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7 <section id="sn-user-interface-conventions">
8 <title>Interface Basics</title>
10 Although Ardour has a fairly conventional graphical user interface,
11 there are a few elements that are unique to it and are probably new to
12 you. This chapter provides a guide to using these aspects of the
16 <section id="interface-mouse-clicks">
17 <title>Mouse Clicks</title>
18 <section id="interface-click">
21 When we say "click on" without specifying a mouse button, we mean
22 use <mousebutton>Button1</mousebutton> to click on a user interface
23 element (button, fader, menu, etc).
27 <section id="interface-context-click">
28 <title>Context Click</title>
30 As in most graphical user interfaces today, a "context click"
31 (<mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton>) in many parts of the user
32 interface will popup a context-specific menu, allowing you to set
33 parameters or carry out operations. There are a lot of examples of
34 this, but trying it on an audio region, a mixer mute button and a
35 mixer strip name will show the general idea.
39 <section id="interface-delete-edit-click">
40 <title>Delete & Edit Click</title>
42 There are two additional mouse/key combinations that you should be
43 familiar and comfortable with. They are called "delete click" and
44 "edit click", and by default they consist
45 <keycombo><keycap>Shift</keycap><mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton></keycombo>
47 <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton></keycombo>
48 click respectively. A delete click on most objects within Ardour's
49 editor will delete that object. This includes regions, markers,
50 curve control points and so on. An edit click on the any of the same
51 kind of objects will pop up an editor dialog for that object.
56 <section id="interface-clocks">
59 There are several clocks in Ardour's user interface, some of them
60 visible all the time, others in windows that are only shown by
61 request. All these clocks are identical to each other in their
62 functionality, although some can be edited by the user and some are
67 Context clicking on a clock brings up a menu that allows you to modify
68 the display mode of that clock. The choices are:
80 BBT (Bars,Beats,Ticks - musical tempo & meter based time)
98 Each clock mode has a number of different fields. For example, SMPTE
99 has hours, minutes, seconds, and video frames.
103 To edit the value of a particular clock, click in the leftmost field
104 you want to modify. You can then enter a new value for that field
105 using numeric keys, along with '.' where appropriate. Editing will
106 move the next field of the clock after you have entered the maximum
107 number of digits for a field. To move to the next field before this
108 press Tab. To finish editing, either press <keycap>Return</keycap> or
109 use the <keycap>Tab</keycap> key to advance through all remaining
114 <section id="interface-bar-controllers">
115 <title>Bar Controllers</title>
117 Bar controllers were inspired by a comment made by "Larry the O" in
118 Electronic Musician in 2001.
122 A bar controller is a user interface element that works rather
123 differently than any standard element found in most programs. They are
124 used to provide a combined method of displaying and modifying a
129 To graphically edit the value of the parameter represented by a bar
130 controller, press <mousebutton>Button1</mousebutton> and drag the
131 controller left/right or up/down as appropriate. To edit the value
132 with greater precision, double click the controller and it will
133 transform into a data entry box. You can enter an exact value for the
134 parameter, or use arrow buttons to increment/decrement the displayed
135 value. When you are finished editing, the Enter or Tab keys will
136 transform the data entry box back into the normal version of the bar
141 <section id="interface-click-boxes">
142 <title>Click Boxes</title>
144 Click boxes were also inspired by Larry's comment.
148 A click box is, as its name suggests, just a part of a window you can
149 click on to change some parameter or control value.
153 Clicking with 3 moves the parameter to the next value, clicking with 1
154 moves to the previous value. Clicking and holding either button will
155 automatically advance through the possible values in the appropriate
161 we are slowly eliminating click boxes in favor of bar controllers
166 <section id="interface-panes">
169 Panes are user interface elements that allow you to adjust the
170 relative sizes of two sections of a window. The panes in Ardour work
171 perfectly normally but have one additional feature: a Delete-click on
172 the pane divider will completely hide one side of its two sections.
173 Which section depends on the pane, and is not user configurable, but
174 is neary always precisely what you'd want anyway. If the pane is
175 already hidden, then Delete-click (on the still-visible pane) will
176 restore it to the size it had before it was hidden.
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