Audacity Manual Contents
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Welcome, Audacity manual editors!
There are some important editor notes on the discussion page. Also see the extensive welcome message for new editors.
- Peter 30Jul14: Placed on hold for now as doing this inhibits display of the hover text
- Peter 01Aug14: See Connie for a workaround developed by Gale.
- Peter 17Aug14: I am currently plowing through this ...
- Peter 20Aug14: I have worked through the entire Manual, top-down via menu structure followed by a second page-by-page pass via "List of Pages" and killed all the image links that I found (including several button links). Removed the P2.
- Peter:Indeed - and also in quite a lot of other places in the Manual. I'll try to get some time to look at that.
- Peter 19Aug14: I experimented with this (there is one example "Getting" started). I am loath to continue with this sub-project as the syntax involved is quite complex. This page is complicated enough already and hard to maintain, introducing complex display-text will make this page a lot more complex and a lot harder to maintain - and make it easier to introduce errors. So my vote is -0.5 for this.
- Gale 19Aug14: I still think it's a reasonable idea to encourage interaction and learning. I added two more examples. The syntax is [[Page title|<span title="hover text">Display text for link</span>]]. If the display text for the link is the same as the Page title, just give the page title again, as in the Playback Tips example. If you prefer I do this sometime, please just make a user page giving suggestions for the hover text (but it's not P1).
Audacity 2.0.6-alpha Development Manual
This online Manual is only for the latest 2.0.6-alpha development code. The online Manual for the current 2.0.5 release is here. Click here for legacy 1.2 documentation.
- Use Help > Manual (in web browser) in the current 2.0.5 release to access an installed copy of the Manual.
- You can download and install the 2.0.5 Manual if the Manual is not installed.
Help Resources
- most common questions are answered in the FAQ- Search the Wiki for extra tips and tutorialsVisit the Forum for technical help Using Help Resources
Using Audacity
Quick Help
- Getting Started - Recording, Importing, Editing, Exporting...
Understanding Audacity
- Foundations
- Managing Audacity Projects - Audacity's internal workspace
- Audacity Setup and Configuration
- Digital Audio Fundamentals
- Audio Tracks and The Waveform Display
- Playing and Recording
- Importing audio and Exporting audio files - For use in other programs
- Navigation Tips, Playback Tips and Audio Alignment Tips
Tutorials
- Editing an Audio File - Import the file, edit and export it
- Your First Recording - Record microphone, guitar, keyboard
- Mixing Voice with Background Music - For podcasts
- Recording Multi-track Overdubs - Record over other tracks
- Copying tapes, LPs and other media to CD or computer
- Recording streaming audio playing on the computer
- Splitting a recording into separate tracks
- Vocal Removal and Isolation
- Making Ringtones - For your cellphone
- Burning Audio CDs and How to import CDs
- Burning Audio CDs and Importing from iTunes
- Example Workflows
Help with Advanced Topics
- Accessibility - Audacity for the visually impaired
- Splitting a recording into separate tracks using labels
- Latency when recording overdubs
- Chains - for batch processing and effects automation
- Crash Recovery
- Customizing Audacity and Simplifying Menus
- Scripting
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 13 Status Bar
Hover over and click on the image to learn more. Skip the image
More Details for the Project Window
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
- Index
- Glossary of Terms - digital audio terms and file formats
- Credits
- Audacity License
- Information for Developers - join our developer community
- Information for the Media - Audacity and free, open software
Links: Most links are to other pages in this Manual. Bold italicized links are to a description in our Glossary. Other italicised links are to pages external to this Manual, mostly to our main web site or Wiki. We are not responsible for the content of any other external sites.
Screenshots: Unless otherwise stated, screenshots in this Manual are of Audacity running under its default settings on the Microsoft Windows 7® operating system. Representative images of Audacity running on Mac OS X and Linux are also included.
Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all pages in this Manual are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. In essence, you are free to (1) copy, distribute and transmit the work (2) to adapt the work, under condition you must attribute the work to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from us.
