Please add "Welcome to Audacity!" screen to Help menu

[basilwhite]

Please make the "Welcome to Audacity! / How to get help" screen available under the Help menu.

If I click the "Don't show this again at start up" box, I never see this screen again, unless I'm lucky enough to find it under Edit|Preferences|Interface.

I think having the Quick Help/Manual/Wiki/Forum links in one window is highly useful, and adding this window as Help|Welcome to Audacity! wouldn't clog the help menu much. Alternately, you could just add the the Quick Help/Manual/Wiki/Forum links in the Help|About Audacity window.

[steve]

I like the idea of putting "How to get Help" as a page in the "About Audacity..." window.
It could perhaps also have a link to the Audacity FAQ

[waxcylinder]

I've PM'd Buanzo (the Forum administrator) and Gale Andrews to see if this can be done.

WC

[Gale Andrews]

Please make the "Welcome to Audacity! / How to get help" screen available under the Help menu.

If I click the "Don't show this again at start up" box, I never see this screen again, unless I'm lucky enough to find it under Edit|Preferences|Interface.

I think having the Quick Help/Manual/Wiki/Forum links in one window is highly useful, and adding this window as Help|Welcome to Audacity! wouldn't clog the help menu much. Alternately, you could just add the the Quick Help/Manual/Wiki/Forum links in the Help|About Audacity window.

The previous link in the Help menu to the "Welcome Message" was removed because the "Quick Help" replaced the former contents of the "Welcome Message". The "Audacity" tab in "About Audacity" already contains a link to the Forum. I'm prepared to add a link to the Wiki too in there. I'm not sure we would then really need "How to get Help" as a permanent extra tab in "About Audacity". I think there should be a more prominent route into the Wiki and Forum from the Manual than there is now, which would also help.

We could of course actually have a direct link to Wiki and Forum in the Help menu. Do we want to go that far? I've never been very convinced about the separate link to "Quick Help" given it's actually a part of the Manual anyway. The Quick Help could be put more in your face when you reach the Manual.

I could reinstate a note in "How to get Help" about where to re-enable it, but you could still forget that, so suspect it's probably not worth the space given this feature is only really a sort of "splash screen" now.

[PS Buanzo can't do anything about modifying Audacity, so you only really need to Cc him for systems management/technical issues to do with the Forum.]



Gale

[waxcylinder]

PS Buanzo can't do anything about modifying Audacity, so you only really need to Cc him for systems management/technical issues to do with the Forum.

Of course, silly me (wasn't really thinking, was I?) - d'oh ....

WC

[steve]

The "Audacity" tab in "About Audacity" already contains a link to the Forum.

Probably not an obvious place to look for it...

"I need help, I'll go to the forum, now where is that link? In the "Help" menu? No. In "Help > Quick Help"? No. In "Help > Manual"? No. ...."

We could of course actually have a direct link to Wiki and Forum in the Help menu. Do we want to go that far?

Probably not.

I could reinstate a note in "How to get Help" about where to re-enable it, but you could still forget that,

True.

I'm not sure we would then really need "How to get Help" as a permanent extra tab in "About Audacity"

Perhaps not, but just looking at them it would fit rather neatly.

the "Quick Help" replaced the former contents of the "Welcome Message".

Then the obvious answer would be to put links on the Quick Help page.

[Gale Andrews]

The "Audacity" tab in "About Audacity" already contains a link to the Forum.

Probably not an obvious place to look for it...

Indeed, not obvious which is why I was surprised you wanted "How to get Help" in "About Audacity". But if someone does look in About Audacity, probably they should see a link to Wiki rather than suggesting they come straight to Forum.

the "Quick Help" replaced the former contents of the "Welcome Message".

Then the obvious answer would be to put links on the Quick Help page.

Probably yes, and also I think in the top of the front page of the Manual (for those who clicked Manual rather than Quick Help). There is a "Further Help" link (that needs updated content) right at the bottom of the Manual, but probably too low down to be useful.

To further the aim of people spotting "quick help" when they come to the Manual, I was thinking of moving the actual instructions for extracting the zip of the Manual to a separate page, just leaving a link. The extraction instructions do take a lot of space. OK with you?



Gale

[steve]

Sounds good.

[Edgar]

... if someone does look in About Audacity, probably they should see a link to Wiki rather than suggesting they come straight to Forum.

Unless it were thought to be offensive to our sponsors at SourceForge, why not add a link to the Audacity Wiki page right below that for the SourceForge page and label them:
SourceForge Audacity homepage: http://audacityteam.org/
Wiki Audacity homepage: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

[Gale Andrews]

... if someone does look in About Audacity, probably they should see a link to Wiki rather than suggesting they come straight to Forum.

Unless it were thought to be offensive to our sponsors at SourceForge, why not add a link to the Audacity Wiki page right below that for the SourceForge page and label them:
SourceForge Audacity homepage: http://audacityteam.org/
Wiki Audacity homepage: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Not a bad idea in itseIf but has several reasons against it:

* lack of space there
* confusion over the difference between the two sites:
- is Wiki a sponsor or domain host like Sourceforge?
- Doesn't explain the purpose of the Wiki

Gale