Toolbars Overview

From Audacity Development Manual
Revision as of 11:05, 29 November 2014 by PeterSampson (talk | contribs) (removing spurious link to the now-retired red-boxed page)
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Peter 29Nov14: The long ednote discussion has been moved to the Talk Page.
  • Peter 26Nov14: ToDo-1 images will need updating as the Toolrack has been removed by Leland.
    • Peter 28Nov14: I have supplied a raw Windows 7 Basic Theme inage of the upperdock toolbars scaled to 91% with Paint. It requires further processing to add green borders and annotations (in blue?)

      It is probably worth parking the current imagemap and image somewhere as it is likely to be just what we need for 2.1.1 alpha.

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Toolbars provide quick access to many functions in Audacity. In some cases the functions provided by a toolbar are available only through that toolbar. Other than the Spectral Selection Toolbar, all toolbars are enabled by default; if your desired toolbar is not visible, choose View > Toolbars and click to put a checkmark by the toolbar you wish to enable. The Meter toolbars are special case; you may have either the Combined or one or both of the individual (Record or Playback) Meter toolbars visible.

There are two dock areas for toolbars in Audacity. By default, most of the Audacity toolbars are in the upper dock, as in the image below.

By default the lower dock only contains Selection Toolbar. However, toolbars can be arranged and resized within either of the two docks, or floated free of the docks.

Audacity Toolbars.png
Hover over and click on each green-bordered toolbar in the image to go to that toolbar's details page or jump to the brief toolbar descriptions. Skip the image
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or endTools Toolbar lets you choose various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audioRecording Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being recorded is clipped, which results in distortionPlayback Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being edited is clipped, which results in distortionMixer Toolbar lets you adjust Recording Volume (the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume (how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of exported audio)Edit Toolbar has buttons for editing, Sync-Lock Tracks and zooming which are an alternative to using menu items or keyboard shortcuts for these tasksTranscription Toolbar lets you play audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitchDevice Toolbar selects Audio Host, recording device, recording channels and playback device, avoiding the need to open Devices Preferences to make these settingsAudacity Toolbars Bordered.png
Bill 27Nov2014: Here's an alternative imagemap, with links into this page.
  • Peter 28Nov14: Bill, *very* happy to go with an image like this, but I don't have the skills/tools to make it as clean as this.
  • Ed 27Nov14 : +.9; fatter green borders - they pretty well disappear on a high-resolution monitor. I also think that the wording could be a little better: "Hover over and click on each green-bordered toolbar…" "Hover the mouse pointer to read an informative tooltip or click on each green-bordered toolbar to learn more." I also see no need to decrease the font size.
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or endTransport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or endTools Toolbar lets you choose various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audioTools Toolbar lets you choose various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audioRecording Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being recorded is clipped, which results in distortionRecording Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being recorded is clipped, which results in distortionPlayback Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being edited is clipped, which results in distortionPlayback Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being edited is clipped, which results in distortionMixer Toolbar lets you adjust Recording Volume (the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume (how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of exported audioMixer Toolbar lets you adjust Recording Volume (the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume (how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of exported audioEdit Toolbar has buttons for editing, Sync-Lock Tracks and zooming which are an alternative to using menu items or keyboard shortcuts for these tasksEdit Toolbar has buttons for editing, Sync-Lock Tracks and zooming which are an alternative to using menu items or keyboard shortcuts for these tasksDevice Toolbar selects Audio Host, recording device, recording channels and playback device, avoiding the need to open Devices Preferences to make these settingsDevice Toolbar selects Audio Host, recording device, recording channels and playback device, avoiding the need to open Devices Preferences to make these settingsTranscription Toolbar lets you play audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitchTranscription Toolbar lets you play audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitchAudacity Toolbars Bordered Arrows.png
Bill 27Nov2014: OK, here's one with 3-pixel green borders and text in 'link colour'.
Transport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or endTransport Toolbar has buttons for controlling playback and recording and for moving to the project start or endTools Toolbar lets you choose various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audioTools Toolbar lets you choose various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audioRecording Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being recorded is clipped, which results in distortionRecording Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being recorded is clipped, which results in distortionPlayback Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being edited is clipped, which results in distortionPlayback Meter Toolbar lets you see if audio being edited is clipped, which results in distortionMixer Toolbar lets you adjust Recording Volume (the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume (how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of exported audioMixer Toolbar lets you adjust Recording Volume (the amplitude at which recordings will be made) and Playback Volume (how loud the project's audio sounds, not affecting the volume of exported audioEdit Toolbar has buttons for editing, Sync-Lock Tracks and zooming which are an alternative to using menu items or keyboard shortcuts for these tasksEdit Toolbar has buttons for editing, Sync-Lock Tracks and zooming which are an alternative to using menu items or keyboard shortcuts for these tasksDevice Toolbar selects Audio Host, recording device, recording channels and playback device, avoiding the need to open Devices Preferences to make these settingsDevice Toolbar selects Audio Host, recording device, recording channels and playback device, avoiding the need to open Devices Preferences to make these settingsTranscription Toolbar lets you play audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitchTranscription Toolbar lets you play audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, also affecting pitchAudacity Toolbars Bordered Arrows 2.png

