Edit

The Edit menu collects the commands that change what is already in your project: undoing and redoing edits, the clipboard commands (Cut, Copy, Paste), deleting and duplicating audio, and silencing a selection.

Two submenus group the more specific commands. Clip holds everything that works on clips — renaming, trimming, splitting, joining and grouping. Label holds the commands for adding and managing labels.

The menu also opens two dialogs: the metadata editor, for the tags written into exported files, and Preferences, where Audacity’s settings live.

Undo

Reverses your most recent edit. Press it again to step further back — Audacity keeps a history of your edits for the current session, so you can undo a whole series of changes one step at a time. Shortcut:

Ctrl+Z.

The command is only available once there is something to undo. If you go back too far, Redo steps forward again.

Redo

Reapplies the edit you most recently undid. Like Undo, it can be pressed repeatedly to step forward through several undone edits. Shortcut:

Ctrl+Shift+Z.

Redo is only available directly after undoing. Making a new edit discards the undone steps, so there is nothing left to redo.

Cut

Removes the selected audio and puts it on the clipboard, ready to paste elsewhere. Shortcut: Ctrl+X. The same command is available as a toolbar button in the Classic workspace — see Cut.

The gap: leave it or close it

The first time you cut or delete part of a clip, Audacity asks what should happen to the space the audio leaves behind — the same question governs Cut and Delete alike:

• Leave gap — the audio is removed and silence is left in its place. Everything else stays where it is.
• Close gap (ripple) — the audio is removed and later audio slides back to close the gap.

If you choose to close the gap, you also choose how far the effect reaches:

• the selected clip moves back to fill the gap,
• all clips on the same track move back, or
• all clips on all tracks move back, which keeps separate tracks in sync with one another.

Audacity remembers your answer and stops asking. You can change it at any time on the Audio editing preferences page.

Cutting the other way round

Whichever behaviour you settled on, the other one is still available without changing the preference. Cut and close gap (per track) is on

Ctrl+Shift+X by default, and the Shortcuts preferences page lists the rest of the cut and delete variants so you can put them on keys of your own.

Copy

Puts the selected audio on the clipboard without removing it. Shortcut:

Ctrl+C. The same command is available as a toolbar button in the Classic workspace — see Copy.

Paste

Inserts whatever is on the clipboard at the edit cursor. Shortcut:

Ctrl+V. The same command is available as a toolbar button in the Classic workspace — see Paste.

Delete

Removes the selected audio without putting it on the clipboard. It works on a time selection, on selected clips, or on selected labels. Shortcut:

DEL or BACKSPACE .

Delete leaves a gap: everything after the deleted audio stays where it is. To pull the later audio left and close the gap, use Delete and close gap (per track) instead. If nothing is selected, Audacity shows a message asking you to select the audio to delete first.

The first time you delete, a dialog asks which behaviour you want — leave the gap open, or close it up. Your answer becomes the default for Delete from then on, and can be changed later. The modified shortcuts are not affected by the choice: Shift+DEL or

Shift+BACKSPACE always deletes and closes the gap on each track, and Ctrl+DEL or Ctrl+BACKSPACE always closes it across all tracks.

Duplicate

Copies the selected audio into a new track at the same position on the timeline, leaving the original untouched. Useful when you want to experiment with an edit or effect while keeping the original version to hand. Shortcut:

Ctrl+D.

What gets duplicated depends on the selection:

• With clips selected, those clips are duplicated.
• With a time selection, the selected range of each selected track is duplicated.
• With whole tracks selected and no time selection, the entire tracks are duplicated.

Delete and close gap (per track)

Removes the selected audio and moves everything after it on the same track to the left, so no gap is left behind — often called a ripple delete. Each track is closed up independently, which is what “per track” means. Shortcut:

Shift+DEL or Shift+BACKSPACE.

It works on a time selection, on selected clips, or on selected labels — the same targets as Delete, which removes the same audio but leaves the gap open. If nothing is selected, Audacity asks you to select the audio to delete first.

A companion shortcut closes the gap across all tracks rather than each track independently, so later material stays aligned from track to track:

Ctrl+DEL or Ctrl+BACKSPACE.

Clip

Audio in Audacity lives in clips, and the Clip submenu gathers the commands that work on them: renaming and trimming a clip, splitting clips apart — at a point, into a new track, or at silences — joining them back together, and grouping clips so they can be handled as one unit.

Rename clip

Opens the selected clip’s name for editing, directly on the clip header. Type the new name and confirm to apply it. Shortcut:

F2.

The command needs exactly one item selected — it is disabled when nothing, or more than one clip, is selected. The same shortcut renames a selected label; see Rename label.

