I’ve just started using Audacity and I have a very elementary/dumb question. My cursor doesn’t mark a position on the recording but only zooms in and out. How do I turn off the zoom capability so I can mark a position on the recording?
You can mark a position on the blue waves with labels.
You can press a hot key (yours may be different from mine) and a label forms at that exact spot.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/label_tracks.html
Koz
You might have a different problem while editing. Audacity can be set so the cursor can’t fall off the end of the screen. Audacity will keep sliding new blue waves under it so it stays current. That can make you crazy when you’re trying to edit because it has the effect of constantly flipping your edit points away from you. You can turn that behavior off.
Audacity > Edit > Preferences > Tracks > [_] Update Display (de-select)
I like to turn that back on when I record because it keeps the blue waves current with real time. That behavior is desirable then.
Koz
You can slide your blue waves around manually with Shift-Scroll Wheel.That can help when you’re zoomed in tight and just need to see a little before or a little later.
Koz
This morning when I loaded the saved WAV file the cursor is working normally - ie. I can edit the recording. It seems saving the file, exiting the program and restarting cleared it up. Thank you for the tip information and prompt response.
It seems to me you enabled Zoom Tool in Tools Toolbar. Pressing F1 on your keyboard to go back to Selection Tool would have solved that.
If you stayed in Zoom Tool then Audacity initializes to Selection Tool at the next session.
Gale