Sound and Annotation Panel File Control Buttons

The file control buttons allow you to load and save previously recorded sound files.

Erase    This button clears the sound that displays in the sound panel window.
Browse You use the browse button to look for a sound file stored on your disk. When you click on this button, a file dialog frame will appear. Click on the drop down menu to navigate to the folder that contains the desired file. The ACORNS sound editor will remember the path to this folder the next time you decide to load a recorded sound. This method of file navigation is consistent with how other windows-based applications execute.

Once you navigate to the correct folder, you can type the name of the file that you want. You can also double click on the file name you want. It's name should show in the center window of the file dialog frame. If you change your mind, click on the cancel button.

You can also use a drag and drop facility to load pre-recorded sounds. First open the operating system folder containing your audio files. Then press the mouse over the desired audio file, drag over the sound panel, and when you see a small white rectangle show under the mouse, release. The audio will load into the sound panel.

Import   The import button works the same way as does the browse button described above. The difference is that you can import both the sound file and the annotations that you previously saved using the export button. See the annotation page for details.

Standard sound file formats do not include annotations.The import option looks for an additional text file with an .xml extension that contains the annotations. This text format conforms to best practice procedures for dealing with linguistic data because text files are a standard format that is not proprietary. Programmers can easily write programs to access and manipulate the data.

Export   When you click on the export button, a file save dialog frame appears. This dialog frame allows you to pick the file format you want and lets you navigate to the folder where you want to store your sound file.

The export operation displays a series of radio buttons. Click on the button that indicates which sound format type you want to use.The default is wav since this is the most commonly used format.

Use this frame to navigate to the folder where you want to store your sound files. The ACORNS sound editor will remember the path to this folder the next time you decide to export a recorded sound. This method of file navigation is consistent with how other windows-based applications execute.

After navigating to the appropriate file folder, you can type the name you want to use. You can also double click on one of the files displayed in the center window of the save dialog frame. You will get a warning message if you attempt to replace an existing file. Press the confirm button to replace the file with the recorded sound your working with. Press cancel if you would rather not go ahead with the export operation.

The export option saves files along with any annotations that you enter. See the annotation page for details. As a result, the ACORNS Sound Editor creates two files. One of the files is in a standard format for sound files. The other files is a text file with an .xml extension containing the annotations.This conforms to best practice procedures for dealing with linguistic data. Text files are a standard format that is not proprietary. Programmers can easily write programs to access and manipulate the data.

Save     This button is works like the export operation described above. The difference is the annotations that you enter will not be saved. Standard sound file formats do not include annotation data. See the annotation page for details.