I am using Audacity 2.03 on a new machine running Windows8 and have struck an issue that hasn’t occurred on other computers. With the Selection Toolbar turned on (highly preferable), my screen reader responds very sluggishly when playing or recording. I suspect it is the audio position indicator’s constant updating causing the problem. Is there a way of disabling it without turning off the toolbar? Having access to the other components of the Selection Toolbar is very helpful. I have several work-arounds if necessary.
By default the audio waveform is updated during recording and playback. You can turn that off in preferences.
Ctrl+P to open preferences, then go to the “Tracks” section, then deselect “Update display while playing”.
Thanks Steve. I have already unchecked updating during playback, but that doesn’t stop the audio position indicator from counting. I suspect that cannot be turned off without turning off the Selection Toolbar, but hoped that there may be a way.
It probably won’t make much difference, but you can set the counters in the Selection Toolbar to “seconds”. This will mean that they are only counting seconds during playback rather than milliseconds or whatever units they may be set at.
Information about the Selection Toolbar is in the manual here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/selection_toolbar.html
Thanks Steve and Gale. Yes, dropping from milliseconds to seconds does fix the problem when not doing precise editing. Another work-around I have discovered is to restart the screen reader (Window-Eyes 8.2, which is current) after loading the project. No problems then with display set to milliseconds. I have occasionally thought about writing a script to get real-time info from the metres, but keep putting it off to tomorrow. In the meantime, yes may as well turn them off, although I don’t think the screen reader is very interested in the graphical display.
Thanks Gale. I discussed the issue briefly with Window-Eyes tech support by phone. Armed with more information, I will now write them a note. The issue does not (and would not) occur with NVDA due to (I’ll probably get my wrist slapped) less sophisticated video support. I have set up user windows and associated hotkeys in Window-Eyes that allow me to read begin and end points of a selection without having to ctrl-f6 and tab to the fields. Apart from that and that it doesn’t read the date field when setting up a Timer Recording, NVDA works as effectively.
Gale Andrews wrote:
Did you try left bracket [ or right-bracket ] to read the position of left or
right selection boundary respectively?
That is a revelation to me. The dialog has occasionally come up when I didn’t expect it and its significance was lost on me. That is very useful.
Gale Andrews wrote:
Does Window-Eyes attempt to re-read a digit in Start Time or End Time if it updates while it is selected?
I don’t think so - in any event it isn’t successful . If I have focus on the unit column of the seconds, start playing and press { the revised position isn’t shown until I arrow off it and back again. NVDA behaves the same.
A while ago I alleged that NVDA can’t read the date fields when setting up a timer recording. I can now report that I was wrong, but a little keyboard gymnastics is required. Having tabbed to the date field, it is usually necessary to move NVDA to the previous object (Insert-shift-left arrow). Then, reading the line of the current object (Insert-shift-fullstop) will read the date. Changes are not announced as arrow keys are pressed, but re-reading the line of the current object does the trick.
Thanks, Andrew. Also I notice you can read the whole dialog with INSERT + B. VoiceOver on Mac reads Start Date and End Date if you tab into them, so perhaps some time we can improve this.
. If I have focus on the unit column of the seconds, start playing and press { the revised position isn’t shown until I arrow off it and back again. NVDA behaves the same.