keyboard shortcuts

[brianjonesforum]

i am sure this is a known issue - but will raise it anyway - the keyboard shortcuts retain their functionality even when typing. eg when I am typing a label and use the letter R audacity thinks I want to start recording. or when I hit the spacebar audacity will start playing.

[kozikowski]

Known issue.

Your preferences file got damaged. Close Audacity. Search the computer for audacity.cfg. When you find it, drag it to the trash. This effectively reinstalls Audacity with all the keyboard shortcut damage missing (hopefully).

It also destroys all your preferences, so you need to go in again and set your language, bit rate, etc. etc. That's how you know you did it right. It makes you select English again.

Let us know if that didn't work.

Koz

[steve]

A quick and easy method that may fix the problem;
"Edit menu > Preferences" select the "keyboard" tab and reset the defaults.

[härra ahv]

this is most F*D up keyboard bindings ever!
First have u people never ever heard of global shortcuts like ctrl-z = undo???
(i won't even go deeper into shortcuts of audio/video/graphic editing world...)
ok that aside...

key bindings randomly alter themselves. Just randomly. so I had to default them a few times. (won't mention the f*ing headache it gives to SEARCH THE LIST key by key every time to change something bcause it just isn't in alphabetic order. And if there's any logic behind this list – sry but I missed it.)
And the last time I tried to change a key to something else (clearing the old binding, setting the new one) it said to me that the key is not available, though I just had cleared it and there was no key for the previous command anymore. wtf is that.

Fix it, the program is unusable this way. (ppl won't re-learn the whole keyboard again just for one app, easier to change to something else, isn't it?)

sry for the rant, this evening with the "happy" key-binding got me SO frustrated. :evil
thank god I found these SF shortcuts... we'll see....

(MacBook - OSX 10.5.5, 2Ghz core duo, 2GB RAM - if thats any useful information for ya...)

[steve]

Please try to control your frustration härra ahv. Swearing, even if only in abbreviation, does not encourage anyone to offer help (and this is a family friendly forum).

First have u people never ever heard of global shortcuts like ctrl-z = undo???

The default key combination for "Undo" in Audacity is ..... "Ctrl+Z"
"Redo" may be Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y depending on your operating system.

key bindings randomly alter themselves

I'm guessing that you are using a slightly out of date beta version. Note that the beta version is a development platform and is undergoing constant change. This will eventually lead to the next stable release (1.4)

From the Audacity web site:

Audacity 1.3 Beta is our new, not quite finished, development version which will be the basis of our next "stable" version.

* Contains dozens of new, exciting features. Very occasionally, these might need final polishing or not be retained in later versions.
* Occasionally, a feature might not work as it did before, or might be temporarily disabled.
* Some parts of the program are not yet documented or translated into different languages.

If you are new to Audacity or computer audio programs, you may prefer the fully finished Audacity 1.2. Otherwise, please help our development effort by trying the Beta

As far as I know, the issue that you are talking about has been fixed in the latest beta release, (but don't be surprised if you find other bugs).

If you look at the README file that is included in your Audacity download, it will inform you of know issues that relate to that release.

headache it gives to SEARCH THE LIST key by key every time to change something bcause it just isn't in alphabetic order. And if there's any logic behind this list – sry but I missed it.

There has been an attempt to group together similar functions, for example grouping the "Edit" functions together, the Label functions together, the Export/Import functions together, and so on.

If you open the keyboard preferences and save them, then you can open the saved file and print it out, which makes it a lot easier to see what you are doing.

[härra ahv]

sry for the rant again
but...

well I downloaded the beta yesterday. When I opened it, right away the key-binings were very obscure. I defo remember cmd+z by default NOT being undo, but something completely else (snap to zero crossing rings a bell but don't remember exactly... same for redo and so on... Space was play, ok). Then I saved my own a few times to later discover that the xmls had alter themselves when re-loaded (or dind't save properly in the first place)... Had a very frustrating hour and a half going over all of this. Later fortunately I discovered those SF shortcuts which are working fine now (also did a few restarts in between, maybe that helped...)

I also defo think that there should be an alphabetic order option for the command list (and maybe a search function...)
My guess is it isn't too hard to apply?

peace

[kozikowski]

You have a classic unstable Mac. The keyboard settings do not change themselves ad lib, even on the Beta version of the software.

Audacity is a complete slave of the machine on which it's running.

When was the last time you Verified and Permission Repaired your System Drive? Are you running Audacity from the main System Drive? Are you filling up your System Drive? No production machine drive should be over 90% full. You may know this already from your video work.

Did you follow the recommendations to make an "audacity" folder with all the support files inside your /Application folder, instead of just the application itself?

Ever run the Periodic suites from the command line? How many other production software packages do you have on your Mac? Vonage? Skype? Audacity is a simple audio program and it really likes running on a very simple machine.

I'm in complete agreement that if you run Final Cut, this will drive you crazy. No scrubbing and the philosophy of control is off. I'm surprised you haven't hit my favorite yet. Audacity is not a WAV editor and will not Save a sound file.


<<<My guess is it isn't too hard to apply?>>>

Are you volunteering to program it? This would be excellent because the developers have thousands of people all wanting different changes and they have no time, manpower, or money to achieve all those changes.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Missed a piece. You know that to "reload" Audacity you just have to trash the audacity.cfg file, right? You don't have to blow away the whole program.
Koz