View Menu: Zoom

The Zoom commands enable you to control the amount of audio, longer or shorter periods of time, that is visible on your screen.

Click, or hover, on any menu item in the image to read about that command.

See Also: Zooming for details about other ways to zoom in and out, e.g. using the magnifier icons on the edit toolbar.

View Menu: Zoom

Gale 10Aug16: Commenting this out until clarified. Non-default is "on". I cannot obviously see that the setting affects zooming at selections, except for the start of the track. At the start of the track, if left of zero is off, zoom is not centered. This needs explaining better, if left in.

If "Enable scrolling left of zero" is set to be "off" (the non-default setting) then the center of the selection will be positioned at the center of screen.

James 15Apr17: Add some images from elsewhere?

Zoom In  CTRL + 1

• View > Zoom > Zoom In: Doubles the current zoom level.

Zooms in on the horizontal axis of the audio, displaying more detail over a shorter length of time. You can also use the Zoom tool from the Tools Toolbar to zoom in on a particular part of the window.

Zoom Normal  CTRL + 2

• View > Zoom > Zoom Normal: Reverts back to Audacity's default zoom, where you can see 5 - 10 seconds at a time.

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

Zoom Out  CTRL + 3

• View > Zoom > Zoom Out: Cuts the current zoom level in half.

Zooms out, displaying less detail over a greater length of time.

PRL 28May15: Time at screen center is unmoved, unless too near the start of track and "Enable scrolling left of zero" is off

Zoom to Selection  CTRL + E

• View > Zoom > Zoom to Selection: If you have audio selected, this zooms and scrolls so that the selection just fits in the window.

Zooms in or out so that the selected audio fills the width of the project window. Its most useful purpose is to zoom in when the selection is only a small part of the visible waveform.

PRL 28May15: Make a clip, use time shift to drag it partly left of zero, double click the clip, and use this command. Results are anomalous. Width is correct for the selection but horizontal position is not. "Enable scrolling left of zero" does not change that.

1px to 1 Second  

Typically this will display many minutes of audio on the screen.

1px to Tenth Second  

Typically this will display a few minutes of audio on the screen.

1px to Hundredth Second  

Typically this will display a few seconds of audio on the screen.

1px to 1 Millisecond  

Typically this will display a second or less of audio on the screen.