It really annoys me when I want to click and drag right to select from a point in a waveform to the end, because it just keeps going… is there a way to give it a boundary at the end of the waveform so it doesn’t select a whole bunch of space after the waveform ends?
thanks,
neg
Yes, that drives me crazy, too, but I don’t think there’s a way around it. I think the reason that’s done is to give Audacity “breathing room” to the right if you extend the show by inserting other sounds or changing the show so it gets longer. Also, if you add or capture a new show on track 2 and it goes beyond the end of track 1, then it has to be accommodated. When you’re in multi-track, there can’t be conflicting end-points.
So it’s a Project thing. Audacity is not a WAV editor. A single WAV file is not all there is.
AFAIK.
Koz
If you wish to extend a selection up to the end of a track, press shift + End.
When I’m doing this full speed on the fly, Taking my hands off the mouse for two extra key clicks isn’t worth it. Koz
Don’t. Click to select with the mouse and then do Shift+K to select from Cursor to Track End (also available through the menus as “Edit > Select > Cursor to Track End”). Unlike Koz, I’m ambidextrous and can operate a mouse with my right hand and the keyboard with my left hand, all at the same time. 
ok that probably seems like the right approach given the lame context, but really there should be an option to disable the right boundary. you know, like every other wave editor on earth 
btw PGA, shift+k with your left hand isn’t exactly a swift and easy manouvre is it.
Hmm. Adobe Audition, ProTools, Cubase, Sonar, Reaper… I don’t think that any of those behave as you suggest is the norm. I can’t think of a single multi-track audio editor that does that.
To my recollection, this is the first complaint that I’ve seen for this behaviour. I’m having difficulty understanding why, if you prefer to select using (exclusively) the mouse, why don’t you just stop dragging when you reach the end of the track?
because i’m usually wanting to quickly select the last few seconds of a track in order to chop off the silence at the end. the quick way to do this would be to click, drag to the right to select to the end and then Cmd-E to view the selection. because it lets me drag infinitely off to the end i have to always be careful to stop just past the end, otherwise when i press cmd-e i get the bit of sound i want plus a huge bunch of blank space that doesn’t contain any audio. this just feels a bit silly to me.
Left hand index finger on the right hand side shift key, left hand little finger on the K. Similarly for Track Start to Cursor (Shift+J)
sure i know how a keyboard works, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that’s how you would do it with your left hand. i’m just saying that pressing a key combination on the far right of the keyboard with your left hand is far from ideal.
Unlike Koz, I’m ambidextrous
It’s not ambidexterity that’s the problem. I live on the magnify keys during editing (on the left) and drag-selecting on the right. The very last step involves (in this scenario) trading places. I just got good at stopping dragging after the last sound and put up with it.
I seem to recall Cool Edit didn’t do this. I can check.
Koz
Does anyone other than negev actually get “infinite dragging” beyond the end of the selection?
I’ve tested on Linux and Windows and drag selecting will extend for some distance beyond the end, then it stops. It does not extend infinitely. Is this behaviour different on Mac OS X with Audacity 2.x?
it’s the same on osx, not indefinite but still far enough to be annoying when you’re trying to edit something.
I presume that you’re aware that:
There are already a lot of selection options (see here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/manual/help/manual/man/audacity_selection.html ). I’m not convinced that we need even more selection options. If the current options are not exactly what you are used to I’m sure they will become more familiar as you use them.
obviously, but the point is i pretty much only use Audacity to record vinyl records into the computer and always need to chop the silence off at the end. to make sure i get the right point and don’t clip the end of a track i want to very quickly highlight from say 2cm before the end to the end and then zoom into it and maybe zoom further until i get exactly the end of the track. it’s annoying that i can’t just slam the mouse to right and know it will hit the end perfectly and then zoom in perfectly filling the display with the range i selected, instead i often get the range i selected as half of the waveform and then blank space in the other half, meaning i need to mess around selecting and zooming again. to get it right in one go you have to drag to the right and then carefully strain your hand to move it just past the end of the waveform cos you need to be able to see the end but not too far so you don’t end up with a bunch of blank space. it’s just silly, you’re forcing the user to manually hone in on the end of a waveform using their hand when in 99% of cases a user snapping the mouse to the right just wants it to select up to the end of the waveform. i can’t be the only person who does this, at least one person replied to this thread and agreed with me that it’s annoying.
again you’re forcing me, the user, to manually find the end of a track with my hand rather than just giving me the answer. computers are supposed to assist humans with work not create new work for them.
how is that any better? i still have to manually select /exactly/ at the end of the waveform, it’s the exact same problem just from right to left instead of left to right.
yes, but as we’ve already discussed that’s a very cumbersome way of achieving what should be a very simple mouse gesture.
same answer as 4
you’re just clutching at straws now trying to find alternative solutions to the problem than the right one. it’s obvious how this should work, what does letting you select parts of a waveform that don’t exist achieve exactly? how many of your users desire this behaviour over it stopping at the edge? i’m willing to bet it’s 90/10 in favour of the latter.
great, so why can’t you make the mouse selection do the same thing so i don’t have to use a combination of the mouse and the keyboard for something so mind-bogglingly simple that should be easy with the mouse?
i don’t get why you can’t see how bad this is, it’s a really obvious interface problem. if you’re concerned about adding new options why not just make it stop at the right edge unless you push the mouse a little further and then it can carry on into the blank space. this would make it much nicer to use for people like me who are just editing tracks and whatever the other people who do need to select past the end are doing can still do what they need too. i find it hard to believe the other groups use-case is more common.
The shift key isn’t necessary. Left mouse button alone will do this.
I always drag from empty space when applying a Fade In, and into empty space when applying a Fade Out. Why struggle to be precise if you don’t need to? It’s called ergonomic efficiency.
The shift key is not necessary as long as the pointer is quite close to selection boundary.
If you use the shift key, whichever edge is closest to the pointer will be grabbed without needing to get the pointer in exactly the right place.
The reason that there are so many way to accomplish the task of selection is so that users may use whichever method suits them. You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but in this respect Audacity manages to please most of the people most of the time.