Hi Egbert, given that you've using a mac, are you using one of the recent nightly builds of audacity which are more accessible? They're available here: http://audacity.homerow.net/index.php?dir=mac/&sort=date&order=desc ; Just download the most recent build. Also, if you haven't already come across it, there's a Jaws guide to Audacity available here: http://goo.gl/dQ75G Although written for the Jaws screen reader, and for windows, most of the guide should still be relevant. Answering a couple of points that you raise: Finding the length of the audio in a track. If you move the cursor to the end of the track, you can then read the cursor position, which will give you the length of the track. 1. If there's only a single track, then press end to move to the end of all the audio. 2. If there's more than one track, select the track that you're interested in, and make sure the other tracks are unselected. Then press k to move to the end of the audio in the selected tracks. 3. One way of reading the cursor position is to move to the selection bar by pressing ctrl+f6 (I think it's cmd+f6 on a mac), and then tabbing to the selection start control. If no time range is selected, then the value of the selection start control is the cursor position. Press ctrl/cmd +f6 twice to return to the track table. Another way of reading the cursor position is to press [. When there's no playback, this opens a selection start dialog, which contains the cursor position. Reading the cursor position is covered in the moving the cursor section of the jaws guide. Inserting silence. In the Jaws guide, in the basic editing section section, there's a sub-section on insert silence. To insert silence at the cursor position: 1. Choose silence on the generate menu. A silence generator dialog opens. 2. The dialog contains a spin box control like the spin box controls on the selection bar for setting the length of the silence you want. Unfortunately it always opens in the seconds format, and doesn't remember the last format that you set. You'll probably what to change the format, which you can do from its context menu (application key on windows, not sure about mac), where you could choose hh:mm:ss + hundredths. 3. Note that in initial focus is the first non zero digit (on the selection bar it's the first digit). You can set the time either by typing in digits, or incrementing or decrementing the time in units of the focused digit by using up arrow or down arrow respectively. For example, if the format is hh:mm:ss + hundredths, then you could set the time of 1.5 seconds by pressing home to move to the first of the 8 digits, and then typing the digits: 0,0,0,0,0,1,5,0. There are obviously quicker alternative ways. 4. press the ok button. There are other users on this list using a mac who may be able to give you additions assistance, David. ----- Original Message ----- From: McEgbert <mcegbert@xxxxxxxxx> To: audacity4blind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Sent: Friday, 20 April 2012, 10:15 Subject: [audacity4blind] a few issues Hi all, working on my podcasts in Audacity, I have a few questions. Sorry for my writing, as English is stil nnot my first spoken language. When i make an item, i cannot find where to see or hear the length of it, where is that information to be found? Also i don't see how to pan channels or play with stereo when needed. then there is the thing about making waste. when i select audio that i want to use and want to throw the rest away, my selected audio, is gone also. what is wrong? When i want to insert silence, i can not silence for 1 second. All the notations i tried are more then minutes and so, not very usefull. ofcourse 1 second can also be to long, but that for a start and as an example, it might work. I hope somebody can and might help me out. greetins from a Sunny Holland, Egbert The audacity4blind web site is at //www.freelists.org/webpage/audacity4blind Subscribe and unsubscribe information, message archives, Audacity keyboard commands, and more... To unsubscribe from audacity4blind, send an email to audacity4blind-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with subject line unsubscribe The audacity4blind web site is at //www.freelists.org/webpage/audacity4blind Subscribe and unsubscribe information, message archives, Audacity keyboard commands, and more... To unsubscribe from audacity4blind, send an email to audacity4blind-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with subject line unsubscribe