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Welcome, Audacity manual editors!

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This manual is a work in progress. It relates to the Beta 1.3.5 program, not 1.2.5/6! Audacity 1.3.5 is the basis for our upcoming 1.4.0 stable release of Audacity.
If you would like a Wiki account so that you can help us to complete it, e-mail Gale (gale_AT_audacityteam_DOT_org)

For ideas on what needs to be done to
move the manual forward, see the ToDo page.

Download the manual as a zip file

1.3 Manuals can be downloaded for standalone reading in PDF or RTF format. RTF can be opened in Microsoft Word.

It is possible to obtain a one page version of the HTML manual, and view it in the help browser in Audacity 1.3.5. Please note that due to significant problem with our HTML export script, many of the internal links in the document don't work. It is also possible to obtain a fully functional but much more out-of-date help file for display in Audacity. This includes most of the features that 1.3.2 had when it was current. Go to the instructions.

Audacity 1.3.5 User Manual

The "About this Manual" section is online manual only, and the linked to "Audacity for the Impatient" page is also only available online. To prevent the export of specific text inside pages that are being exported, wrap it in <div class="noexport"> html tags.

About this Manual

The Manual is divided into several sections. If you're in a hurry, try:

• Audacity for the Impatient Schematic diagram of Audacity with quick links to the main parts of the interface.

Otherwise, the Manual contains:

• Tutorials - walk through various common tasks and get started quickly
• Using Audacity - contains Foundations (fundamentals concepts of digital audio and editing in Audacity) and Help with Advanced Issues (read the ones that apply to you as required)
• Reference - explains every button, tool, menu item and dialog in Audacity
• Miscellaneous - includes an Index, Glossary of technical terms used in the Manual, Frequently Asked Questions and License

This manual has two main parts to it:

• A step by step guide. Organised by tasks (the Tutorials and the Using Audacity sections).
• A reference section. Organised by GUI structure.

The reference section should be naming the parts of the GUI and saying in outline what they do. The reference section needs to be complete for 1.4.0. I think it's OK if we don't finish all the tutorials, and drop the ones which are incomplete from the html help. JC

Follow links from Special:Lonelypages and Old Pages to find remnants of the old manual.

Tutorials

• Tutorial - Editing an Existing File
• Tutorial - Your First Recording
• Tutorial - Mixing a Narration With Background Music
• Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD (including full description of noise removal more briefly described in Effect Menu or only a link to it Effect Menu ??? and including splitting into multiple tracks)

Using Audacity

Foundations

I've moved things around a bit to make What is an Audacity Project? a reality, but it's still in an almighty mess at the moment. Can't see the way forward clearly yet.--James
I've had a quick glance at it - thanks. Actually I am not very worried about this at the moment. We link to it in appropriate places in the reference and it may or may not require a separate more technical appendix about it as per the current Audacity Project Format. On current content, I don't think a separate page is justified. A placeholder for .aup has been added to Glossary. I think "What is an Audacity Project?" could be a step by step tutorial with images if we have time, through from import, saving a Project a few times then exporting. I don't think that's essential, maybe only that we state that as an example scenario. As moving Audacity Projects under Foundations was my idea, maybe let me work on Audacity Projects and see what I come up with based on the content you've dropped in there - though I'm not necessarily going to do it immediately .

• Digital Audio
• Audacity Tracks and Clips
• Audacity Selection
• Audacity Setup and Configuration
• What is an Audacity Project?
• Playing and Recording
• Zooming
• Undo, Redo and History

Help with Advanced Issues

• Working with Audio CDs Audacity cannot import or burn to CDs itself, but read how to work with them here

Is this the best place for "Audio CDs"??

• Recording Quality (/// this should be expanded or better, incorporated in the recording tutorial///)
• Recovery (if Audacity crashes or if you lose part of an Audacity project)///must include advice on what to do if recovery fails///
• Batch Processing (converting multiple files at once)
• Customization (keyboard shortcuts, adding plug-ins and more)
• Simplifying Audacity
• Accessibility (Audacity for the visually impaired)

Should include the JAWS guide (ready now). Write a short paragraph linking to Audacity Tracks and Clips, the Selection Bar etc.

Wanted Topics

The Wanted Topics are in a 'noexport' section. Suggest we don't start writing them yet. They're not essential for 1.4.0.

• Spectrogram Analysis (or one or more better titles, cover tracking down clicks, square wave as-a-spectrum, beat frequencies).

Reference

Menu Bar: all commands for importing, recording,
manipulating and exporting audio

• Menu Bar overview
• Audacity Mac only
• File

• Metadata Editor for editing information tags in exported files
• File Export Dialog including help on which format to export to
• Export options for:

WAV, AIFF and uncompressed types, MP3*, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP2 and Command line export   *MP3 export requires the LAME MP3 encoder

• Advanced Mixing Options dialog for exporting multi-channel files

• Edit

• Editing Help: Cut, Paste and More

• View
• Tracks
• Generate

• Effect

• Detailed help for some of the more complex built-in effects:

Auto Duck, Compressor, Equalization, Noise Removal

• Help with VST effect plug-ins

• Analyze
• Help

Toolbars: buttons and controls for playback,
recording and editing

• Toolbars overview

• Tools

• Extra help with Envelope Tool for controlling amplitude changes smoothly, and Multi-Tool (combining all tools in one)

• Control
• Edit
• Mixer
• Meter
• Transcription
• Selection

Project Window:

• Timeline
• Tracks overview
• Audio Tracks

• Track Drop-Down Menu
• Mixing Audio Tracks

• Label Tracks
• Time Tracks

Preferences:

• Preferences overview
• Audio I/O
• Quality
• Import / Export
• Interface
• Spectrograms
• Directories
• Keyboard

• List of all keyboard shortcuts

• Mouse

File Formats section now removed. Pages like MP3 format are now MP3 Export Options and are parked under File Export Dialog in the reference section. MP3 Export Options and similar lose their text telling you what MP3 format is (it is already there in File Export Dialog). A basic description of each format will be in Glossary. We may or may not have extra text for the formats as a "File extensions" appendix including the current content of Audacity Project Format. If we get the level of text right in File Export Dialog and link to the Glossary with links to Wikipedia or our Wiki this might not be needed, except that it's still handy for people importing these formats. - Gale

Miscellaneous

Index, Glossary and Frequently Asked Questions:

• Index
  ToDo This links to a null page - there is no index
• Glossary of Terms with links to Wikipedia and/or main Wiki including audio file formats.
• Frequently Asked Questions

Credits, License and Further Information:

• Credits
• License
• Information for Developers - how to join our developer community

• Background Information for the Media - Audacity and free, open-source software

• Audacity Project Format

"Audacity Project Format" parked here in case we have an appendix for "file format extensions" - I'm currently unsure - Gale .
The Audacity project file structure should, I think, be given good prominence - not just parked down here. The reason I say this is because a lot of queries of the forum clearly arise because users have no idea about the Audacity project structure. - Peter
I agree the project structure is critical which is why we created What is an Audacity Project and put it under "Foundations". See the discussion near the top of the main page. This section at the bottom is possibly a more technical description of the project format which might go in a File Formats appendix to include mainly audio file formats (if we feel we need to say more about those than we do elsewhere). - Gale

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Further help if you need it (preferably expand and complete this page or delete it in favor of Wiki and Forum links)

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Links: Most links are to other pages in this Manual. Bold italicized  links are to a description in our Glossary. Links with an appended symbol are to pages external to this Manual.

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