Opening file or selection in Praat

ELAN
1

Hello,
When I try to open a selection or a whole file in Praat, the only thing that pops up is this warning: “The Praat script could not be created”. Nothing else happens.
I have of course Praat installed on my computer, in the same folder as sendpraat.exe.
I run the 32-bit version of Vista Enterprise Service Pack 2.
Anders

2

This error message can be generated if any of the following conditions occurs:

  • ELAN cannot create or access its own folder in the user home directory. On Vista that should be something like
    .elan_data
  • if this folder is there ELAN tries to create a Praat script file in that folder: openpraat-v2.praat
  • if both folder and file exist it is used (and can be found), unless the absolute path to the file (e.g.
    C:Usersuser name.elan_dataopenpraat-v2.praat)
    contains a space character. In that case ELAN tries to create and use the default “temp” directory for the Praat script (and this could fail).

Maybe you can check on your system whether there is a .elan_data folder and a openpraat-v2.praat file?

-Han

3

“Maybe you can check on your system whether there is a .elan_data folder and a openpraat-v2.praat file?”

Hello again,

Actually, I can’t find neither the folder (.elan_data) nor the file (openpraat-v2.praat)!

Anders

4

The user home location is usually something like C:Users
I have no further clues. Does the user home directory exist at its expected location and is there anything stored there by other applications?

-Han

5

Thank you again,

Yes, the home directory exists at the expected location (At my computer it is C:Usersanders_loc). By the way, the name of the directory is ‘anders_loc’, while the username is ‘Anders’.

And yes, other programs–like Praat itself, and Cubase–have created folders here.

I don’t know if this was helpful …

Anders

6

It is helpful

7

Hello again,

I did as you asked me to: Opened ELAN from a command window after removing the specific file.

Some information pops up in the window as ELAN opens, and even more appears as I open an eaf-file.

But when I select a part of the sound file and click ‘Open Selection in Praat’, nothing happens in the command window.

I only get the usual pop-up warning: “The Praat Script could not be created”.

Strange?

8

That is a bit strange, yes. If the folder “.elan_data” in the user’s home directory is not found (and you already indicated that the folder does not exist), the “Open Selection in Praat” action tries to create it. If this fails, an error message should be logged, according to the code. If neither the folder is created nor an error logged, I’m completely out of clues…

-Han