manual/_manual/01_welcome-to-ardour/02_about-ardour-documentation.html

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---
layout: default
title: About Ardour documentation
---
<h2>Conventions Used In This Manual</h2>
<p>
This section covers some of the typographical and language conventions
used in this manual.
</p>
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<h3>Keyboards and Modifiers</h3>
<p>
<dfn>Keyboard bindings</dfn> are shown like this: <kbd>s</kbd> or
<kbd class="mod1">x</kbd>.
</p>
<p>
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<kbd class="mod1">x</kbd> means "press the <kbd class="mod1">&nbsp;</kbd> key, keep it pressed
and then also press the <kbd>x</kbd> key.
</p>
<p>
You may also see key combinations
such as <kbd class="mod12">e</kbd>, which mean that you should hold down
the <kbd class="mod1">&nbsp;</kbd> key <em>and</em> the
<kbd class="mod2">&nbsp;</kbd> key, and then, while keeping them both
down, press the <kbd>e</kbd> key.
</p>
<p>
Note that different platforms have different conventions for which
modifier key (Control or Command) to use as the primary or most common
modifier. When viewing this manual from a machine identifying itself as
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running OS X, you will see <kbd>Cmd&nbsp;</kbd> where appropriate (for instance
in the first example above). On other machines you will see
<kbd>Ctrl&nbsp;</kbd> instead.
</p>
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<h3>Mouse Buttons</h3>
<p>
We refer to <a href="/setting-up-your-system/the-mouse">mouse buttons</a> as
<kbd class="mouse">Left</kbd>, <kbd class="mouse">Middle</kbd> and
<kbd class="mouse">Right</kbd>. Ardour can use additional buttons, but they have
no default behaviour in the program.
</p>
<h4>Mouse click modifiers</h4>
<p>
Many editing functions are performed by clicking the mouse while holding a
modifier key, for example <kbd class="mouse mod1">Left</kbd>.
</p>
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<h4>Mouse wheel</h4>
<p>
Some GUI elements can optionally be controlled with the mouse wheel when
the pointer is hovering over them. The notation for mouse wheel action is
<kbd class="mouse">&uArr;</kbd> <kbd class="mouse">&lArr;</kbd>
<kbd class="mouse">&dArr;</kbd> <kbd class="mouse">&rArr;</kbd>.
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</p>
<h4>Context-click</h4>
<p>
The term <dfn>context-click</dfn> is used to indicate
that you should (typically) <kbd class="mouse">Right</kbd>-click on a particular element of the graphical
user interface. Although right-click is the common, default way to do this, there
are other ways to accomplish the same thing - this term refers to any of them,
and the result is always that a menu specific to the item you clicked on will be
displayed.
</p>
<h4>"The Pointer"</h4>
<p>
When the manual refers to the "pointer", it means the on-screen representation
of the mouse position or the location of a touch action if you are using a touch
interface.
</p>
<h3>Other user input</h3>
<p>
Ardour supports hardware controllers, such as banks of
<kbd class="fader">faders</kbd>, <kbd class="knob">knobs</kbd>, or
<kbd class="button">buttons</kbd>.
</p>
<h3>Menu Items</h3>
<p>
Menu items are indicated like this:<br />
<kbd class="menu">Top &gt; Next &gt; Deeper</kbd>.<br />
Each "&gt;"-separated item indicates one level of a nested (sub-)menu.
</p>
<h3>Preference/Dialog Options</h3>
<p>
Choices in various dialogs, notably the Preferences and Properties dialog, are
indicated like this:<br />
<kbd class="option">Edit &gt; Preferences &gt; Audio &gt; Some
Option</kbd>.<br />
Each successive item indicates either a (sub-) menu or a tabbed dialog
navigation. The final item is the one to choose or select.
</p>
<p>
If you are requested to deselect an option, you will see something like
this:<br />
<kbd class="optoff">Edit &gt; Preferences &gt; Audio &gt; Some other
Option</kbd>.<br />
</p>
<h3>User Input</h3>
<p>
Some dialogs or features may require you to type in some <kbd class="input">data
such as this</kbd>. In rare cases, you will be required to perform certain
operations at the command line of your operating system:
</p>
<kbd class="cmd lin">cat /proc/cpuinfo</kbd>
<kbd class="cmd mac">sleep 3600</kbd>
<kbd class="cmd win">ping www.google.com</kbd>
<h3>Program Output</h3>
<p>
Important messages from Ardour or other programs will be displayed
<samp>like this</samp>.
</p>
<h3>Notes</h3>
<p class="note">
Important notes about things that might not otherwise be obvious are shown in
this format.
</p>
<h3>Warnings</h3>
<p class="warning">
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Hairy issues that might cause things to go wrong, lose data, impair sound
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quality, or eat your proverbial goldfish, are displayed in this way.
</p>