Talk:Export Formats supported by Audacity

Discussion archived from the page
Gale 17Dec14: IMHO this page is not useful on its own merit, and the table changes have created a P1. This looks like word for word duplication of File Export Dialog with some expansion of uncompressed formats. I thought you did not like duplication? By "draft" I meant in your user space, not for publication yet. Surely we can fix Export Multiple without duplicating so much? Just link it to File Export Dialog. The only other alternative could be to trim File Export Dialog to an interface description pointing here for information about the different formats. Perhaps the first image on that page would expand the dropdown menu to show the format types. If you want to try that please do it in your own user space.
 * Peter 18Dec14: I beg to differ Gale - the reason that this page has true merit is that the contents required by two different pages Export Audio and Export Multiple as you recognize - plus I may yet want to link to it from a third page Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes. And yes, right now it duplicates (and improves imho) what is already on File Export Dialog - it was created from that. The plan is to hone this page and then remove the material from File Export Dialog replacing it with a link to this page giving us just one place to maintain this information in the Manual. I already had to change Export Multiple as previously it just had a note saying that format choice and options were "same as those available in the Export Audio Dialog" - when they are not the same only similar (as you know well from my recent Bugzilla post #798) and thus may well puzzle or even confuse the reader.  I really don't want to link the reader of Export Multiple over to Export Audio as to me it makes far more sense to link to a more detailed page (for readers of both pages) as many readers will come to that page already well aware of precisely which format they wish to export to.  The other option would be to duplicate the information in-line in Export Multiple - and I really don't want to do that as it involves duplication (which is something we always try to avoid for ease of maintenance).  I have reverted the Channels numbers in the table which caused the P1 - Steve and I were confused by the fact that the former text did not make it clear that the table showed and Audacity limit rather than the format's limit.  I have tried to clarify the text.
 * Peter 18Dec14:I'll work on a mock-up of what the re-worked File Export Dialog would look like in my user space
 * Peter 18Dec14 later: Ok I spent some time mocking up that page and improving and extending the documentation it contains (including an image of the formats dropdown as you suggested - an excellent idea) - see: User:PeterSampson/Strawman for Export Audio.  I Really think that that page in that extended form is now long enough for the reader and that it makes good sense to link it to this sub-page rather than incorporating the material from this page there.
 * Gale 19Dec14: Thanks, Peter. The format choices and options are the same in single and multiple export, only their presentation is different. I did not know you were already intending to remove the duplicated text in File Export Dialog. I've proofread User:PeterSampson/Strawman for Export Audio and made some structural changes to make discovery of options and multi-channel export easier. If you are happy with those changes, go ahead.

Related discussion archived fro the page
Peter 11Dec14: The information contained in the bottom half of the Export Audio page on the various file formats and the table for comparison of file sizes would be equally useful in the Export Multiple page. There all we say is "Export format: Choose one of the available export formats from this menu".
 * 1) Rather than duplicate this material there (and we do always try to avoid duplication) I propose to spin that section off to a separate page.
 * 2) This would also be useful in the Forum situation I encountered yet again yesterday where the user was enquiring about formats and I found myself directing him/her to an inadequate page in the Wiki.
 * 3) It would also have the benefit of shortening this page for the reader who already knows what format they wish to export to.
 * Gale 11Dec14: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/FileFormats is really only a landing page but at least the WAV, MP3 and OGG Wiki pages it links to have some useful content not necessarily neatly pulled together elsewhere. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/OGG looks too detailed to be in the Manual. As it is now we link from Manual to the Glossary for descriptions of formats. I don't object to a page in the Manual about Audacity-supported formats, but it creates a need for another click through versus leaving the information here. Perhaps you would like to make a draft page so we can see what it would contain? Note that the table below excludes formats mentioned in How can I export to formats not listed in the Export Audio Dialog? and excludes many of the "Other uncompressed" formats. How much detail do you want about all FFmpeg and other uncompressed formats? And what will you do about the WAV/AIFF/OGG and MP3 pages on Wiki?
 * Peter 12Dec14: My main concern is occasioned by the fact that Export Multiple has absolutely no information on choice of format, apart from the fact that you can choose. Sure I could link from there to an anchor section on this page - but that then occasions a click from that page anyway so it may as well go to the new proposed page. My feeling is that I would probably leave the WAV/AIFF/OGG and MP3 pages on the Wiki as there we can provide more detail if required, plus there may well be links to them - which probably means I'd also retain the Wiki parent page that links to them and probably upgrade it.  Note too that Tutorial - Exporting to iTunes also has some material on choosing formats.  Here it is limited, by design, to the smaller set of formats one is sensibly likely to use for iTunes/iPod usage.  But is does have some material on why you'd choose compressed or uncompressed that may be valuable to include on the proposed now formats page.