Clip selection doesn't work as expected

[graham_t]

Perhaps smeone can help me: I'm trying to use the commands in the User Guide to select out clips (tracks) from a recording and the commands simply aren't working as I would have expected.

I identify and confirm where I want the clip to start and then enter the "[" command to indicate the start of the clip selection. I then scroll through to about where I expect I want to set the end of the clip and mouse click to start playback at this point. I play the end of the recording until I identify where the clip should end and there pause playback and enter the "]" command. However, instead of selecting from "[" to "]" it selects from where I last clicked the recording to the "]" point!

Is this how it's supposed to work? If so then someone really hasn't given adequate thought as to how you might want to perform this operation. How do I do what I want to do if these commands don't work as required? At the moment I am forced to work back to front (since the start of the clip is easier to identify than the end) by identifying the end of the clip and then clicking there, then moving the cursor to that point so that it changes to a pointing finger and then select back all the way to the start of the clip, fine adjusting the start point as a final clean-up.

[billw58]

Unfortunately that is how those commands work. They are more useful in Play mode, where they work as expected.

There are a couple of workaround.

1) Use labels (CTRL+B) to mark the start and end of your clip. Then select between the labels - the selection will snap to the labels.

2) Use the Edit > Split command to mark the start and end of your clip. You will end up with a real Audacity "clip" that you can select by double-clicking inside the clip.

Here's what we mean when we talk about "clips" in Audacity: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Auda ... _and_Clips

-- Bill