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Welcome, Audacity manual editors!

This is both the front page of the online manual, and of the local/zipped manual. Anything which is not directly or indirectly linked from this page (is a link on a page that is linked from this page) will not appear in the local/zipped manual. Image pages will not appear in the local/zipped manual, nor will pages outside the manual/audacityteam.org/ domain.

In a previous script (currently broken/out-of-use), the printed manual was assembled by concatenating all of the articles found on this page, in this order. Links to another page, like [[File Menu]], became page references in the PDF, e.g. File Menu (Page 73). External hyperlinks, like [http://example.com Example Website], appeared in the text as Example Website¹ with a footnote containing the URL. We used <div class="nochapternumber"></div> at the top of an article if it was an introductory chapter in the printed manual (Copyright, Appendix, etc.). The printed manual was updated on the Export page.

• Put <div class="noexport"></div> or <div class="editornote"></div> around text or a page to exclude it from the local/zipped and printed manual.

• Put <div class="note"></div> around text for text inside a box. This appears in all versions of the manual.

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This manual is a work in progress. It relates to the Beta 1.3.9 program, not 1.2.5/6! Audacity 1.3.9 is the basis for our upcoming 2.0 stable release of Audacity.

There are no translations of this Manual to other languages yet. Try here for help in other languages.

Can you help us complete the Manual, or translate it to other languages? If so, please 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.

The Audacity Manual (current at time of release) is included in version 1.3.9 if you obtain the Windows .exe or Mac OS X .dmg Audacity installers.

To view the Manual, click Help > Manual (in web browser), or Help > Quick Help (in web browser) to access the "Getting Started" section of the manual. This will load the local Manual files in your web browser, without the need for an internet connection.

If you have obtained the zip version of Audacity or are on Linux, you can download the same Manual here. Instructions are here.

Audacity 1.3.9 User Manual

Printed Manual Only

The following links will not be visible to logged-out online or in the dumped (installed) manual:

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Introduction

Excluded from printed and online Manual

The following old/experimental pages will be excluded from both the printed manual and from the front page of the logged-out online/installed manual. They can still be found online through Search):

• Editing for Beginners - Cut, Copy and Paste
• Editing for Beginners - Introduction
• Editing for Beginners - Silence, Duplicate and Split
• Editing for Beginners - Splitting and Submixes
• Sample rates (may be a candidate for a technical appendix or similar later)
• Theme Preferences
• Transcription Toolbar disabled
• What's New in Audacity 1.3.2
• Batch Preferences - this Preferences tab no longer exists.

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.
• Getting Started - Quick help to get you recording, importing files, editing and exporting your work in no time.

Otherwise, the Manual contains:

• Tutorials - Walk through various common tasks in more detail.
• Using Audacity - Contains:
  • Foundations - Fundamental concepts of digital audio and editing in Audacity.
  • 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 - Glossary, 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 2.0. 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

Using Audacity

Foundations:

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

Help with Advanced Issues:

• 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 Toolbar etc.

• 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"??

• Batch Processing (converting multiple files at once)
• Customization (keyboard shortcuts, adding plug-ins and more)
• 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///
• Scripting (experimental - driving Audacity from a script over named pipes)
• Simplifying Audacity
• Latency Test

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 (Overview).

• The Menus: Audacity (Mac only) | File | Edit | View | Transport | Tracks | Generate | Effect | Analyze | Window (Mac only) | Help
• Sub Menus and Details

• On-Demand Loading of uncompressed files
• Exporting

• 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
• Custom FFmpeg Export to apply customized codec and format options (development builds only)
• Advanced Mixing Options dialog for exporting multi-channel files

• Editing Help: Cut, Paste and More
• More complex built-in effects: Auto Duck, Compressor, Equalization, Noise Removal, Repair
• Help with VST effect plug-ins

Toolbars:

Buttons and controls for playback, recording and editing (Overview)

• The Toolbars Control | Device | Edit | Meter | Mixer | Selection | Tools | Transcription
• Details

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

Project Window:

* Project Window Overview Hiding this while Ed works on it - Bill

Combine Project Window Overview and Tracks Overview? -- James

The main area where tracks are mixed together (Overview).

• Timeline
• The Tracks: Audio Tracks | Label Tracks | Time Tracks
• Details

• Track Drop-Down Menu
• Mixing Audio Tracks

Preferences:

The numerous options to customise Audacity (Overview).

• The Preferences: Devices | Playback | Recording | Quality | Interface | Tracks | Import/Export | Projects | Libraries | Spectrograms | Directories | Warnings | Effects | Keyboard | Mouse
• List of all keyboard shortcuts

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.
• Further Help

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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, for whose content we are not responsible.

Screenshots: Unless otherwise noted in the hover text of the image, all screenshots of Audacity in the Manual are of Microsoft Windows® operating systems.

Copyright: Unless otherwise noted, all pages on this site 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.