Playing and Editing a Voice Memo

In this lesson for Voice Memos on the Mac, we look at how to play and edit voice memos including skipping ahead and behind in a voice memo, renaming a voice memo, replacing a voice memo, trimming the beginning or end of a voice memo, and deleting a portion of a voice memo.

Playing and Skipping Ahead and Behind in a Voice Memo
To play a voice memo, you select in the left sidebar, then click on the Play button below the voice memo. While you are playing it, you can skip ahead and behind by click on the circular arrows to the left or right of the play button. Depending on which one you select, you will go back 15 seconds or skip forward 15 seconds.

Renaming a Voice Memo
To rename a voice memo, you just click on the name in the sidebar on the left. The voice memo name will be highlighted and you can type a new name.

Making a Duplicate before Editing
If you re going to edit your Voice Memo, I recommend creating a duplicate before you do this. Any edits you make to your voice memos are permanent and you will not be able to go back to the original. This is why you may want to create a duplicate.

To create a duplicate, just select the voice memo you want to edit in the sidebar. From there you can go to File in the menu bar and select Duplicate. You can also use the keyboard shortcut command-D.

Entering Edit Mode
To replace a voice memo, trim it, or delete a portion out of a voice memo, you must enter Edit mode. There are two ways to do this, you can swipe to the right on a voice memo title until you see the thre dots (ellipsis). Click on the three dots to enter Edit mode. You can also click on Edit in the upper right corner of the Voice Memo app after you select a voice memo to edit.

Replacing a Voice Memo
To replace a voice memo, you must first enter Edit mode. Once you are in Edit mode, you click on Replace in the lower right corner.

Trimming the Beginning or End of a Voice Memo
To trim a voice memo, you must first go into Edit mode. Once you are in Edit mode, you click on the ‘Crop’ icon or button in the upper right corner of the Voice Memo app. This will allow you to trim, as well as delete a portion out of a voice memo. To trim the beginning, you drag the yellow handle to the right. Drag it to where anything on the left of the handle will be trimmed out of your voice memo. To trim the end, you drag the yellow handle at the end of your voice memo to the left. Once you have the handles where you want them, you click on Trim in the lower right corner. Then click Save to the right.

Deleting a Portion out of a Voice Memo
To delete a portion out of a voice memo, you must first go into Edit mode. Once you are in Edit mode, you click on the ‘Crop’ icon or button in the upper right corner of the Voice Memo app. Similar to Trimming, you delete a portion, you just drag the yellow handles to the point where you want to delete. When you have them set where you want everything to be deleted between the handles, you click on Delete to the lower left. Click on Save to save the edited voice memo.

See this Lesson Action
To see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.