The individual toolbars are described below. Click on any of the toolbar images below to see an image of that toolbar in context with its surroundings.

Transport Toolbar

Transport Toolbar
  • Controls playback and recording and skips to start or end of project when neither playing or recording.

Tools Toolbar

Tools Toolbar
  • Chooses various tools for selection, volume adjustment, zooming and time-shifting of audio.

Recording Meter Toolbar

Recording Meter Toolbar
  • Displays recording levels and toggles input monitoring when not recording.

    Note the two vertical bars at the right of this toolbar which mean that this toolbar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the bars.

Playback Meter Toolbar

Playback Meter Toolbar
  • Displays playback levels.

    Note carefully the two vertical bars at the right of this toolbar which mean that this toolbar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the bars.

Mixer Toolbar

Mixer Toolbar
  • Adjusts the recording and playback volumes of the devices currently selected in Device Toolbar.

Edit Toolbar

Edit Toolbar
  • Cut, copy, paste, trim audio, silence audio, undo, redo, sync-lock, zoom.

Transcription Toolbar

Transcription Toolbar
  • Plays audio at a slower or faster speed than normal, affecting pitch.

Device Toolbar

Device Toolbar
  • Selects audio host, recording device, number of recording channels and playback device.

    Note the two vertical bars at the right of this toolbar which mean that this toolbar can be resized by clicking and dragging on the bars.

Selection Toolbar

Peter 28Nov14: For now an imagemap is appropriate here. Peter & Bill are currently discussing whether to have an in-context image like this at the top of the page. If we do that then we will have a bare-bones standard image here.

The default position of Selection Toolbar is at the bottom of the main Audacity window, thus it is not visible in the Toolbars image at the top of this page.

Selection ToolbarSelection Toolbar green-boxed.png


Arranging and resizing Toolbars

Peter 11Nov14: ToDo-2 New images needed here (recording now before playback). P2 rather than P1 as these are non-default images anyway, so we could live with these.

Toolbars can be docked in two toolbar areas of the Audacity Project window, providing there is space available: either above the Timeline, or above the Status Bar at the bottom of the window (Selection Toolbar is in this location by default). Toolbars may also be floated anywhere else in or outside the project window, including on a secondary monitor. The toolbar positions on exiting Audacity are always remembered when restarting Audacity next time.

Toolbars can be docked or floated by dragging on their serrated left edge. When docking a toolbar into a toolbar area, a blue triangle will appear, indicating an available docking position. The default toolbar docked positions can be restored at any time by clicking View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars. Some of the Toolbars can be resized (the Meter Toolbars and the Device Toolbar) by clicking and dragging on the vertical bars at the right of the toolbars.

The image below shows Tools Toolbar being docked to the right of Transport Toolbar:

Docking-a-toolbar.png

The image below shows some toolbars floated outside the Project window, with the Combined Meter Toolbar enlarged:

FloatingTools win7-basic.png
Peter 21Nov14: ToDo-2 this image will need to be replaced if the Combined Meter is removed.
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