Transport Toolbar

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Revision as of 09:38, 28 December 2007 by Windinthew (talk | contribs) (Half a reply to James)
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Post 1.4.0 we look at having an annotated image at the top of the page with the buttons labelled....

We should do that for all pages where the "detailed" text is sufficiently short that we don't have quick text as well. Tools Toolbar badly needs that as the image looks pretty stupid as it is. I was already thinking of something similar, but had no time. Gale




Current Version (Like Tools Toolbar)
Default layout of Control Toolbar buttons
The Control Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording. All these buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts.

Play.png Play

If an area of track is selected, only that selection will be played. Otherwise, playback begins wherever the selection cursor is. ///To start playback from the beginning, choose Skip to Start.///

File:Loop.png Loop

Hold down Shift while pressing Play to loop the current selection or the whole track, playing it over and over again until you press Stop.

Record.png Record

Recording begins at either the current cursor location or at the beginning of the current selection. Pressing Record always creates a new track, but holding down Shift while pressing Record starts the recording at the end of the currently selected track(s).

Stop.png Stop

Stops playing or recording immediately.

Pause.png Pause

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

Rewind.png Skip to Start

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

FFwd.png Skip to End

Move the cursor to the end of the audio.





Alternative (Like Edit Toolbar)
Default layout of Control Toolbar buttons
  • The Control Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording.
  • These buttons can also be controlled with keyboard shortcuts.
  • The order of buttons on the Control Toolbar can be changed using an option in Interface Preferences

Play and Record

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

File:Loop.png Loop Play: Hold down Shift while pressing Play to loop the current selection or the whole track, playing it over and over again until you press Stop.

Record.png Record: Recording begins at either the current cursor location or at the beginning of the current selection. Pressing Record always creates a new track, but holding down Shift while pressing Record starts the recording at the end of the currently selected track(s).

Pause and Stop

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

Stop.png Stop: Stops playing or recording immediately.

Skip to Start/End

Holding shift down whilst clicking either of these extends the currently selected selection or cursor position to make a larger selection including the start or end.

Rewind.png Skip to Start: Move the cursor to the beginning of the audio. This is useful if you want to play everything, or record a new track starting from the beginning.

FFwd.png Skip to End: Move the cursor to the end of the audio.




The alternative version, Edit Toolbar style, is winning from my point of view. It's the same grouping idea as for the Preferences. Tools Toolbar is the hardest to do it for, but I think doing

Edit Selections, Samples and Envelopes

Zooming and Shifting

Multi Tool

Could work OK, and is worth it to get the grouping here and on the Edit Toolbar page.
Off the cuff, I'd rather stick with Control Toolbar than force divisions which aren't there in the GUI (they are there in the Preferences). It's simple and less work, and keeps the one header per item style that we have in the detailed Menu pages text (even though there are GUI divisions there). The Tools Toolbar is unfortunate but it looks very doubtful to make a division like that there, even though it has merit in the Control Toolbar. There may be some way of making a grouping (where legitimate) while retaining one header per item. Let me think about it and leave these two ideas here for now. Also I am planning sometime to change the H2 headers so they are smaller and possibly not underlined. That will improve the visual side of it. - Gale </div>