Compress Dynamics problem: plugin stops working

[philiptory]

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).

[steve]

You could have tried: http://letmegooglethat.com/?q=audacity+mp4

[philiptory]

Yes, but that ASSUMES that the user knows that Audacity processes MP4 video files! And we don't!
As the saying goes, when you ASS|U|ME something, it makes an ASS of U and an ASS of ME!

Enjoy the tech writing course.
Regards,
Philip

[edwinn]

Yes, but that ASSUMES that the user knows that Audacity processes MP4 video files! And we don't!

Philip, one learns Audacity by using it, making mistakes, reading the Help file, and having discussion in the User Forum. I've learned it over 3 – 4 years period, and some years before with earlier versions.

If the FFmpeg subroutine is unpacked and Audacity linked to it, you can simply Drag 'n Drop MP4 video files from Windows File Explorer into Audacity and it will quickly extract and render the audio track(s). I usually select three Flac files and drop them on Audacity and they open in separate tracks.

It doesn't get much slicker than that. Lol


-Ed

[steve]

You asked if there was some way that we could inform users about MP4 support. I indicated in my previous reply, there are multiple references to MP4 support in the documentation. The documentation covers a vast range of material, and it is not possible to give priority to everything. If you can't find the information about Audacity that you need, then we are happy to try and help - that's why we have this support forum.

[waxcylinder]

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.

Yes, that's long been a bugbear for us

The irony is that we have a search function in the alpha Manual when we edit it - but the released Manual loses that for some technical reason that I can't fathom.

Top tip: Since the alpha manual is based heavily on the preceding released manual try searching in the alpha manual to show you where to look in the released Manual:

Alpha Manual: https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page

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.

Yeah, sorry about that - it was even worse till I did a bit of work on it recently (including the blocking off into alphabetical sections). It would be a lot of hand-crafted work to expand it further - and frankly I don't think I have enough time for that as I have to combine editing the manual with QA testing (this is my hobby not a "job".

We did try an automated index tool a while back - but it was a bit of a disaster ...

Are there any particular terms you would like me to add

WC

[steve]

but the released Manual loses that for some technical reason that I can't fathom.

There's a twofold reason for that:

1) The search engine that the development manual uses searches the database that drives the (MediaWiki) site. When we publish the release manual, the manual is "flattened" to plain HTML, so there is no database.

2) The majority of users use the manual that is shipped with Audacity (and is installed locally). While there are search tools available for plain HTML sites, they all involve some sort of active scripting, but for security reasons most scripting languages are severely crippled by the operating system (Windows, macOS and Linux) when the site is running locally.

That's not to say that it's impossible to provide search for local HTML. In fact, most operating systems have built-in search tools that can be configured (by the user) to search the directory where the manual is installed. I tried this a while ago with a standalone document search tool, and it worked pretty well, but there's another solution that I found even easier, and that was to use Google to search the on-line manual. The magic search terms are:

Code: Select all

site:https://manual.audacityteam.org/ "thing you are searching for"

[esolution.center]

I have the same problem. I tried all the approaches which are shared, still could not solve it. Thank you.

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[steve]

I have the same problem. I tried all the approaches which are shared, still could not solve it. Thank you.

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