View Menu

The View menu has commands that control what you see in the Audacity Project Window.

Zoom In

Zooms in on the horizontal axis of the audio, displaying more detail about less time. You can also use the zoom tool to zoom in on a particular part of the window.

Zoom Normal

Zooms to the default view, which displays about one inch per second.

Zoom Out

Zooms out, displaying less detail about more time.

Fit in Window

Zooms out until the entire project just fits in the window.

Fit Vertically

Adjusts the height of all the tracks until they fit in the project window.

Zoom to Selection

Zooms in until the selected audio fills the width of the screen to show the selection in more detail.

Collapse All Tracks

Collapses all tracks to take up the minimum amount of space. To collapse or expand an individual track, click on the triangle on the lower-left of the track label.

Expand All Tracks

Expands all tracks to their original size before the last collapse.

Show Clipping

Click this menu item to turn display of clipped samples on and off - a check mark in the item indicates that display is turned on. A clipped sample is one that is outside the volume envelope defined by +1.0 to - 1.0 dB (this is the vertical scale to left of the waveform when default Waveform view is enabled, as shown below). Clipped samples are bad, as they cause distortion and lost audio information - avoid them where possible, for example by setting the recording level correctly. A clipped positive sample will have a red vertical line through it extending from the top of the waveform to the center line. A clipped negative sample will have the line extending from the bottom of the waveform to the center line. Turn "Show Clipping" off if it behaves sluggishly on slower machines.

  By going to Analyze > Find Clipping, clipping can also be shown diagrammatically in a Label Track so that screen-readers can access the information.  

History...

Brings up the history window. It shows all the actions you have performed during the current session, including importing. The right-hand column shows the amount of hard disk space your operations used. You can jump back and forth between editing steps quite easily by simply clicking on the entries in the window.

The history window can be kept open at all times. It doesn't interfere with any other operations.

Toolbars

These commands hide or show the eight Audacity Toolbars:

Control, Device, Edit, Meter, Mixer, Selection, Tools and Transcription

"Reset Toolbars" at the bottom of this group positions all toolbars as they were when Audacity was first installed.