Calling all macro users

[philchenevert]

Chris, one thing I would love to eliminate from Audacity when I edit is that darned tendency for the read head to jump back to the beginning of the track when I click too fast while editing. I move my selection tool around a lot while editing and this is interpreted as a 'double click' and it jumps me back to the start of the track, making me lose the place where I was editing. Is there any way to make a macro or other command that will stop this from happening? I edit from the beginning of a track, slowing making my way to the end, being sure everything is fine before moving on. Only if I force myself to wait a second or two between clicks does this maddening thing not happen.

So a macro or something I could run before starting to stop this would be great. I use AutoHotkeys with simple macros to do four or five things while editing.

[MichaelMaggs]

Did you try adjusting the double click time in Windows? Requiring the double click time to be fast should reduce the number of times it happens accidentally.

[philchenevert]

Did you try adjusting the double click time in Windows? Requiring the double click time to be fast should reduce the number of times it happens accidentally.

No, I had not thought about that! Will try tonght. great idea!
EDIT : Just moved the double click to slowest speed and I think that will work!!

[ChrisGreaves]

... the read head to jump back to the beginning of the track when I click too fast while editing.

Phil, I re-read your post on Audacity from Dec 24, 2019 and note to my horror that no-one replied to it. This is not like Audacity, in my limited experience; which suggests that there is, perhaps, no setting.
I see too Michael's response here and your response to him.
If Michael's suggestion works for you, I would suggest that you make that change and then observe behaviour for a week or so.

In the meantime: I have a similar problem on another laptop, A Win7 DELL that I bought some ten years ago. The mousepad is flaky. Probably full of toast-crumbs. When I gently stroke it to re-align the cursor the movement is erratic, and I spend up to ten seconds trying to align the tip of the mouse pointer on a control button the size of a DNA molecule.
Since I am a keyboard junkie I am not too worried, but for web pages especially, where no keyboard access to a control is possible, I draw on every French expletive at my command.

Let's review in a week's time, and if the problem re-occurs my next suggestion would be to work in your topic on Audacity to have the wizards eliminate any other Audacity settings.
Then I will roll up my sleeves and get to work.

Cheers, Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

EDIT : Just moved the double click to slowest speed and I think that will work!!

Point of interest: I loaded a track in 3.1.3 and tried a double-click.
For me that seemed to be as effective as a "Select All", aka Ctrl+A, rather than a <Home> keystroke.
Cheers, Chris

[DrSpoke]

.............................................
I am establishing a set of macro-commands in Audacity 3.1.3 and this thread is an assembly-point for LibriVox members who might want a macro written for them, might want help in writing macros in Audacity, or might be prepared to share their knowledge of macros with LibriVox members.

Hi Chris, thank you so much for your very generous offer, it would be awesome to have macros to get through the necessary tasks while producing my recordings with a quick, out of mind pas-de-deux of my fingers on the keyboard. I've set up just a few after some searches on the web - I'm not into creating them.
I've discovered your oldish thread only today and I'm wondering if you are now helping volunteers via pm or you've been moved to a different thread.
I might think of a few macros I'd wish I could use and ask for your creative-economic thinking if still there.
In the meantime, just a post of THANKS.
Best,
Claudia

[ChrisGreaves]

Hi Chris, thank you so much for your very generous offer, it would be awesome to have macros to get through the necessary tasks ...

Claudia, thanks for your posted interest.

I have PKZipped my current set of macros and they are available for download from http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Downloads/20221028_0940.zip

I have recompiled my page at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Technical/AudacityMacros/LibriVoxTools.htm

Yes, I am helping volunteers via PM. My original public topic was greeted negatively by admin and volunteers, Many replies were of the nature of "I am ignorant of macros and so don't believe they could be useful". I have racked up hundreds of hours of work using my macros to:-
(a) Improve the contents of a Magic Window
(b) Speed up recording
(c) Speed up proof-listening
(d) Speed-up editing
(e) Automate local backups of FLAC, MP3 files
(f) Record sung parts in the JSBach project which, given that I don't speak German or Latin and can't read a music score, says something about productivity!

I am still waiting for a reply to this post.

My pas-des-doigts (I am a two-fingered typist) on the keyboard has seen me speed up the boring and respective tasks with shortcut keys.

I chose Ctrl+Alt as the trigger because I saw only a few Audacity commands that made use of this combination.

Despite the public criticism, the "Theory Of Life" concept in Windows ("Doing something is always 'GoTo, Select, Action'") tells us that a one-second gap generator macro will replace selected audio, so that the resulting gap is not necessarily that fixed-one-second, but is one-second PLUS whatever audio silence was NOT selected. You can see this by selecting part of a gap and then replacing it with an absolute one-second gap. My gaps are therefore suitably random because manually I do not select the original gap in its entirety.

You might let me know by PM of one or two macros you could use - look mainly for everyday tasks that are Boring and Repetitive, and let me know by PM. Let me know, too, whether you want just to take delivery of macros, or whether you would like to be mentored in creating Audacity macros yourself.

You may find that joining The Audacity Forum is of some interest.

If you seek comments on your existing macros, consider PMing me with one or two of them and I will cast a hyper-critical eye over them (grin)

Cheers, Chris

[philchenevert]

Hi Chris. I am writing to support you in your offer to help people possibly ease their editing with Audacity by using Macros. I myself find shortcut keys, autohotkeys and macros of daily use to me and they have made editing vastly easier over the past 7 years. So some of us love 'em and use 'em and others here don't like 'em and are comfortable with what they have. More power to both groups, both are doing great LV work. But if anyone wants a testimonial about using Macros and other things to smooth the editing process, just ask Phil. !

Expect a PM from me soon asking for help in designing a macro. Thanks again for offering your experience and help!!!