Hello Ed.
1: Like you said, “Getting Started > Learn how to: import and play an existing audio file”. . . But I want to process an MP4 video file, not an audio file, so I’m not going to read this.
2: “Import and export AC3, M4A/M4R (AAC) and WMA”. This doesn’t mention MP4, so I’m not going to look for it here, am I?
3: “Getting Started > Learn how to: import and play an existing audio file”. MP4 isn’t an audio file, so I’m not going to read this.
4. “Audio File Formats Supported by Audacity”. Again, I’m looking for help on video files, not audio, so I’m not going to look here.
As a former Software Product and Usability Manager, and a Technical Writer for 20+ years, one of my main adages to programmers was, “Don’t Make Me Guess!”
Recommendation: One of the biggest drawbacks of the full Audacity Manual is that it doesn’t have a full Search facility.
The Index is only a Table of Contents that lists the titles of each ‘page’; it does not index the key words in the content on each page.
In my career as a Technical Author, I created many RoboHelp online Help Guides for my clients, and these always included (a) a full Search on manually-tagged keywords, and (b) a full search for any word in the text. This provided a Search Engine for the entire Help Guide, and my Clients said this was the most useful feature for their customers. Can you imagine using the internet without search engines? The user would have to guess their way through the entire world wide web.
Can the Google search tool be appended to your Manual (https://manual.audacityteam.org/) I wonder? I’ve copied across most of the main content pages, without the drill-downs, and I already have 61 pages of A4, Arial 10pt, and 25,000 words. Trying to find anything by reading every page just won’t work.
Ed, I ran Technical Writing Courses internationally, across Europe and as far from the UK as India and the USA.
You can have a free copy of my Technical Writing Course here http://www.authorgraphic.co.uk/ or here http://www.technicalwritingcourse.co.uk . Do pass it on to whoever you think might benefit from it – I’m retired now, so it’s FREE!
I do hope this is helpful. I want this to benefit all Audacity users.
Best regards,
Philip Tory, BSc(Hons).