Toolbars Overview

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.

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.

Toolbar dock areas

There are two dock areas for toolbars in Audacity. By default, most of the Audacity toolbars are in the upper dock, with only the Selection Toolbar in the lower dock.

Toolbars can be arranged and resized within either of the two docks, or floated free of the docks.

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.

Upper Toolbar dock area

Bill 27Nov2014: OK, here's one with 3-pixel green borders and text in 'link colour'.

Peter 29Nov14: raw Windows 7 Basic theme image ready for green boxing and blue annotating:

Lower Toolbar dock area

By default the lower dock only contains Selection Toolbar.

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.

The Toolbars

Transport Toolbar

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

Tools Toolbar

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

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

• 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

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

Edit Toolbar

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

Transcription Toolbar

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

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

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.

• Controls the sample rate of the project, snapping to the selection format and adjusts cursor and region position by keyboard input.

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:

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

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