Simplifying Audacity - Audacity Manual

# Simplifying Audacity

### From Audacity Manual

The features described here are not available in current releases.
This page is intended for teachers and people who want to create an easier version of Audacity for others to use.

## The Problem

Audacity has many features, but this can make it intimidating for new users. We've had many requests for a simplified version of Audacity that is easier to use. One problem is that different people have different ideas of what is "simple".

A second problem is that many settings are most useful when getting Audacity set up - settings for recording and playback, to get the MP3 library installed, settings for latency, quality and directories. These settings need to be available during setting Audacity up. They are probably best hidden from users who want to use an already set up version of Audacity.

## The Solution

Audacity already contains a flexible system for changing the text in Audacity. This is used for translating Audacity into different languages. When you select a different language in the Interface Preferences Audacity will use text from the file you specify in place of the text that it has built in. The language files end with the suffix ".mo".

- We have added a small addition to this feature. If the translation of an item in a menu starts with an "!", Audacity will leave that menu item out when using that language. This allows us to radically cut down the menu.

We've created a "simplified" language file which reduces the menus in a way which we think is helpful.

Currently we only have a simplified language file for English. We may release simplified language files in other languages, if there is demand for them.
We'll explain where to get this language file from here

We suggest:

- You set up Audacity normally and confirm that recording, playback and MP3 exporting work fine. The default sample rate is 44100 Hz. You may want to set a lower rate if audio quality is not that important.
- You can hide the Mixer Toolbar now, using the View Menu.
- Select the Multi-Tool as the tool mode to be used.
- You can now hide the Tools Toolbar.
- If you want to hide the Transcription Toolbar and the Selection Toolbar you can do so too.
- Now go into the Interface Preferences.
  - If you don't want the solo buttons, set the "Solo button" mode to "None".
  - Then in the "Language" choice just above, select "Simplified" as the language.
- When you exit the Preferences dialog, you should find that menus have been reduced and now contain fewer items.

If you look in the View Menu you will see that there is a new item called "Simplified View" and that it has a check mark beside it.

Many of the items in the menus will now have gone. One of these is the "Preferences" menu item at the foot of the Edit Menu, and its shortcut (by default CTRL + P) will no longer work. If you need to access Preferences you can enable the full mode of Audacity again by unchecking "Simplified View" in the View Menu. This restores the full menus, letting you make your changes. Click "Simplified" again to remove access to Preferences.

In simplified mode the option to show or hide toolbars is removed from the menus, which is why we suggest you choose which toolbars to show before enabling the Simplified interface.

If you use this feature but find it is not helpful, you can either hide it or remove it completely. To hide it, switch back to English as the language in the Preferences. To remove it completely, remove the special language folder called "en-simple" from your Audacity installation folder.

## Advanced

This is for people who have already got the existing "Simplified" language file and the steps above working, and now want to go further.

- If you want to customize what menu items are made available and what items are not, it is quite a lot more complex. If you ask on the Audacity forum, there may be someone willing to create a custom "simplified" language file for you.
- If you want to create a new simplified language file yourself, it's best to get in touch with the Audacity developer list (audacity-devel _AT_ lists_DOT_sourceforge_DOT_net) or click here. This is a new feature, and customizing it is not yet as easy as we would like it to be. People who have used the tools for translating Audacity will be familiar with the steps:
  - Get hold of poEdit, a tool for editing language files.
  - Get hold of the .po file for your version of Audacity, or generate a new one from "Menus.cpp".
  - Load the .po file into poEdit.
  - Add '!' marks beside the translations of those menu items you want to hide.
  - Important: If you want to be able to switch simplified mode on and off from the menus, then the translation of '!Simplified Interface' must NOT start with an '!'.
  - Save the translation file as a .mo file. poEdit will warn you that some strings are not translated, but that is not a problem. You can still use the .mo file.

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