Add a tab to the instruction book

[Gale Andrews]

There is another downside. The syntax is:

Code: Select all

[[Image:Record.png|link=|Record button]]

but that syntax kills the hover text. I've not found a working solution for that.

Yes... I just discovered that - see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tuto ... cted_audio

Do you want me to revert those link- changes ?

I think it would be better to revert for now.

Consistency says we should apply "link=" to small inline images (where hover text may not matter so much): http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Cons ... ine_images .

Is that a reasonable distinction, so that (if we get the dump script changed) all but small inline images have hover text and open the image locally (but do not go to the development Manual)?


Gale

[kozikowski]

By tab do you mean a div? There are no tabs in the released manual and it would be hackage to add them.

OK, Little Green Squares.

My goal is One Stop Shopping.

The manual is getting tantalizingly close. I stopped going to my little notes, bookmarks, post-its and hasty scratches on matchbook covers for most forum questions. The manual is just too fast and convenient.

Until it's not. The problem with slick is that unslick stands out.

This manual and the programs it points to should always be The Current Supported Versions. Alpha, Beta, Temporary Releases, etc, are all behind the scenes stuff and nobody has to involve the user in any of that. Or The Book.

External Links suggest something dark, forbidding, and not entirely associated with Audacity; not a way to access the Audacity program (no prefix or suffix). That's just Links (no modifiers)

But I do want real external links. User supplied software, experimental stuff, "floobydust" I think one company called it.

If that makes you nervous, then links to places where you can look up user-supplied, experimental, etc. If that's a monumental task, then that's the real task. Garden hosing programs, filters, effects, etc over a wide area is not particularly good bookkeeping.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

My goal is One Stop Shopping.

The manual is getting tantalizingly close. I stopped going to my little notes, bookmarks, post-its and hasty scratches on matchbook covers for most forum questions. The manual is just too fast and convenient.

As an editor of the Manual that is my goal too.

You should find that once 2.0.6 is released the Manual is improved further in this regard - I have been doing a lot of work on the alpha Manual, moving stuff from the Wiki which is Audacity specific and version specific. This should make the Manual more self-contained and avoid us booting the reader over to the Wiki for stuff which is directly about Audacity and Audacity usage. So Tutorials have been expanded and Tips have been moved across, along with many other changes.

Until it's not. The problem with slick is that unslick stands out.

So what is unslick? To answer that question you will need to review the Alpha 2.0.6 Manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Main_Page

I tried to remove one of your unslicks yesterday by adding a clear link for Audacity downloading to the Manual's Front page. Is that now a slick?

This manual and the programs it points to should always be The Current Supported Versions. Alpha, Beta, Temporary Releases, etc, are all behind the scenes stuff and nobody has to involve the user in any of that. Or The Book.

The Manual is only focused on the current version (only the Alpha manual directs to the alpha downloads - for the bleeding-edge alpha users). The other recent work on the Wiki was to make the content as version-neutral as possible, removing all the material about the syntax and usage of obsolete versions of Audacity. There is also now a Legacy Wiki for die-hard users who, for whatever reason, won't or can't migrate from 1.3 or 1.2.

I still don't know what you mean by "The Book"

External Links suggest something dark, forbidding, and not entirely associated with Audacity; not a way to access the Audacity program (no prefix or suffix). That's just Links (no modifiers)

As Gale explained to you earlier we need to have some external links as the software is not hosted on the Manual's domain - Audacity SourceForge site for Audacity downloads, Buanzo's site for LAME. So one again I'm unclear about precisely what you are getting at here - could you explain a bit more


Cheers,
Peter.

[waxcylinder]

But I do want real external links. User supplied software, experimental stuff, "floobydust" I think one company called it.

If that makes you nervous, then links to places where you can look up user-supplied, experimental, etc. If that's a monumental task, then that's the real task. Garden hosing programs, filters, effects, etc over a wide area is not particularly good bookkeeping.

Floobydust (love that word) like that belongs in the Wiki and not in the Manual imo - if you let us know what floobydust you want we can put it in the Wiki. Or maybe you have your own Wiki editing account?

Cheers,
Peter.

[Gale Andrews]

I tried to remove one of your unslicks yesterday by adding a clear link for Audacity downloading to the Manual's Front page. Is that now a slick?

I think it's unslick. The software download is not a help resource. If we want a download link in the body it should be a small link in the green div above. I don't think it's necessary now that the logo points to the downloads.

I'm prepared to remove the "External" from "Useful External Links" given those links will be italicised in the 2.0.6 Manual. Though I don't think it matters much.

Gale

[waxcylinder]

An aside here - I'm pondering why on earth we promote obsolete unsupported 1.2 on the front page of the alpha Manual

"Click here for legacy 1.2 documentation. " it says in the light green box

Peter

[steve]

I tried to remove one of your unslicks yesterday by adding a clear link for Audacity downloading to the Manual's Front page. Is that now a slick?

I think that its slick for the on-line manual, but not so slick for the downloaded manual.

For the vast majority of users, the downloaded manual was included in their Audacity download.
Anyone else that downloaded the manual (separately from Audacity) must surely be able to download Audacity (much easier than finding the downloadable manual).

I suppose that one positive benefit of a download link in the downloaded manual is that it provides a link for anyone that bought Audacity on e-bay, or received it on a cover disk or with a USB device.

Perhaps a "more slick" alternative would be a link for "Latest Version", or "Update Audacity".
I couldn't find anything obvious in the manual telling me how to update to the latest version of Audacity.

[steve]

"Click here for legacy 1.2 documentation. " it says in the light green box

And NO documentation for Audacity 0.8

[waxcylinder]

I tried to remove one of your unslicks yesterday by adding a clear link for Audacity downloading to the Manual's Front page. Is that now a slick?

I think it's unslick. The software download is not a help resource. If we want a download link in the body it should be a small link in the green div above. I don't think it's necessary now that the logo points to the downloads.

I *really* don't want to clutter the green div - and even though there is a link in the logo, that remains an easter-egg that may readers will not discover.

We could consider putting it in Using Audacity>Quick Help above Getting Started - that subsection could benefit from a second entry - and there is one spare line on the left hand side.

Peter.

[waxcylinder]

"Click here for legacy 1.2 documentation. " it says in the light green box

And NO documentation for Audacity 0.8

I do have 0.8 on my PC