livetrax/manual/xml/user_interface_conventions.xml

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<section id="sn-user-interface-conventions">
	<title>Interface Basics</title>

	<para>
		Although Ardour has a fairly conventional graphical user interface, there
		are a few elements that are unique to it and are probably new to you. This
		chapter provides a guide to using these aspects of the interface.
	</para>

	<section id="interface-mouse-clicks">
		<title>Mouse Clicks</title>

		<section id="interface-click">
			<title>Click</title>

			<para>
				When we say "click on" without specifying a mouse button, we mean use
				<mousebutton>Button1</mousebutton> to click on a user interface element (button, fader, menu, etc).
			</para>
		</section>

		<section id="interface-context-click">
			<title>Context Click</title>

			<para>
				As in most graphical user interfaces today, a "context click" (<mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton>) in
				many parts of the user interface will popup a context-specific menu,
				allowing you to set parameters or carry out operations. There are a lot of
				examples of this, but trying it on an audio region, a mixer mute button
				and a mixer strip name will show the general idea.
			</para>
		</section>

		<section id="interface-delete-edit-click">
			<title>Delete &amp; Edit Click</title>

			<para>
				There are two additional mouse/key combinations that you should be
				familiar and comfortable with. They are called "delete click" and "edit
				click", and by default they consist
				<keycombo><keycap>Shift</keycap><mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton></keycombo> click and
				<keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><mousebutton>Button3</mousebutton></keycombo> click respectively. A delete click on most objects within
				Ardour's editor will delete that object. This includes regions, markers,
				curve control points and so on. An edit click on the any of the same kind
				of objects will pop up an editor dialog for that object.
			</para>
		</section>
	</section>

	<section id="interface-clocks">
		<title>Clocks</title>

		<para>
			There are several clocks in Ardour's user interface, some of them visible
			all the time, others in windows that are only shown by request. All these
			clocks are identical to each other in their functionality, although some
			can be edited by the user and some are for display only.
		</para>

		<para>
			Context clicking on a clock brings up a menu that allows you to modify the
			display mode of that clock. The choices are:
		</para>

		<itemizedlist>
			<listitem>
				<para>
					Audio Frames
				</para>
			</listitem>
			<listitem>
				<para>
					BBT (Bars,Beats,Ticks - musical tempo &amp; meter based time)
				</para>
			</listitem>
			<listitem>
				<para>
					SMPTE
				</para>
			</listitem>
			<listitem>
				<para>
					Min:Sec
				</para>
			</listitem>
		</itemizedlist>

		<para>
			Each clock mode has a number of different fields. For example, SMPTE has
			hours, minutes, seconds, and video frames.
		</para>

		<para>
			To edit the value of a particular clock, click in the leftmost field you
			want to modify. You can then enter a new value for that field using numeric
			keys, along with '.' where appropriate. Editing will move the next field of
			the clock after you have entered the maximum number of digits for a field.
			To move to the next field before this press Tab. To finish editing, either
			press <keycap>Return</keycap> or use the <keycap>Tab</keycap> key to advance through all remaining fields.
		</para>
	</section>

	<section id="interface-bar-controllers">
		<title>Bar Controllers</title>

		<para>
			Bar controllers were inspired by a comment made by "Larry the O" in
			Electronic Musician in 2001.
		</para>

		<para>
			A bar controller is a user interface element that works rather differently
			than any standard element found in most programs. They are used to provide
			a combined method of displaying and modifying a parameter.
		</para>

		<para>
			To graphically edit the value of the parameter represented by a bar
			controller, press <mousebutton>Button1</mousebutton> and drag the controller left/right or up/down as
			appropriate. To edit the value with greater precision, double click the
			controller and it will transform into a data entry box. You can enter an
			exact value for the parameter, or use arrow buttons to increment/decrement
			the displayed value. When you are finished editing, the Enter or Tab keys
			will transform the data entry box back into the normal version of the bar
			controller.
		</para>
	</section>

	<section id="interface-click-boxes">
		<title>Click Boxes</title>

		<para>
			Click boxes were also inspired by Larry's comment.
		</para>

		<para>
			A click box is, as its name suggests, just a part of a window you can click
			on to change some parameter or control value.
		</para>

		<para>
			Clicking with 3 moves the parameter to the next value, clicking with 1
			moves to the previous value. Clicking and holding either button will
			automatically advance through the possible values in the appropriate
			direction.
		</para>

		<note>
			<para>
				we are slowly eliminating click boxes in favor of bar controllers
			</para>
		</note>
	</section>

	<section id="interface-panes">
		<title>Panes</title>

		<para>
			Panes are user interface elements that allow you to adjust the relative
			sizes of two sections of a window. The panes in Ardour work perfectly
			normally but have one additional feature: a Delete-click on the pane
			divider will completely hide one side of its two sections. Which section
			depends on the pane, and is not user configurable, but is neary always
			precisely what you'd want anyway. If the pane is already hidden, then
			Delete-click (on the still-visible pane) will restore it to the size it had
			before it was hidden.
		</para>
	</section>
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