Edit Menu



The Edit Menu provides standard edit commands (Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) plus many other commands specific to editing audio or labels. There are many commands available from this menu so some commands are grouped into a cascading sub-menu (as denoted on this page by a table of commands).

Undo 
Undoes the last editing operation you performed to your project. You can undo as many times as you want, all the way back to when you opened the window. To undo many operations, select History... from the View Menu. The name of this menu item will change to reflect what will be undone; if you just recorded some audio, the menu item name will be Undo Record.

Redo 
Redoes any editing operations that were just undone. After you perform a new editing operation, you can no longer redo the operations that were undone.

Cut 
Removes the selected audio data and/or labels and places these on the Audacity clipboard. Audio or labels after the selection move leftwards.

Delete 
Similar to Cut, but removes the audio data and/or labels that are currently selected without copying them to the Audacity clipboard.

Copy 
Copies the selected audio data to the Audacity clipboard without removing it from the project.

Paste 
Pastes audio which has been cut or copied to the Audacity clipboard, either inserting it into the selected track(s) at the cursor point, or replacing the current selection region(s).

Duplicate 
Creates a new track containing only the current selection as a new clip.

Remove Special
Commands for more "advanced" removal of audio:   Split Cut Split Delete  Silence Audio Trim Audio
 * Split Cut and Split Delete are a "special" cut or delete which make the audio or labels to right of the selection stay in current position instead of moving leftwards.
 * Silence replaces the current selection with silence.
 * Trim removes all audio from the current clip except the selected part, creating its own clip from the remaining, selected, audio.



Paste Text to New Label 
Pastes the text on the system clipboard (or text from a label stored in the Audacity clipboard) to a new label at the cursor or region position in the currently selected label track. A new label track is created if none exists.

Clip Boundaries
Create or remove separate clips in the audio track. A clip inside an audio track is a separate section of that track which has been split so that it can be manipulated somewhat independently of the other clips in the track.   Split  Split New <tr valign="top" style="background-color:#ddeeff"> Join Detach at Silences

Labeled Audio
Labeled Audio commands apply standard Edit Menu commands to the audio of one or more regions that are labeled. The labels themselves are not affected. This can be useful for example to remove multiple unwanted sounds at one go from an audio track where you have already labeled the unwanted sounds.

To use, drag a selection in the Label Track that fully includes (or extends beyond) each region label whose audio is to be affected. Labeled Audio Split can also mark an audio split in the waveform at each point label where the selection touches (or extends beyond) the point label.

The following Edit commands can be applied to labeled audio.

Select
Select ranges of audio.

Find Zero Crossings <font size="-1">
Find Zero Crossings helps to avoid clicks at edit points when making cuts and joins by moving the edges of a selection region (or the cursor position) very slightly so they are at a rising zero crossing point.

Move Cursor
Move the cursor directly to the start or end of the selection or the track. <table style="width:304px; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1px; border: solid #B7CEEC 3px; border-spacing:0px" cellpadding="2em" summary="This is a table listing the Edit Menu commands that add or remove clip boundaries"> <tr valign="top" style="background-color:#ddeeff"> <td width="60%">to selection start <td width="40%"> to selection end <tr valign="top" style="background-color:#ddeeff"> to track start to track end

<div id="region_save">

Region Save
Stores the current position of the selection region or cursor, as observed on the Timeline. The position of this region or cursor can then be recalled by using Region Restore (see below). Using this command again will overwrite the previously stored position information.

The position is saved in memory for each project. Therefore using Region Restore won't have any effect in another project unless you have already used Region Save in that project. When you close a project, its saved region is discarded.

The Region Save command is grayed out if there are no audio tracks.

<div id="region_restore">

Region Restore
Moves the selection region or cursor to the position stored by the last Region Save command (see above). If a region is restored, this is only explicitly placed inside those tracks which are currently selected.

<div id="play_region">

Play Region
Lock: Activating this menu item locks standard playback to the current position of the playback region (or to the current position of the Quick-Play region). This locked position is indicated by a red region in the Timeline instead of the normal gray region in the Timeline. The locked region is then always used when starting playback with a play button or with, instead of starting from the cursor or region position in the waveform. See Play Region Lock on the Timeline page for details.

This menu item is only active when there is a playback region or Quick-Play region in the Timeline displaying in normal gray (unlocked) color.

Unlock: Removes the Play Region Lock. This menu item is only active when the Lock is already active (the locked region shows in red color in the Timeline).

Preferences... <font size="-1">
Displays the Preferences dialog. Preferences enable you change most of the default behaviors and settings of Audacity.