User:Mandeep.m91

Mandeep - we already have the text of your application via the dashboard, and we already have a Label Track page to discuss GUI design options for labels. That page will gather ideas from the community and help us make good design choices. Until students are accepted, they can keep a note of progress on their proposal (or make a draft revision of it) on their User page if they wish. So we moved your page here for now. - Gale

Label track enhancements : Progress status

The development process of the project will be posted here regularly.

Detailed description of the project

Foreword
The label tracks feature in audacity has improved considerably in the previous Beta releases of the software. Earlier we could use labels to denote only a specific instant but now we can drag the label to denote a time interval. Changes have been incorporated to differentiate the overlapping labels in the same label track by keeping one label slightly above the other. But still there are some improvements that can be made in this field and that’s the aim of my project.

Description:
The improvements that the project is intended to incorporate in the existing software are:

1.Applying effects on labels Till now, what is available in the beta release of the software is that we can denote a particular time interval with a label and then go to Effect and then choose the desired effect to be applied. This feature will be improved by adding a new feature of applying effects on labels by using Right click (mouse). One will also be able to delete a label in the same way. 2. Visual enhancements on labels

Different labels within the same label track will be assigned different colors to make it easier to differentiate them from each other.

3.Handling of very large number of labels

When we add a new label track, A new box is created in the left hand side. On the top we can see “label track” written on it and below it is an empty box. While dealing with a large number of labels, what we can do is keep track of each label in that empty area. The names of all the labels will be written in that area with a           scrollbar at the side. On clicking the label name, the respective label will be highlighted and others will become invisible. One will be able to select more than one label at a time by using the Ctrl+LeftMouseButton. By selecting different labels at a time, I do not mean selecting multiple regions. While dealing with large number of labels, one may want to view a few labels at a time to see their relative positioning. So that Ctrl+click was to make a few number of labels appear more visible as compared to others. So what actually happens is: If you select ONLY one label from the list, that label will be highlighted and its region will also be selected. If you select more than one label, only the labels will be highlighted but no region will be selected. So selecting multiple labels is just for viewing their relative position simultaneously.

4.Snapping of labels The existing option of snap to.. will be modified to enable this feature for labels. On turning it on, the ends of labels will be positioned at specific time instants. For example, if we place the ends of labels at 3.1 and 8.9 then they will be automatically updated to 3 and 9 respectively.

In right click menu I will be putting options like: Effects: which will include all the effects applicable to the selection. Analyse: which will include options available in analyse tab. Keyboard shortcuts will also be assigned for all the improvements made in the software. I will create a separate tab in the menu bar which will include all the options in the right click menu for labels.

Explanation of all the use cases:
There will be many options available in the right click menu on labels. For example, there will be a plot spectrum menu which will plot the spectrum of the selected portion. Effects like echo, delay, etc. have been already discussed. When we select the interval using label, and press play, the file starts playing from the from the point denoted by the beginning of the label but it does not stop at the end of label and goes on playing the portion of track beyond the label. It can be changed so that it stops where the label ends. The tempo of the recording can be changed using the arrow keys. This effect has been incorporated in the beta release. The feature of loop playback will also be included in the right click menu.

Additional Notes
Eligibility: I will be completing my 2nd year of engineering(BE) from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology(NSIT), University of Delhi this May.

Deliverables: The final package delivered at the end of July will include: •	Audacity with all the label enhancements incorporated in it. •	Documentation of all the implementation details. •	Documentation of all the code.

Development methodology and tools:
The methodology I will use is as mentioned on the audacity ideas page. Improvements will be made in small steps and testing will be carried out from time to time after incorporating some features. For example work on the visual styles will be carried out first. It will be then tested and then progress will be made to incorporate other changes. I will be using the graphical toolkit wxWidgets throughout the project as the task is highly Interface oriented. I will be using Visual Studio for development on windows platform.

Testing process will be carried out through unit testing to ensure that all the modules of the software are functioning properly.

Progress till the half way stage
As different features will be implemented in small steps, so I have divided my work according to the description of my project ideas explained above. The features of applying effects on labels, snapping of labels and different visual styles for denoting different labels in the same label track will be ready and delivered till the half way stage. By that time, I would have started working on handling a large number of labels but it may not be complete by the half way stage.