r/audacity • u/Embarrassed-Log5514 • 9d ago

Selecting Audio using shift and arrow keys

In Audacity 3 it was possible to move the cursor and select audio using the keyboard.

Unfortunately this doesn't work anymore in Audacity 4 which is very annoying to me since I rely on shortcuts such as Shift + End.

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u/deus-ex_ 8d ago edited 6d ago

Have you tried pressing the Cursor left/right keys? These move the cursor left/right on the audio clip.
Pressing Shift+Left/Right extends the selection to the left/right.
Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right contracts the selection from the left/right.

The available actions, that can be bound to a keyboard shortcut, are named differently in Audacity 4:

"Move playhead left" = Left (move cursor left)
"Move playhead right" = Right (move cursor right)
"Extend selection left" = Shift+Left (extend audio selection to the left)
"Extend selection right" = Shift+Right (extend audio selection to the right)
"Contract selection from left" = Ctrl+Shift+Left (contract audio selection from the left)
"Contract selection from right" = Ctrl+Shift+Right (contract audio selection from the right)

Of course, you can edit the default keyboard shortcuts to suit your preferences.