manual/_manual/05_ardours-interface/04_the-editor.html

---
title: The Editor
---

<figure>
	<img src="/images/detailed-editor-window.png" alt="Ardour's editor window">
	<figcaption>
		<ol class="multicol4">
			<li>Toolbar</li>
			<li>Rulers</li>
</ol><ol class="multicol4" start="3">
			<li>Editor's List</li>
			<li>a Mixer strip</li>
</ol><ol class="multicol4" start="5">
			<li>Summary</li>
			<li>an audio track</li>
		</ol>
</ol><ol class="multicol4" start="7">
			<li>a MIDI track</li>
			<li>automation</li>
		</ol>

	</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
  The <dfn>Editor</dfn> window includes the editor track <dfn>canvas</dfn>
  where you can arrange audio and MIDI data along a timeline. This is the
  window you will be in while editing and arranging a project. The window
  has a general "horizontal" sense to it: the timeline flows from left to
  right, the playhead showing the current position in the session moves
  from left to right &mdash; the window really represents <dfn>time</dfn>
  in a fairly literal way.
</p>

<p>
  It is possible to show a single channel strip in the editor window, and
  some people find this enough to work on mixing without actually opening
  the mixer window. Most of the time though, you will want both of these
  windows at various stages of a session's lifetime &mdash; sometimes
  you'll be focused on editing, sometimes on mixing and possibly some of
  the time on both.
</p>

<p>
  This section is a description of the different sections of the Editor window.
 To learn more about the editing workflow, see <a href="/editing-and-arranging/">Editing and Arranging</a>.
</p>


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