Audacity Manual Contents

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Revision as of 11:10, 31 December 2012 by PeterSampson (talk | contribs) (documented today's changes in the ednote)
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Peter 18Dec12: I moved the "Digital Audio" down to be the last item in the "Understanding Audacity>Foundations" section. It is indeed a "foundations" topic imo - but I wanted this section to provide greater focus on "Audacity Projects" which is a truly key topic, important for all users. The material on the Digital Audio page is useful and interesting background but not absolutely necessary for understanding the use of Audacity - apart, that is, from the final section on compressed audio - but we are attempting to deal with (some of) that in Audacity Projects.
  • Gale 18Dec12: I moved Digital Audio back up to third in line, as I hope a reasonable, logical compromise. I am fine with Projects first but on the -manual list I suggested we may even need a new, short Foundations page that addresses the export/save dichotomy directly, and moves Importing Audio and File Export Dialog up into "Understanding Audacity".
    • Peter 27Dec12: Ok deliberate baby steps today. Today's changes should be fairly uncontroversial - but can be reverted one at a time if though necessary
      1. First I added into the "Understanding Audacity>Foundations" section entries for "Importing" and "Saving and Exporting", as suggested by Gale as readers were not finding these lower down the page. I thought long and hard and decided to put "Saving and Exporting" on the same line for a couple of reasons: to link the two together and associate them in readers minds, and to reduce the number of line entries in "Foundations (to limit bloat).
      2. Then I made the subtitle "Details for importing and exporting" (in "More Details for the Project Window") links to importing and exporting - and removed the inline links. With #1 above the in-line links were somewhat redundant imo.
      3. Finally I renamed "What is an Audacity Project?" to "Managing Audacity Projects" as suggested by Gale.
    • Peter 28Dec12: More revertable baby steps today - but as they are in line with Gale's suggestions in the email thread and in his strawmen should remain reasonably uncontroversial.
      1. In "More Details for the Project Window" I changed "Details for importing and exporting" to "More Details for Importing and Exporting" - as suggested by Gale.
      2. In "Understanding Audacity" I put "Audio Tracks" and "Waveform Display" on the same line as in Gale's strawman V2 (and V1)
      3. In "Understanding Audacity" I Removed "Saving Audacity projects and " from "Saving Audacity projects and Exporting audio files" as per Gale's suggestion in the email thread and in his strawmen.
    • Peter 29Dec12: Yet more revertable baby steps today - also in line with Gale's suggestions in the continuing email thread.
      1. In "Understanding Audacity" I moved "Audio Tracks and The Waveform Display" up in this block - in line with Gales's suggestion in his strawmen (but not indented).
      2. I moved "Findinding the correct effect ..." down into the "Editing" block as agreed to by Gale - and added links to Generators and to Analyzers.
      3. I changed "Quick Where and How" to "Quick Help" - now this section is trimmed it is not really a "where&how" - furthermore "Quick Help" ties in with the command in the Audacity program.
      4. I moved "Toolbars Overview" to the top of "More Details for the Project Window" as agreed by Gale. This required adjustment of the vertical margins above each div (see the diff for how this was done).
    • Peter 30Dec12: just one revertable/editable baby-step today:
      1. I copied in the info text from Strawman v4 for the two entries in the Foundations section. Based on Gale's suggestions with some modifications.
    • Peter 30Dec12: Today's baby steps
      1. In the "Tutorials" section I trimmied redundant explanatory text on "Example Workflows"
      2. In "Tutorials" & "Understanding Audacity" I applied consistent capitalization in the explanatory texts
      3. I implemented Gale's suggested revised FAQ box from strawman v4 - and accordingly trimmed the "Quick Help" - imo this looks much better - the "Quick Help" section looks nicely focused on "Getting Started - and I think the FAQ link and it's box get more prominence.
      • I think this probably draws this current round of Front Page changes to a close. Remember that we started this to try to help in the confusion that exists amongst users between "Save" and "Export" - it may not be perfect, but I think we have moved in the right direction. At some stage we still need to think about where LAME/FFmpeg/ODL/Metadata live on this page, but we can do that later.


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Help Resources

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Using Audacity

Reference

Guide to the Project Window

1 Menu Bar   2 Transport Toolbar   3 Tools Toolbar   4 Meter Toolbar   5 Mixer Toolbar   6 Edit Toolbar  
7 Transcription Toolbar   8 Device Toolbar   9 Timeline   10 Track Control Panel   11 Audio Track   12 Selection Toolbar  

Hover over and click on the image to learn more. Skip the image

File MenuEdit MenuView MenuTransport MenuTracks MenuGenerate MenuEffect MenuAnalyze MenuHelp MenuMenu BarPause ButtonPlay ButtonStop ButtonSkip to Start ButtonSkip to End ButtonRecord ButtonTransport ToolbarSelection ToolEnvelope ToolDraw ToolZoom ToolTime Shift ToolMultl-ToolTools ToolbarPlayback MetersRecording MetersMeter Drop-Down MenuMeter Drop-Down MenuMeter ToolbarOutput SliderInput SliderMixer ToolbarCut ButtonCopy ButtonPaste ButtonTrim ButtonSilence Audio ButtonUndo ButtonRedo ButtonSync-lock Tracks ButtonZoom In ButtonZoom Out ButtonZoom to Selection ButtonZoom to Fit ButtonEdit ToolbarTranscription ToolbarHost Drop-Down MenuPlayback Device Drop-Down MenuRecording Device Drop-Down MenuRecording Channels Drop-Down MenuDevice ToolbarTimelineTrack Close ButtonTrack Drop-Down MenuTrack InfoMute ButtonSolo ButtonTrack Gain SliderTrack Pan SliderTrack Collapse buttonVertical ScaleLeft Channel of Stereo Audio TrackRight Channel of Stereo Audio TrackTrack Control PanelProject Rate Drop-Down MenuSnap To CheckboxSelection ToolbarGreenBorders03.png

More Details for the Project Window

Toolbars Overview - including how to arrange Toolbars
Additional Menus on Mac:
Additional Track types:
More Details for Importing and Exporting:

LAME MP3 export and FFmpeg import/export libraries for more formats

On-Demand Loading of uncompressed files

Preferences - changing your settings

Preferences are at the bottom of the Edit menu (or in the Audacity menu on Mac).

Many settings can be changed including keyboard shortcuts and the interface language.

Preferences settings can be reset to default at any time.

Index, Glossary and More

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