Preferences settings that affect Edit behavior

There are two settings in Tracks Behaviors Preferences that affect the operation of the Cut, Paste, and Delete editing commands:

•  Enable cut lines (unchecked by default)
  • When this setting is enabled, cutting a section of audio will leave a red vertical line at the left edge of the cut portion. You can click on this line at any time to restore the cut audio.
•  Editing a clip can move other clips (unchecked by default)
  • If this setting is enabled any clips following to right of the edit point can always move as necessary in response to pasting, cutting, deleting or other change that adds or removes content.

This page provides details and examples of how these preference settings affect editing operations.

The images on this page do not have the Clip-handle drag-bars shown (they were made with an earlier version of Audacity).

Contents

1. Editing a clip can move other clips
   • Examples of the effect of changing "Editing a clip can move other clips"
2. Enable Cut lines
   • Examples of the use of Cut lines

Editing a clip can move other clips

If this setting is enabled (the default setting is "off") and the track has been split into more than one clip, any clips following to the right of the edit point can always move as necessary in response to pasting, cutting, deleting or other change that adds or removes content.

Unchecking this preferences "pins" clips so that they cannot move in response to an edit in another clip. When removing content, any following clips will not move back. When pasting, an error message will display if there is not enough room to paste without moving the following clips.

Note carefully that Sync-Lock trumps (over-rides) this setting:

If you have Sync-Lock enabled in the Tracks Menu, then clips can move even when this setting is turned "off".

Examples of the effect of changing "Editing a clip can move other clips"

Removing audio (Cut or Delete) shifts the audio to the right of the edit to close up the space

Before the cut or delete

After the cut or delete with  Editing a clip can move other clips turned "on" - clips to the right of the edit move left

After the cut or delete with  Editing a clip can move other clips turned "off" - audio to the right of the edit within the clip moves left, clips to the right of edited clip do not move

Pasting into a region selection removes the region and inserts the clipboard contents, adjusting the position of the following audio as needed and if allowed

Track with a region selected, before audio is pasted:

After the paste when the audio to be pasted is shorter than the selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - audio to the right of the edit moves left

After the paste when the audio to be pasted is shorter than the selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - audio to the right of the edit within the clip moves left, clips to the right of the edited clip do not move

After the paste when the audio to be pasted is longer than the selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - audio to the right of the edit moves right to make room for the longer region of audio

After the paste when the audio to be pasted is longer than the selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - the clips to the right of edit cannot move, so the paste is not allowed

Pasting into a point selection inserts the audio at that point and adjusts the position of the following audio

Track with with a point selection, before audio is pasted

After the paste into a point selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - audio to the right of the edit moves right to make room for the longer region of audio

After the paste into a point selection with  Editing a clip can move other clips - the clips to the right of edit cannot move, so the paste is not allowed

Enable Cut Lines

When this setting is enabled (the default setting is "off"), cutting a section of audio will leave a red vertical line at the left edge of the cut portion. You can click on this line at any time to restore the cut audio. If you restore in error, use Edit > Undo Expand to get the cut line back. To remove the line without restoring audio, right-click over it. Edit > Undo Remove will restore the line if you make a mistake.

You can think of this as a kind of "persistent undo" in that clicking on the cut line undoes the cut, and the cut lines persist when you close and later re-open the project.

You must use Edit > Cut or its shortcut Ctrl + X (⌘ + X on Mac). Any other Edit command that removes audio will not produce a cut line. Existing cut lines can be expanded even if the "Enable cut lines" setting is off.

Examples of using Cut lines

Creating and restoring cut lines

The settings for this example are

•  Enable cut lines
•  Editing a clip can move other clips

Before cutting a region of audio from the first clip

After cutting the region - note the red indication of the cut line

Two more cuts are made

We can now expand the first cut - without the use of cut lines one would have to Undo three times to get the first cut back, then redo the second and third cuts

Cut lines cannot be expanded if doing so would violate the "Editing a clip can move other clips" setting

The settings for this example are

•  Enable cut lines
•  Editing a clip can move other clips

Before cutting a region from the first clip

After cutting the region, then moving the second clip to the left so it touches the first clip

After attempting to expand the cut line

Cut lines are not created if one or both edges of the region coincide with a clip boundary

The settings for this example are

•  Enable cut lines
•  Editing a clip can move other clips

Before cutting a region from the second clip - note that the left edge of the selection coincides with the left clip boundary

After cutting the region - note that there is no cut line