Toolbars Overview

Gale 17Feb14: ToDo Hover text of links and images not ideal except for last two toolbars. The link hover text sometimes has the wrong text for the DISPLAYTITLE link or the image hover text shows the page title instead of describing the toolbar.

Gale 17Feb14: Where we need extensive text before the image, the bullet after the image makes no sense. Perhaps put all text before the images, and remove the bullet points?

• Peter 18Feb15: I dealt with this by placing the previously above-the-image text to bullet points below.

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 each green-bordered toolbar in the dock images to learn more then click to go to that toolbar's details page. Or jump to the brief toolbar descriptions.

Upper Toolbar dock area

Lower Toolbar dock area

By default the lower dock only contains Selection Toolbar.

The Toolbars

The individual toolbars are described briefly below. Click on any toolbar image to go the details page for that toolbar.

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

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

  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.

Spectral Selection Toolbar

        

• Displays and lets you adjust the current spectral (frequency) selection without having to be in one of the spectrogram views. By default the Spectral Selection Toolbar is not shown. Select View > Toolbars > Spectral Selection Toolbar to show the toolbar, which by default docks in the lower dock, beside or under Selection Toolbar.
• Spectral Selection Toolbar can show information about the spectral selection in two formats: Center frequency and Width  , or Low and High Frequencies  . Choose your preferred option from the dropdown menu above the boxes.

rearran

Arranging and resizing Toolbars

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 Mixer Toolbar being docked to the right of Device Toolbar:

The image below shows the Transport and Recording Meter toolbars floated outside the Project window, with the Recording Meter dragged wider and taller: