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>

<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>
  <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
  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>
 
<h3>Mouse Buttons</h3>
<p>
  We refer to <a href="/setting-up-your-system/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>

<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>.
</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">
  Hairy issues that might cause things to go wrong, lose data, impair sound
  quality, or eat your proverbial goldfish, are displayed in this way.
</p>