Trim clip

Trims the clip down to the selection: the audio inside the selection is kept, and the rest of the clip is removed. Shortcut:

Ctrl+T. The same operation is available as the Trim toolbar button.

Trim is the opposite of Silence audio: Trim keeps the selection and discards the rest, Silence keeps the rest and empties the selection.

Split

Splits the clips on the selected tracks into separate clips, without removing any audio. With a time selection, the split happens at both edges of the selection; with just a cursor, it happens at the playhead position. Shortcut: Ctrl+I.

After splitting, each part is an independent clip that can be moved, trimmed or deleted on its own. To undo a split, use Join selected clips. You can also split by clicking with the Split Tool.

Split into new track

Moves the selected audio out of its track and into a new track, keeping it at the same position on the timeline. A gap is left behind in the original track where the audio used to be.

With a time selection, the selected range of each selected track is moved into a new track. With clips selected instead, those whole clips are moved. To copy the audio into a new track rather than move it, use Duplicate.

Split clips at silences

Splits clips into separate clips at their stretches of silence. Handy for breaking a long recording — a dictation session, say, or an album side — into one clip per take or song. Shortcut:

Ctrl+Alt+J.

With a time selection, the command works on the selected range of each selected track; with clips selected, it works on those clips. No audio is removed — the silent stretches simply become the boundaries between the new clips.

Join selected clips

Merges clips into a single clip — the opposite of Split. Shortcut:

Ctrl+J.

With a time selection, the clips inside the selected range are merged on each selected track. With clips selected instead, at least two clips must be selected, all on the same track, sitting next to each other with no unselected clip between them — otherwise the command is disabled.

Group clips

Collects the selected clips into a group, so they are treated as one unit when you select and move clips. The clips themselves are unchanged — they keep their own names, positions and tracks. Shortcut:

Ctrl+G.

To dissolve a group and work with its clips individually again, use Ungroup clips.

Ungroup clips

Dissolves the group that the selected clips belong to, so each clip can be selected, moved and edited on its own again. The clips themselves are unchanged — only the grouping is removed. Shortcut:

Ctrl+Shift+G.

The counterpart of Group clips.

Label

Labels are text markers that annotate a point or a stretch of your project — song boundaries, edit notes, chapter marks. The Label submenu gathers the commands for working with them: adding a label at the current selection, renaming a label, pasting text into a new label, and opening the label editor to manage every label in the project from one place.

Add label

Adds a label at the current selection — marking the selected stretch of time, or the cursor position if nothing is selected — and immediately opens it for naming, so you can type the label text straight away. Shortcut:

Ctrl+B.

Labels live on a label track. To edit all of a project’s labels in one place, use Manage labels.

Rename label

Opens the selected label’s text for editing, directly on the label. Type the new text and confirm to apply it. Shortcut:

F2.

The command needs exactly one item selected — it is disabled when nothing, or more than one label, is selected. The same shortcut renames a selected clip; see Rename clip.

Paste new label

Creates a new label whose text is taken from the clipboard. Useful when you have a list of names — song titles, chapter headings — in another application and want to bring them in as labels one at a time.

Manage labels

Opens the label editor, where every label in the project is listed in one place for reviewing and editing — easier than hunting each label down on its label track. The same editor opens from the View menu as Show Label Editor.

Silence audio

Replaces the selected audio with silence, leaving the clip the same length. Because nothing moves, everything after the selection stays exactly where it is — useful for removing a cough or a click without shifting the timing of what follows. Shortcut: Ctrl+L. The same operation is available as the Silence toolbar button.

With a time selection, the selected range of each selected track is silenced; with clips selected instead, the whole of each selected clip is silenced. The command is disabled when the selected audio is already silent.

Metadata editor

Opens the metadata editor, where you set the tags that travel with the project — title, artist, album, track number, year, genre and comments. These are written into exported audio files that support tags, so players and libraries can display them. It also opens from View → Metadata editor.

Metadata belongs to the project, not to an individual track, so it is worth filling in before exporting. Exporting does not prompt for tags — whatever is set here is what gets written.

Preferences

Opens the Preferences dialog, where the application’s settings live — appearance, audio devices, editing behaviour, playback and recording, spectral display, cloud, keyboard shortcuts and plugins. On macOS it appears under the application menu instead, following the platform convention.

Preferences apply to Audacity as a whole rather than to the open project, so changes persist between sessions. Shortcuts can be reassigned from the Shortcuts page — the defaults are listed in the keyboard shortcuts reference.

Last updated 3 September 2026