Manage Macros

Audacity 3.0.0rc06

Under the Manage Macros, if you edit a macro, there is no “OK” button to initiate the save. Must hit the X button, then click OK.

Same here on Linux.

Thanks for reporting this.

Apparently this is intentional :confused:

From the Audacity bug tracker:

Bug 2524 - Macros “OK” button is confusing - doesn’t do “what it says on the tin”

Comment #3
OK button does much the same as cancel, so I removed it.

  • OnCancel prompts you if there has been a change.
  • OnOK saves without prompting.

That difference is too slight to merit a button, and with the OK
button present, people might/do reasonably expect the dialog to apply the macro too.

I also improved positioning of these buttons, and fixed a case where cancel did not appear from the dialog to actually cancel your edits (even though it actually did).

Those steps were:

  • Edit a macro
  • Cancel Macro dialog
  • Say ‘no’ to save changes.
  • Reopen Macro dialog

Observe:
A: Changes appeared to have been made, despite saying ‘no’.

Personally I think this is still confusing, and I assume that you also find it unclear as you raised the issue here, so I’m inclined to reopen the bug.

Do you think it would be less confusing if the button was labelled “Close” rather than “Cancel”?

Personally I think this is still confusing, and I assume that you also find it unclear as you raised the issue here, so I’m inclined to reopen the bug.

Do you think it would be less confusing if the button was labelled “Close” rather than “Cancel”?

Agreed. By having only “Cancel” I was not pressing that button in fear of loosing the changes to the Macro I just Edited. Even Close is still confusing.

Maybe, Save with no other dialog and Cancel with (or without) a dialog box Exit without saving, YES or NO.

Maybe, Save with no other dialog and Cancel with (or without) a dialog box Exit without saving, YES or NO.

If that is not acceptable, Then maybe the single button that reads Save/Cancel. That might be more doable and less confusing.

or maybe the simplest would just be…

EXIT

at least that still leaves me with a feeling I still have options if I hit this button.

My quick-take on this is to rename the “Cancel” button to “Close”, but to add “Save” and “Cancel” buttons that become active when a macro is created or edited. So “Cancel” reverts the changes to a macro, or deletes an unsaved (new) macro. Should it ask for confirmation? Or is this getting too busy/complicated?

Doesn’t “Cancel” (as currently displayed) mean revert everything? Wouldn’t this mean reverting all changes made to macros including new ones?

“Cancel” makes sense when the window is “shrunk” and is the “Macros Palette” (“Cancel” means “don’t apply a macro”), but makes less sense when the window is “expanded” and is the “Manage Macros” dialog. For consistency with the two versions of the dialog perhaps this button should always be labelled “Close”.

Playing with this I’ve found what may be an inconsistency.

Open or create a project with some audio in it.

  1. Edit an existing macro, changing one or more steps in the macro
  2. Click on a different macro in the left panel
  • you get a “Save changes” dialog
  1. Edit an existing macro
  2. Click the Apply Macro to “Project” button
  • the changes are saved (without confirmation dialog) and the macro is applied

In any case, what we have works, so I don’t think I’d want to hold up 3.0.0 for this.

– Bill

Or just do something else in the Macro Manager
a) shift to a different Macro
b) Hit the New button for a new macro
c) Import or Export
d) or just Run the macro

But yes, an “OK” button in the right hand button set could be a good idea.
I’ve written a fair number of Macros - mainly for QA speed testing - and I’ve never felt the need for an “OK” button

Peter.

Cancel provokes a dialog asking if you want to save the changes or not.

Peter.

By convention, “Cancel” means “revert changes and close the dialog”, which is what both I and FL Coast assumed that it meant:
" By having only “Cancel” I was not pressing that button in fear of loosing the changes to the Macro I just Edited."

My suggestion:

Add a “Save” button in the left column. When pressed, any changes are saved and you will not be nagged to save changes.

Change the “Cancel” button to “Close”. If there are unsaved changes you will be prompted to save changes before the dialog closes.

ManageMacro.png

It would surely be better on the right as you are Saving the editing that you are doing on that current focused Macro - the Save is the final part of the editing.

Sounds sensible - since, as you say, Cancel doe not do “what it says on the tin”

Peter.

I considered that, and there’s more space for it on that side, but looking at the buttons in the left column and what they do:

  • New => make a new macro
  • Remove => remove / delete the selected macro
  • Rename => rename the selected macro
  • Restore => restore (back to default) the selected macro
  • Import => import a macro
  • Export => export the selected macro
  • Save => save changes to the selected macro

If there have been no changes, the “Save” button would be greyed out.

The left column are all about “macros”, whereas the right column are about “commands”. It is the selected macro that is being saved, not the selected command.

I suspect this will be a case of our Audacity Mantra “Doer decides” :wink:

And I suspect that is likely to be James as “Mr. Macros” :ugeek:

Peter.

That makes more sense to me too.

That may be technically correct, but to the user it looks like they are editing a macro by adding / removing / changing commands.

Thus I’d put the Save and Cancel buttons under the “Edit Steps” box.

– Bill

Whether left or right column (I could live with either), I think adding a “Save” button and renaming “Cancel” as “Close” would be a big improvement.
If we’re all in agreement, I’ll add this as a proposed solution in the bug tracker.

Thanks - even though it didn’t affect the macros themselves, this will be a welcome change.

This has been fixed for the upcoming 3.0.1 release.

  1. The Cancel Button is replace with a Close button

  2. The Close button does what you would expect it to

  3. A new save button has been added to enable you to Save edits to a Macro

Manage_Macros_3-0-1png.png
I think this now looks, and works, a lot better.

Peter

Cool - thanks! So when your profile says you’re retired, I’m assuming that doesn’t refer to this audio stuff - you seem pretty full time to me!

Mike