-<img class="left" src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
+<h2> What is “Snap” and “Grid”?</h2>
+<figure class="left">
+ <img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
+ <figcaption>
+ Editor toolbar's grid.
+ </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>
+“Snap” will cause drags and other mouse-driven operations to jump to
+positions determined by the nearest snap setting. Snap can be set to
+multiple options: markers, region start/ends, and the grid (those
+are all enabled by default. change them in prefs).
+</p>
<p>
- Ardour's editor utilizes a <dfn>grid</dfn> to assist in the placement of regions
- on the timeline, or with editing functions that need to happen at a specific
- point in time. This <dfn>snapping</dfn> of the cursor and various objects to the
- grid can be toggled on or off, as does its behaviour, and grid units.
+Grid can be enabled, and it will draw lines at selected intervals;
+which can be musical, like 16th notes, or can be timecode based
+(minutes and seconds). You can leave the Grid enabled, but snap
+disabled, if you just want to see the lines but not snap to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example: if the Grid is set to “beats” and Snap-to-grid is
+enabled, then any operations such as split, paste, or range-select
+will happen exactly on a beat, according to the musical timeline and
+tempo.
+</p>
+<p>
+Alternatively, you can leave “Snap” enabled (so your mouse actions
+can snap to Markers, or region edges) but disable the Grid.
+</p>
+
+<h2>A Warning, of sorts</h2>
+
+<p class="warning">
+The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. If
+you zoom too far out, you might see a coarser grid than you
+expect. Ardour tries not to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines
+depending on the zoom level. You might find that items snap in-between
+the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected behavior. If you can’t see
+or snap to the grid you’d like to use, you may have to zoom in or out.
</p>
<h2>About Snapping</h2>
<p>
- There are two ways to think about aligning material to a grid. The first and
- most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to grid lines. In
- Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn> and is commonly used when
- working with sampled material where audio begins exactly at the beginning of a
- file, note or region.
+ There are two ways to think about aligning material. The first and
+ most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to the
+ snap positions. In Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn>
+ and is commonly used when working with sampled material where audio
+ begins exactly at the beginning of a file, note or region.
</p>
<p>
- The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's position relative
- to the grid lines is important. In music, this allows to move objects around
- without changing the "feel" (or timing) of a performance.
+ The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's
+ position relative to the snap positions is important. In music, this
+ allows to move objects around without changing the "feel" (or
+ timing) of a performance.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
- The realtive snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set
+ The relative snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set
in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > User Interaction</kbd>
</p>
otherwise unused key. For example, the snap modifier may be chosen to be the
<kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> key and the relative snap modifier to be the <kbd
class="mod2n"></kbd> and <kbd class="mod4n"></kbd> keys.
-</p>.
+</p>
<h2>Snap Modes</h2>
New objects will always be created at grid
points.</br>
Holding down the snap modifier will disable the current grid
- setting and allow you to move the object freely.</td></tr>
+ setting and allow moving the object freely.</td></tr>
<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Magnetic</kbd></th>
<td>is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any
position, but positions close to the relative or absolute grid points will snap.
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff