building a track

I am currently running audacity version 2.05 on windows 7 starter i run a local pub quiz and until recently i was using audacity to build the music quiz. i import ten songs from Windows media player and edit with audacity so that each song is around 30sec in length all running together (with 1sec gaps or fade outs between each song ) However when trying it this week for the quiz, once i had finished the editing, and saved the finished article to windows playlist it had saved all songs in there original length and then when i tried to re import them audacity didnt recognise the format. what am i doing wrong/or what is the correct way to do this? thanks, jaminshamin

…and saved the finished article to windows playlist it had saved all songs in there original length and then when i tried to re import them audacity didnt recognise the format.

If you File → Export to an audio format like WAV or MP3, you’ll be able to play the file in Windows Media Player, etc. Or, you can re-open the file in Audacity.

You can also save your Audacity project. The AUP project file doesn’t include the actual audio, but it basically saves your “work” in case you need to go back and make some changes, especially changes.