Selection Toolbar
Selection Toolbar (above) is normally at the bottom of the Audacity window, but like any of the Toolbars, it can be moved as desired by dragging the serrated edge on its left side.
Project Rate (Hz)
The sample rate for the project, by default this is set to 44100 Hz. To change the default rate that is used each time Audacity is launched, or each time a new project window is opened, use Quality Preferences.Changing the project rate in Selection Toolbar immediately changes the sample rate at which new tracks will be recorded or generated in the current project, and at which existing tracks will be played, rendered or exported. If the rate you require is not in the drop-down list, you may type the rate you want directly over the currently selected rate.
Snap To
Check the box 
Snap To to force all mouse clicks and selections made with the mouse to snap to the current Selection Format which can be various time units, samples, audio CD frames or film frames. The default format is hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds (seconds accurate to three decimal places, as in the above image). Mouse clicks snap the cursor to the nearest unit in the current format, moving the cursor unless the click is less than half way to the next nearest snap position.
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Even if Snap To is enabled, a track or clip can still be time-shifted to any position and the and commands will still align to positions outside snap positions for the current format. |
For example, six and a half seconds displays as 6.500 seconds. With Snap To checked and the format set to hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds, clicking in-between 6.500 seconds and 6.501 seconds on the Timeline snaps the cursor to the nearest millisecond unit, unless the cursor is already exactly at the nearest millisecond unit relative to the click point.
To snap to whole seconds, change the format to one where the smallest unit is seconds, for example, hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss). Assuming the cursor is currently at other than exactly 2.0 whole seconds, clicking at 2.4 seconds will now snap the cursor to 2.0 seconds, while clicking at 2.8 seconds will snap the cursor to 3.0 seconds. Dragging from the snapped cursor point will always snap the selection edge to a whole second. Snapping to seconds could be useful for exporting a selection that needed to be exactly a certain number of seconds, without entering precise values in the Selection Toolbar boxes (which would be another way of ensuring accuracy).
Various types of file frame can be snapped to, including NTSC and PAL. Snapping to film frames can be useful to maintain video and audio synchronization when editing audio from video files.
Selection and Audio Position Boxes
- Selection Start: If there is no selection, this shows the cursor position.
- (Selection) End/Length: Click the "End" radio button to show the end point of the selection. If there is no selection, the value is the same as the Selection Start. Clicking the "Length" button shows the length of the selection instead (the value shows as zero if there is no selection).
- Audio Position: Displays the current real time position of playback or recording. Editing the values has no effect.
Editing the Selection Toolbar time digits
You can edit the individual digits representing time or other formats in the "Selection Start" and "End/Length" boxes so as to change the cursor position or selection region on the waveform. Using a mouse, click on a digit in one of the boxes then use the mouse wheel or up and down arrow on the keyboard to increment the value, or type the required value. Use left and right arrow to navigate quickly to adjoining digits, and TAB or SHIFT + TAB to navigate to adjoining boxes.
Selection Toolbar is also fully accessible using only the keyboard. See Audacity Selection for how to use Selection Toolbar with the keyboard.
Selection Formats
To access the context menu listing the selection formats, click the triangle to right of any box. You can also select in or right-click over any digit in a box (or use a keyboard equivalent). The following table lists the 16 available formats.
Selection Format Example Notes seconds 005,408 seconds hh:mm:ss 01 h 30 m 08 s Hours, minutes, seconds dd:hh:mm:ss 00 days 01 h 30 m 08 s Days, hours, minutes, seconds hh:mm:ss + hundredths 01 h 30 m 08.51 s hh:mm:ss + milliseconds 01 h 30 m 08.512 s Default hh:mm:ss + samples 01 h 30 m 08 s + 22500 samples samples 238,514,850 samples hh:mm:ss + film frames (24 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12 frames film frames (24 fps) 129,804 frames hh:mm:ss + NTSC drop frames 01 h 30 m 08 s + 14 frames American video format hh:mm:ss + NTSC non-drop frames 01 h 30 m 03 s + 02 frames NTSC frames 162,092 frames hh:mm:ss + PAL frames (25 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 12 frames European video format PAL frames (25 fps) 135,212 frames hh:mm:ss + CDDA frames (75 fps) 01 h 30 m 08 s + 37 frames CDDA frames (75 fps) 405,637 frames Audio CD frames
