Audacity 2.0.3.0. Mac mini (Intel), OS X 10.8.4.
I am new to Audacity, so please excuse this naive question.
The 'Welcome' screen when one opens Audacity states that the Manual is searchable. But as the Manual consists of a vast number of html files plus an index file, and web browsers can only search a page at a time, searching the whole manual would take as long as just opening each chapter of the Manual and skim-reading it. Am I missing something? In what practical sense is the Manual searchable?
Searching the Manual
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Please state which version of macOS you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Audacity menu > About Audacity".
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This forum is for Audacity on macOS 10.4 and later.Please state which version of macOS you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Audacity menu > About Audacity".
Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
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Michael_Graubart
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kozikowski
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Re: Searching the Manual
Is there any reason you can't use the on-line one?
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/
I've never used the download one, but isn't it laid out like that? A decision tree that can point you to the segment you need right away. My web site exists both on line and off and I can search either one as long as I program it to do that. I can't believe we didn't do that to the manual. What happens if you just launch the index file? That's usually the top level supervisory file and should point to everything else.
Koz
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/
I've never used the download one, but isn't it laid out like that? A decision tree that can point you to the segment you need right away. My web site exists both on line and off and I can search either one as long as I program it to do that. I can't believe we didn't do that to the manual. What happens if you just launch the index file? That's usually the top level supervisory file and should point to everything else.
Koz
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Gale Andrews
- Quality Assurance
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Re: Searching the Manual
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ isn't searchable (beyond CTRL + F on each page) because there are still certain technical obstacles to doing that which take time to fix (without resorting to Google ad-driven searches).
In the meantime to search http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ you can either bookmark this link
http://tinyurl.com/lytq5hd then replace "Device Toolbar" with what you are searching for, or search from the search box top right of http://audacityteam.org (which includes the Audacity Wiki and other Audacity sites as well as http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ ).
The downloadable Manual is not searchable exactly because it is HTML. Searchability is one reason that it would be good to have a PDF version of the downloadable Manual, but there are certain features in the HTML Manual (mainly image maps) that are very hard to translate to PDF.
If you wish to try a user-contributed PDF Manual for 2.0.3 (made by Adobe Acrobat), you can try:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17163211/Audacity%20Manual.pdf .
This has the image map problems noted above.
By the way the big image map on the Front Page of the Manual can be a very effective way to find what you are looking for.
Gale
In the meantime to search http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ you can either bookmark this link
http://tinyurl.com/lytq5hd then replace "Device Toolbar" with what you are searching for, or search from the search box top right of http://audacityteam.org (which includes the Audacity Wiki and other Audacity sites as well as http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ ).
The downloadable Manual is not searchable exactly because it is HTML. Searchability is one reason that it would be good to have a PDF version of the downloadable Manual, but there are certain features in the HTML Manual (mainly image maps) that are very hard to translate to PDF.
If you wish to try a user-contributed PDF Manual for 2.0.3 (made by Adobe Acrobat), you can try:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17163211/Audacity%20Manual.pdf .
This has the image map problems noted above.
By the way the big image map on the Front Page of the Manual can be a very effective way to find what you are looking for.
Gale
________________________________________FOR INSTANT HELP: (Click on Link below)
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual
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Michael_Graubart
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Re: Searching the Manual
These answers are immensely useful. Thank you all very much.
Since posting my question, I have made two discoveries myself. The first is that I misread the 'Welcome' page: it states that it is the online version of the Manual that is searchable, not the locally installed one. That is confirmed by some of the helpful answers above. The second, however, is that if instead of http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ I use the link for the online Manual in the 'Welcome' page, which leads to http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page, there is a search box on the left that seems to search the whole manual.
Thank you again.
Since posting my question, I have made two discoveries myself. The first is that I misread the 'Welcome' page: it states that it is the online version of the Manual that is searchable, not the locally installed one. That is confirmed by some of the helpful answers above. The second, however, is that if instead of http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ I use the link for the online Manual in the 'Welcome' page, which leads to http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page, there is a search box on the left that seems to search the whole manual.
Thank you again.
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Gale Andrews
- Quality Assurance
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Re: Searching the Manual
That's correct in 2.0.3, but has now been changed so that in 2.0.4, the Manual link in the "Welcome Screen" will go to http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ (updated to 2.0.4 Release, of course).Michael_Graubart wrote:I have made two discoveries myself. The first is that I misread the 'Welcome' page: it states that it is the online version of the Manual that is searchable, not the locally installed one. That is confirmed by some of the helpful answers above. The second, however, is that if instead of http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ I use the link for the online Manual in the 'Welcome' page, which leads to http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page, there is a search box on the left that seems to search the whole manual.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/ is the working "alpha development" Manual from which http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/ is created at each release of Audacity.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/ is searchable, because it's the actual database that the development Manual uses. But most users should not go there because the development Manual only relates to the latest alpha Nightly Builds . For example, the development Manual documents a new Reverb effect that is not in the Audacity 2.0.3 release.
Gale
________________________________________FOR INSTANT HELP: (Click on Link below)
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual
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Michael_Graubart
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Re: Searching the Manual
Thanks for that warning, Gale. At the moment the things I need to search for are pretty basic and will probably not be that much different in 2.0.4; but I will bear your warning in mind. I have also noted the limitations of the pdf versiuon of the Manual, but again it is turning out to be a simple and very quick way of accessing the basic pieces of information I need to know. Between one recommendation and another I am now in the happy position of being able to find what I want.