Selection Toolbar

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Selection Toolbar  includes the Project Rate, Snap To and time selection controls. Using this toolbar you can precisely place the cursor point or selection region without using a mouse to click or drag in the waveform, and without zooming in first to find the exact spot.
Selection Toolbar

The Selection Toolbar (above) is normally at the bottom of the Audacity window, but like any of the Toolbars, it can be moved as desired by dragging the serrated edge on its left side. Selection Toolbar shows and allows changing of the following:

  • Project Rate: The sample rate for the project, by default 44100 Hz. Changing this value immediately changes the sample rate at which new tracks will be recorded or generated, and at which existing tracks will be played back, mixed or exported. If the rate you require is not in the drop-down list, you may type the rate you want directly over the currently selected rate.
  • Snap To: If checked, selections and mouse clicks snap to the current Selection Format, which is hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss) by default (as in the above image).
To change the selection format to finer resolutions such as a frame format or audio samples, click the triangle in any of the three boxes to right of Snap To, right-click over them or select any box and use the Context Menu key.
    For example, if the format is set to hours, minutes and seconds, Snap To is checked and the cursor is at the start of the Timeline, clicking in the track at 2.8 seconds causes the cursor to snap to the nearest preceding unit, in this case 2.0 seconds. If a selection is dragged from that cursor point, the dragged edge snaps so that the selection must be in whole seconds.
  • Selection Start: If there is no selection, this shows the cursor position.
  • (Selection) End/Length: Click the "End" radio button to show the end point of the selection. If there is no selection, the value is the same as the Selection Start. Clicking the "Length" button shows the length of the selection instead (the value shows as zero if there is no selection).
  • Audio Position: Displays the current real time position of playback or recording.

Editing the Selection Toolbar values

You can edit the individual values in the "Selection Start" and "End/Length" boxes so as to change the cursor position or selection region on the waveform. Using a mouse, click on a digit in one of the boxes then use the mouse wheel or up and down arrow on the keyboard to increment the value, or type the required value. Use left and right arrow to navigate quickly to adjoining digits, and TAB or SHIFT + TAB to navigate to adjoining boxes.

Selection Toolbar is also fully accessible using only the keyboard.

See Audacity Selection for full details of Selection Toolbar features.

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