I have the audacity software 2.4.2 downloaded to my Mac laptop (Mac OS 10.15.6), and I have unzipped the manual file several times, but I do not see a help file in Downloads, or anywhere else, only the .zipped manual file. Is there anything else I can do?
I assume that on Mac you will have downloaded and installed using the DMG, right?
In which case you will already have the Manual installed with Audacity.
You can access it from the app by using Help > Manual
If you need to access it directly if you right click on Audacity in Finder and choose Show Package Contents you will find the manual in the help folder.
WC
Thanks for this information. Audacity seems to be a nice program, but very complicated. Even downloading the manual requires special information! I don’t know if I will have the time and/or skill to use this program, even just for simple voice recordings and transcribing. I appreciate your help.
PS Am I supposed to mark this solved? How do I do that?
but very complicated…
…I don’t know if I will have the time and/or skill to use this program, even just for simple voice recordings and transcribing.
It IS complex and if you are new to audio editing you’ll have to learn the concepts & terminology as well as how to use the application. And, everybody is using different hardware and doing different things so it’s not always easy to make simple instructions.
The good news is once you’re set-up & configured with whatever microphone/hardware you’re using, you’ll only be using a few features/functions of Audacity and it should get a LOT easier. If you spend a half-day or so and you don’t run into too many “unexpected problems”, things should go smoothly after that. And there is plenty of help here on the forum.
As waxcylinder has already said, the manual is included in the Audacity DMG. There are no additional steps required - just install Audacity and the manual is also installed. No additional steps, and no “special information”.
It’s a bit tougher for Linux users as the Linux version usually ships without the manual, so in that case (on Linux) the manual needs to be installed separately.
Yes, now you tell me. Before I posted my plea for help, I spent an hour reading and trying, and nothing helped. The final answer was very helpful, since it told me that I had wasted all my time trying to follow existing instructions and information! For reasons I still don’t understand, the actual solution for my case was not posted anywhere as general information, only when I pleaded desperation! It doesn’t leave me optimistic about trying to learn the application myself, even for simple voice recording and transcription jobs. Is there a beginner’s guide or video or something?
Eleanor
There’s a “Getting Started” guide:
“Help menu > Quick Help”
Okay, now I see that I seem to have five copies of all the .html bits — I must have kept trying to do it! Is there any way I can get rid of this excess stuff? If I uninstall Audacity will that do it? Eleanor