Accidentally changed track display -- how do I get it bacK?

[RussLA]

Windows XP
Audacity 2.0.3
.exe installer

I accidentally hit some key combination which has changed the display of my tracks. I closed Audacity without saving as soon as it happened, but the display was still changed when I reopened it. I've looked around Preferences, but I can't figure out how to get back to my original display.

All along the top and bottom of each track, there is now a thick blue border. Also, in the middle of each track where the waveform is, it's always white, even when I select the track or drag to select a portion of the track. When I do select the track, the only part that turns gray is a strip above and a strip below the waveform. So if I want to drag and select a portion of the track, that center white lane does not turn gray, which means the selection area does not actually cover the waveform. It makes it difficult to tell exactly where the edge of the selection is on the waveform.

Can someone help me get back to the standard display?

Thanks.

Russ

[kozikowski]

You probably selected Envelope Tool by accident. That's the two white arrows and bent blue line. Those lines are volume controls and you can click on them to make the volume of your show go up and down. Note by note if you want.

Select the "I" bar for normal editing (upper left in the tool cluster).

Koz

[RussLA]

Well, Koz, that's exactly what happened. But I'm glad it did because I didn't know anything about the envelope tool. For a long time I've been wanting a way to change the volume within a track. The only volume control I knew about was the Gain slider at the track start. I've always had a duplicate copy of each instrumental track with a lower Gain setting for when the vocal is going, which of course means I had double the number of instrumental tracks. This is going to be a very big help.

Thanks so much for a great tip.

Russ

[Gale Andrews]

Also please see Important information for Windows XP users about the security risks of running XP now that Microsoft no longer support it.

The current version of Audacity is 2.1.0. I recommend you upgrade at http://audacityteam.org/download/windows/. Then even if you only have the zip version of Audacity you can use the online Manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/.


Gale

[RussLA]

Gale,

Yes, I know all about the risks of XP at this point. The XP computer I use for Audacity is not connected to the Internet. I fully expected to have a new machine by this time but just haven't gotten it done. I may be switching to Mac. I have an old Power Mac 9600 that I use for Cubase, which is where I record my MIDI instruments, then play them into Audacity on the XP. The Power Mac is not connected to the Web either.

And yes, I should upgrade to the current version of Audacity as well. I've just been very busy on a project since near the end of last year and then someone broke into my house in January, so I spent a couple of months dealing with all that and securing my house. I just don't have a lot of free time, so a lot of stuff gets put on hold.

Is there any problem with downloading the latest Audacity on another computer and then copying the .exe file to my Audacity computer and installing it there?

You guys do a fabulous job on the forum here. Thanks for everything you do for us.

Russ

[steve]

Is there any problem with downloading the latest Audacity on another computer and then copying the .exe file to my Audacity computer and installing it there?

No problem with that. Of course you need to download the version that is appropriate for the computer that it will run on (not the computer that you download with), and you should of course virus check everything before exposing your XP machine to it (USB thumb drives are one of the main ways that viruses get passed from one computer to another).