The first step in cutting or copying any part of a Wave file is to select (highlight) the portion that you want to cut or copy. There are 3 ways to do this.

1. Position the mouse cursor over the start of the area you want to select. Press down the left mouse button and hold it down. Drag it to the right until you hit the end of the section you want to select and release the button. You will see something like this:

2. You can do the same thing using the Start and Stop displays at the left side of the screen. Use the scale underneath the wave display to see where you want your selection to Start and Stop, and then type the numbers into the appropriate boxes. This will highlight the area you have selected, just as it did when you used the mouse to select.

You can use a combination of these two approaches to get your selection exactly right. Use the mouse to get approximately the area you want to select, and then change the numbers in the Start and Stop boxes until the selected area is what you want.

3. You can also hold down the shift key and press the right and left arrow keys on the keyboard to move the end of the selected area a little at a time. This works best when you have zoomed in so that the portion of the waveform being shown on the screen is about twice the size of the area you want to select. See the next section for more information on zooming.

The Play button will allow you to play the area you have selected so you can check your selection audibly as well as visually.

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