File Menu

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The File menu provides commands for creating, opening and saving Audacity projects, importing and exporting audio, and peforming batch operations using Edit Chains.

New

Creates a new and empty project window to start working on new or imported Tracks. This new work environment can then be saved as an Audacity Project File (.AUP) for easy and full retrieval of its contents via the Save Project or Save Project As... File menu functions.

Open...

Launches a file selection window to open audio files, a list of files (.LOF) or an Audacity Project file into an empty project window. Use Import > Audio to import files into projects that already contain tracks.

Uncompressed file such as WAV or AIFF will by default be imported using "read-directly" On-Demand Loading. This means that you must keep those files available with the same name and in the same folder as when you imported them.

To be safer, you can change Import / Export Preferences so that Audacity makes a copy of uncompressed files when it imports them. Or you can change Projects Preferences to make the copy later on when saving the project. You can also Check Dependencies at any time to review any imported files that your project depends on.

The "native" audio formats (importable by Audacity as shipped) are: WAV, AIFF, other uncompressed types such as AU, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3.

You can install the optional FFmpeg library, to import a much larger range of audio formats (as long as the files are not protected to work only in particular software). FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files.

When "All files" or "All supported files" is chosen in the file types dropdown inside the file selection window, Audacity will automatically select the most appropriate importer for your file. A "native" format like WAV or MP3 will therefore use the built-in importer for that format. If this importer fails to open the file, FFmpeg will be used instead. To force Audacity to import a native file format using FFmpeg, choose "FFmpeg-compatible files" in the file types dropdown. This will disable On-Demand Loading for WAV and AIFF files.

Recent Files... ("Recent" on Mac)

Lists the nine most recently opened Audacity projects including the full path. The oldest item at the bottom is removed when a new item is added to the top. If you click on a project in the list which is no longer available, it will be removed from the list. The entire list can be cleared by opening the audacity.cfg configuration file in a text editor and deleting the [Recent Files] line.

Close

Closes the current project window, prompting you to save your work if you haven't saved.

Save Project

Saves the current Audacity Project .AUP file.

Audacity projects are not intended to be read by other programs, but to provide fast loading and saving of audio within Audacity. When you are finished working on a project and you want to be able to use the results in another program, select one of the Export commands.

Note that most of the audio data for an Audacity project is not stored in the .AUP file, but in a directory (folder) with the same name as the project. For example, if you save a project as chanson.aup, there will be a directory called chanson_data created to store the actual audio tracks of the project.

When saving your project, you may see a "Project depends on other audio files" dialog. To save time and disk space, imported WAV and AIFF files are read directly by default, rather than being copied into the project, so creating this dependency. To remove all the noted dependencies, choose "Copy All Audio". You can also copy in selected files only, or not copy in any files. However you must then retain all the files you don't copy in, with the same file name and in the same directory, in order for your project to work properly.

If you select the option "Make a copy of uncompressed audio files before editing (safer)" in Import / Export Preferences your projects will never have dependencies, but more disk space may be used to store the project, and importing WAV or AIFF files will be slower.

At the bottom of the "Project depends..." dialogue there is a dropdown menu to choose what Audacity should do when saving a project that has dependencies. You can choose to have Audacity always copy all the files in, or never copy them in (in which case the dialogue will not appear), or to have Audacity always ask. The same choices can also be made in the Projects Preferences.

Save Project As...

Same as "Save Project" above, but allows you to save a copy of an open project to a different name or location. This can be useful if you want to preserve a snapshot of the state of a project at a particular time, then proceed to make further changes to the project you just saved.

Check Dependencies...

Lists any WAV or AIFF audio files that your project depends on. To save time and disk space, imported WAV and AIFF files are read directly by default, rather than being copied into the project, so creating this dependency.

To remove all the noted dependencies, choose "Copy All Audio". You can also copy in selected files only, or not copy in any files. However you must then retain all the files you don't copy in, with the same file name and in the same directory, in order for your project to work properly.

If you select "Make a copy of uncompressed audio files before editing (safer)" in Import / Export Preferences, your projects will never have dependencies, but more disk space may be used to store the project, and importing WAV or AIFF files will be slower. Projects Preferences let you choose whether or not to copy in WAV or AIFF files when saving a project that has dependencies.

Open Metadata Editor...

Use this function to edit the metadata tags that will be applied to exported files.

Import

Audio...

Similar to Open..., with the difference that the file(s) will always be added as a new track to the current project. This lets you mix two files together. Note you must use Open... to open Audacity Project files.

Labels...

See Label Tracks.

MIDI...

MIDI

Raw Data...

input fields in Input Raw Data dialog

This function attempts to import an uncompressed audio file that might be "raw" data without any headers to define its format, might have incorrect headers or be otherwise partially corrupted, or might be in a format that Audacity is unable to recognize.

First, select the file in question in the "Select any uncompressed audio file" dialog. Then select appropriate parameters to assist Audacity in the formatting of the data. The fields in the dialog require you select:

  • Encoding (PCM, ADPCM, float...)
  • Byte order (this is almost always Little-endian if the file was created on Windows)
  • Number of channels (expected to be found in the file and created as a result)
  • Start offset in bytes
  • Percentage amount of the file to import
  • Sample rate to be applied to the created track

Export...

Exports the current Audacity project as an audio file format that can be read by other programs. If there are multiple tracks in your project, they will be automatically mixed in the exported data. For more information about mixing, see Mix and Render on the Tracks Menu.

You can choose the exported file format and settings from the File Export Dialog.

Export Selection...

This is the same as Export, above, but it only exports the part of the project that is selected. This is very useful if you want to save a small clip from part of a track as a separate file.

Export Labels...

If you have any Label Tracks, this command will export them as a text file. This feature is commonly used in Speech Recognition research to annotate speech utterances and phrases and then export the annotation to be later processed by another program. To import these labels into a different project later, use the Import... command, above.

Export Multiple...

This allows you to do multiple exports from Audacity with one command. Export either multiple files based on the multiple tracks in the project, or based on the labels in a single audio track. A great timesaver for splitting up long recordings into separate CD tracks, or archiving multiple working tracks. See the Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or minidiscs to CD for an example of how this is used.

Apply Chain...

This function is similar to a "Macro" of commands which allows you to select a Chain (which is a sequence of commands created via Edit Chains below) and apply it to either the current project, or to a specifically selected file.

Edit Chains...

This function allows you to either edit, remove, or rename existing Chains, or add a new Chain. When editing an existing Chain, the commands are listed in order of first to last (End), and can be modified by double clicking, or highlighting and pressing the spacebar. When adding a new chain, the Insert button allows you to choose from a selection of common Audacity functions and effects, and also specify the function parameters to be applied (see help items for specific functions if required). These chained Commands can also be re-ordered or deleted accordingly.

Page Setup...

Opens the standard Page Setup dialog box prior to printing.

Print...

Prints the contents of the Audacity window. The time ruler and all of your track waveforms and label tracks are printed, with no decorations. Everything is printed to one page.

Exit

Closes all project windows and exits Audacity. If there are any unsaved changes to your project, Audacity will ask if you want to save them. Note that it isn't necessary for you to save changes if you've already exported your mix as a WAV or MP3 and you are now happy with it. But if you are working on a mix and plan to continue later where you left off, saving an Audacity Project will let you restore everything, exactly as you left it.

On a Mac, the Exit command is not in the File Menu. Instead, use "Quit" under the Audacity menu.
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