut instead.

• You can press Play when there is already playback or when playback is paused to restart playback immediately from the editing cursor or selection.

The Play button in Transport Toolbar plays at standard speed, or as speeded up or slowed down over time by adding a Time Track envelope. The easiest way to play at a fixed faster or slower speed is to use Transcription Toolbar.

Stop  Transport > Play/Stop or SPACE

Stops playing or recording immediately, and releases Pause if depressed. You must stop playback or recording before you can use the "Skip" buttons below and before you can edit any audio.

Skip to Start  Transport > Skip to Start or HOME

Move the cursor to the beginning of the project. This is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new track starting from the beginning.

Skip to End  Transport > Skip to End or END

Move the cursor to the end of the project.

Holding down SHIFT while clicking Skip to Start extends a selection region from the cursor position or current selection area to the start of the project. Holding down SHIFT with Skip to End similarly extends a selection region to the end of the project.

Record  Transport > Record or R

Clicking Record or using the R shortcut always begins recording in a new track at either the current cursor position or at the beginning of the current selection.

You can Append Record (start recording at the end of the currently selected track(s)) by holding down SHIFT while clicking Record (or use its shortcut SHIFT + R).

Alternative button order

The default "ergonomic" order of buttons on the Transport Toolbar can be unchecked in Interface Preferences to give this alternative order:

Any users who had the CleanSpeech customized interface enabled in 1.3.13 or earlier 1.3 versions of Audacity will find that Transport Toolbar has an empty space which previously contained the CleanSpeech button. This space can be removed by choosing View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars .