Interface Preferences




 * Accessed by:     (on a Mac
 * Click on any of the other Preferences sections in the above image to go directly to that Preferences page.
 * Click on any of the other Preferences sections in the above image to go directly to that Preferences page.

Display
 The Meter/Waveform dB setting also affects the lowest displayable dB range when in the Plot Spectrum window.  Language: Changes the language of the menus and other on-screen text. Languages with non-Latin character sets require you to have the correct fonts installed on your system, otherwise the menus will display with ???? characters. Location of Manual: "Local" When using the Help Menu, opens your default web browser to display the local version of the Manual that came with your Audacity installation. The Manual will automatically be installed in the Audacity installation folder if you obtain the Windows .exe or Mac OS X .dmg installers. If the Manual is not installed, accessing it when the "Local" preference is chosen will show a dialog asking you to view or download it online. Instructions for installing the downloaded Manual are here.  "From Internet" opens your browser to display the alpha development Manual for the latest Audacity Nightly Builds, even if you have an installed local Manual. The alpha development Manual may differ considerably from the local Manual, so it is recommended to enable this option only if you are using a Nightly Build or compiling Audacity from latest source code. 
 * Ergonomic order of audio I/O buttons: Sets the Transport Toolbar button order as: Pause, Play, Stop, Skip to Start, Skip to End, Record, rather than: Skip to Start, Play, Record, Pause, Stop, Skip to End.
 * Show 'How to get Help' message at program start up: Uncheck this to disable the default start up dialog that lists our help resources.
 * Meter/Waveform dB range: Sets the minimum displayed value of:
 * Meter Toolbar
 * The vertical logarithmic scale in the Waveform (dB) view mode (this can be chosen in the Track Drop-Down Menu or set in the Tracks Preferences)
 * The level slider for Sound Activated Recording in Recording Preferences.

Behaviors

 * Beep on completion of longer activities: Makes Audacity play a beep when activities lasting longer than a minute are completed. Visually impaired users may find this useful.
 * Show track name in waveform display: Displays the track's name at the top left corner of the waveform display:
 * [[image:TrackWithName.png|Displays the track's name]]


 * Retain labels if selection snaps to a label edge:
 * By default this option is unchecked, in which case a point label is deleted when you delete a selection that snaps exactly up to the label edge (as shown by the yellow Boundary Snap Guides) and includes the label in the selection. Similarly, a region label included in the selection is deleted when deleting a selection that extends from or outside one edge and snaps to the other edge.
 * When this option is checked, a label included in the selection is always retained if deleting a selection that snaps to one or both label edges. Even if this option is checked, the label will still be deleted if you select over a point label or over both edges of a region label. Checking this option also means that if you an audio selection defined by a region label (for example, by clicking in the label to select it), or extend that selection past one edge only, the selection will be extended to include a single label. Without this option checked the selection would be extended to include extra labels.

Example deleting a selection snapping to a point label:'''

 * Selection ready to be deleted:
 * [[image:RetainLabelsBefore.png]]
 * (Note that Sync-Lock Tracks is on (see the icon [[image:TrackPanelSyncLockIcon.png|image of sync-lock icon]] showing bottom right in the Track Control Panel of each the tracks), so there is a patterned "Sync-Lock" selection in the label track and it is not necessary to explicitly select in the label track in order to delete from it).


 * After pressing with "Retain labels when they define the edge of a selection" unchecked:
 * [[image:RetainLabelsAfter 1.png]]


 * After pressing with "Retain labels when they define the edge of a selection" checked:
 * [[image:RetainLabelsAfter 2.png]]

Note: CleanSpeech Mode (a customized interface with reduced menus and stored effects presets) no longer exists in Audacity 2.x. It was last available in Audacity 1.3.13.

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Modes

 * CleanSpeech Mode: A customization of Audacity by Lynn Allan with limited menu options. It's mainly used for quick clean-up and export to MP3 of one or more speech recordings, carried out as a batch process called a "chain". The available effects in the "CleanSpeech" menus and chain are limited to Fade In, Fade Out, Leveler, Noise Removal, Normalize and Truncate Silence, plus Stereo to Mono (located in the Edit menu). A simple "MP3 Conversion" chain is also provided which has only a Normalize effect. A wider range of chained effects is available by using Batch Processing without enabling CleanSpeech.


 * CleanSpeech is only intended for exporting audio files, so there are no menu options to save Audacity projects.
 * CleanSpeech does not permit recording if a track (or more than one project) is already open.

 To run a "CleanSpeech" or "MP3 Conversion" chain with CleanSpeech Mode enabled, click the special CleanSpeech button that is added to the right of the standard Transport Toolbar. In the "Apply Chain" dialog that pops up, select one of the chains and apply it either to the current project or to files. If you apply the chain to files, these will be imported into Audacity for processing. Exported files will be saved in a folder named "cleaned". The "cleaned" folder will be in the location from which files were last opened (if the chain is applied to the project), otherwise in the location from which the original files were imported for processing. The original files are retained unmodified. To edit the parameters for the chains, or to add a new one, click File > Edit Chains... If you use Effect > Noise Removal... in CleanSpeech mode, the last captured "noise profile" will be saved as a "noisegate.nrp" file inside a "NRP" folder in the Audacity data folder. This saved profile will be used permanently until you capture another profile. Therefore at the start of a new "Audacity CleanSpeech" session, unlike at the start of a standard session, the "OK" button in Noise Removal will already be active, indicating that a noise profile is ready to use. CleanSpeech mode also allows for export and import of presets. File > Export CleanSpeech Presets... exports the current noise profile and most current settings for Leveler, Normalize and Truncate Silence to a .csp presets file of your choice. Use File > Import CleanSpeech Presets... to import the noise profile and effect settings from any saved .csp file for use in the current CleanSpeech session. Note: Although importing a .csp file loads its noise profile for Noise Removal to use, it does not overwrite any saved noisegate.nrp profile. The noisegate.nrp profile will be remembered again when you launch your next CleanSpeech session. More information about CleanSpeech is available here. -->