Version 1.6.3
Many entries in the File and the Edit pulldown menus are the same as in many other programs, but there are also some TuxGuitar specific actions.
All file related actions are summarized under the File pulldown menu. The most important function are also accessible in the main toolbar:
The menu item File → New → New Song (or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N) by default opens a new tab containing a song with only one empty guitar track. This template is also used when you start TuxGuitar without any specific file.
You can set your own template by selecting a TuxGuitar file under File → Set custom template. From now on, new songs will be created with your selected template. The menu item File → Revert to default template goes back to the default one-guitar-track template.
There are two more predefined templates you can create new files from: File → New → Blues Trio and File → New → Classical Guitar Duo.
All other entries in the File menu are quite self-explanatory:
The File → Exit menu item quits TuxGuitar. Even if it is not stated in the menu, Alt+F4 closes the current program in most desktop environments.
Nothing too complex here, so let’s move right along.
Here we are explaining all actions under the Edit pulldown menu.
Edit → Undo (Ctrl+Z) will undo your last action, Edit → Redo (Ctrl+Y) will redo what you have just undone.
Now we’re getting a little more interesting. The remaining menu items in the Edit pulldown menu lay down some options for those who prefer to edit via the score staff instead of using tablature. Keep in mind that these settings only affect the score staff (the upper set of lines with standard musical notation on them). If you only edit via the tablature staff, you can pretty ignore these settings, because they will not make any difference in your workflow.
If your score staff is not visible, you can enable it in the View menu.
The menu item Edit → Selection Mode (or the third icon in the Edit section of the Edit Toolbar) will put you into "Selection Mode". In this mode, you can click your mouse anywhere in the score staff, and it will simply move your playback cursor to that location, without making any changes to the score itself. Good for quickly moving around in your score without worrying about accidently altering notes.
Clicking on Edit → Score Edition Mode (the fourth icon) will put you into "Score Edition Mode". With this mode selected, you can enter notes into the score staff simply by clicking where you want the note to go. You can insert notes into lines or spaces, and they will take on the duration you currently have selected in the note duration menu. One note: this option alone will only insert natural-pitched notes (i.e., no flats or sharps). If you want to insert sharps/flats or change pre-existing notes to sharps/flats, you will need to enter Sharp/Flat Mode.
Edit → Sharp/Flat Mode is simply a sub-option of the Score Edition Mode. You must use Sharp/Flat Mode if you want to enter sharp or flat notes or change pre-existing notes to sharp or flat.
The last two entries in the Edit menu (or the first two icons in the Edit Toolbar) select the voice you want to edit: Voice 1 or voice 2.