2 <h2>Conventions Used In This Manual</h2>
4 This section covers some of the typographical and language conventions
8 <h3>Keyboards and Modifiers</h3>
10 <dfn>Keyboard bindings</dfn> are shown like this: <kbd>s</kbd> or
11 <kbd class="mod1">x</kbd>.
14 <kbd class="mod1">x</kbd> means "press the <kbd class="mod1"> </kbd> key, keep it pressed
15 and then also press the <kbd>x</kbd> key.
18 You may also see key combinations
19 such as <kbd class="mod12">e</kbd>, which mean that you should hold down
20 the <kbd class="mod1"> </kbd> key <em>and</em> the
21 <kbd class="mod2"> </kbd> key, and then, while keeping them both
22 down, press the <kbd>e</kbd> key.
25 Note that different platforms have different conventions for which
26 modifier key (Control or Command) to use as the primary or most common
27 modifier. When viewing this manual from a machine identifying itself as
28 running OS X, you will see <kbd>Cmd </kbd> where appropriate (for instance
29 in the first example above). On other machines you will see
30 <kbd>Ctrl </kbd> instead.
33 <h3>Mouse Buttons</h3>
35 We refer to <a href="/setting-up-your-system/mouse/">mouse buttons</a> as
36 <kbd class="mouse">Left</kbd>, <kbd class="mouse">Middle</kbd> and
37 <kbd class="mouse">Right</kbd>. Ardour can use additional buttons, but they have
38 no default behaviour in the program.
41 <h4>Mouse click modifiers</h4>
43 Many editing functions are performed by clicking the mouse while holding a
44 modifier key, for example <kbd class="mouse mod1">Left</kbd>.
49 Some GUI elements can optionally be controlled with the mouse wheel when
50 the pointer is hovering over them. The notation for mouse wheel action is
51 <kbd class="mouse">⇑</kbd> <kbd class="mouse">⇐</kbd>
52 <kbd class="mouse">⇓</kbd> <kbd class="mouse">⇒</kbd>.
55 <h4>Context-click</h4>
57 The term <dfn>context-click</dfn> is used to indicate
58 that you should (typically) <kbd class="mouse">Right</kbd>-click on a particular element of the graphical
59 user interface. Although right-click is the common, default way to do this, there
60 are other ways to accomplish the same thing - this term refers to any of them,
61 and the result is always that a menu specific to the item you clicked on will be
65 <h4>"The Pointer"</h4>
67 When the manual refers to the "pointer", it means the on-screen representation
68 of the mouse position or the location of a touch action if you are using a touch
72 <h3>Other user input</h3>
74 Ardour supports hardware controllers, such as banks of
75 <kbd class="fader">faders</kbd>, <kbd class="knob">knobs</kbd>, or
76 <kbd class="button">buttons</kbd>.
81 Menu items are indicated like this:<br />
82 <kbd class="menu">Top > Next > Deeper</kbd>.<br />
83 Each ">"-separated item indicates one level of a nested (sub-)menu.
86 <h3>Preference/Dialog Options</h3>
88 Choices in various dialogs, notably the Preferences and Properties dialog, are
89 indicated like this:<br />
90 <kbd class="option">Edit > Preferences > Audio > Some
92 Each successive item indicates either a (sub-) menu or a tabbed dialog
93 navigation. The final item is the one to choose or select.
96 If you are requested to deselect an option, you will see something like
98 <kbd class="optoff">Edit > Preferences > Audio > Some other
104 Some dialogs or features may require you to type in some <kbd class="input">data
105 such as this</kbd>. In rare cases, you will be required to perform certain
106 operations at the command line of your operating system:
108 <kbd class="cmd lin">cat /proc/cpuinfo</kbd>
109 <kbd class="cmd mac">sleep 3600</kbd>
110 <kbd class="cmd win">ping www.google.com</kbd>
112 <h3>Program Output</h3>
114 Important messages from Ardour or other programs will be displayed
115 <samp>like this</samp>.
120 Important notes about things that might not otherwise be obvious are shown in
126 Hairy issues that might cause things to go wrong, lose data, impair sound
127 quality, or eat your proverbial goldfish, are displayed in this way.