To import chapter timecodes into an Audacity label track, convert them to a tab-separated text file with start time, end time, and chapter title. Import that file into your audio project, then check the labels against the timeline. The import menu differs between Audacity 3 and 4.

Choose the import route for your Audacity version

This guide is for a Mac user who already has chapter timestamps and wants named markers inside an audio project. Audacity’s download page currently identifies 4.0.1 as the latest release; the instructions below also preserve the Audacity 3 menu route. Download Older Versions of Audacity

Installed version Import the prepared label file Review the imported labels
Audacity 4 Use File > Import… and choose the .txt file. Use Edit > Label > Manage labels.
Audacity 3 Use File > Import > Labels. Use Edit > Labels > Label Editor.

The Audacity 4 manual documents a general import dialog that accepts text files. The older manual documents a separate label import command. Both provide a label editor for reviewing the result. Follow the route matching your installed interface. File, Edit, File Menu: Import, Label Editor

The intended result is a label track containing chapter markers. A label track holds annotations and produces no sound. Treat creating playable chapter navigation in another application as a separate delivery task; successfully importing labels establishes markers in your Audacity project. Label Track Item

Convert chapter timestamps into the label-file format

Audacity’s documented standard label format uses one row per label: start time in seconds, end time in seconds, and optional label text, separated by actual tab characters. Equal start and end values create a point label; different values create a region label. Save the file as plain text with a .txt extension. Importing and Exporting Labels

For a chapter list containing only starting timestamps, choose point labels. You do not need to invent chapter end times just to mark where each section begins. Use regions when you have deliberately defined both boundaries and want each label to describe a complete interval.

Work through a synthetic chapter list

Suppose a synthetic six-minute audio sequence has four sections. These illustrative timestamps refer to elapsed time from the beginning of that sequence, with its beginning positioned at project time zero.

Chapter title Original timestamp Calculation Seconds
Opening tone 00:00:00.000 0 0.000000
Pattern A 00:01:30.000 60 + 30 90.000000
Pattern B 00:03:45.500 180 + 45.5 225.500000
Closing tone 00:05:00.000 300 300.000000

For an hours–minutes–seconds timestamp, calculate total seconds as hours × 3600 + minutes × 60 + seconds. Preserve any fractional seconds. Here, 00:03:45.500 means 225.5 seconds; writing 3.455 would put the marker near the beginning instead.

The following is a complete four-label data file, with actual tabs between fields. Copy only the contents of the block, excluding the Markdown fence markers.

0.000000	0.000000	Opening tone
90.000000	90.000000	Pattern A
225.500000	225.500000	Pattern B
300.000000	300.000000	Closing tone

If you type the rows yourself, press Tab once between the first and second numbers and once between the second number and title. Spaces within a chapter title are ordinary text. Do not add a header row, comma separators, or the literal characters \t. The documented separator is a tab. Importing and Exporting Labels

Decide whether regions would be more useful

For the illustrative sequence, a region covering Pattern A would start at 90 seconds and end at 225.5 seconds. Its single data row would be:

90.000000	225.500000	Pattern A

Deriving each region’s end from the next chapter’s start assumes the chapters are contiguous. It also leaves the last chapter needing an independently established end. Keep point labels if your source supplies only chapter starts and you do not need interval selections.

Save a usable text file with TextEdit

On a Mac, TextEdit can prepare the file without a spreadsheet or script. Convert the document to plain text before saving it; Apple documents Format > Make Plain Text as the conversion command. Changing the filename extension alone does not perform that conversion. Create, open, and convert documents in TextEdit on Mac

  1. Open TextEdit and create a document with File > New.
  2. Choose Format > Make Plain Text if the document is in rich text mode.
  3. Paste the four example rows, or enter your own converted rows.
  4. Choose File > Save and name the file chapters.txt in a convenient local folder.

Use UTF-8 encoding for the file. Audacity recommends UTF-8 for labels created outside Audacity, particularly when titles contain characters beyond unaccented Latin letters and numbers. TextEdit’s defaults for opening and saving plain-text encodings are available under TextEdit > Settings > Open and Save. Importing and Exporting Labels, Change settings in TextEdit on Mac

Before importing, reopen the saved document and check that all four rows remain present. Confirm that the filename is chapters.txt, rather than a rich text document named chapters.txt.rtf. Keep the original chapter list alongside the converted file so you can compare any questionable timestamp.

Import the file into the correct audio project

First open the project containing the audio that the timestamps describe. If you are trying the example, use a synthetic sequence at least six minutes long. Check that its starting position matches the assumption used in the conversion: project time zero.

In Audacity 4, choose File > Import…, select chapters.txt, and open it. The documented import command adds content to the current project, requires an open project, and is unavailable while recording. Save the project locally after checking the imported labels. File

In Audacity 3, choose File > Import > Labels and select the text file. The manual says imported label tracks are added below existing tracks, so inspect the bottom of the project if the new track is not immediately visible. File Menu: Import, Importing and Exporting Labels

For the example, expect four point labels at zero, 90, 225.5, and 300 seconds. Do not judge success from the appearance of chapter names alone: a valid-looking title can still accompany a wrongly converted time.

Verify timing before continuing your edit

Open the label editor using the version-specific route above. In Audacity 4, it lists labels with their track, text, start time, and end time in editable cells. In Audacity 3, double-click a cell to edit it; the editor can display times in a different format from the seconds used in your file. Label Track Item, Label Editor

Use this three-position check before working through a longer chapter list:

  1. First marker: confirm it is at the intended opening position.
  2. A middle marker: check Pattern B at 00:03:45.500, or an equivalent distinctive transition in your synthetic audio.
  3. Last marker: confirm it still aligns near the end of the sequence and falls within its intended duration.

For point labels, confirm both time fields remain equal after corrections. If you change only one boundary, you have described an interval instead of a single chapter start. That follows directly from the documented point-versus-region format. Importing and Exporting Labels

Diagnose the pattern of an alignment error

The following decision aid uses the illustrative timing assumptions above. These are diagnostic deductions, not automatic Audacity corrections.

What you observe What to check next
Every label is early by the same amount Compare the audio’s project starting position with the timestamps’ zero point.
The first label aligns, but later labels increasingly miss Check whether the timecodes describe an earlier edit or a different-duration version of the audio.
One label is misplaced Recalculate that row and compare it with the original timestamp.
Names appear, but labels span unexpected ranges Compare each row’s start and end values.
Some labels are missing or titles look wrong Recheck row structure, real tabs, plain-text format, and encoding.

For example, if the synthetic audio starts 12 seconds into the project, its Pattern B boundary belongs at 225.5 + 12 = 237.5 seconds. Apply that offset to both fields of every point label only after confirming the same offset explains the first, middle, and last positions.

A single offset cannot reconcile timecodes with audio that has had different amounts removed from different sections. In that situation, rebuild the affected timestamps against the current edit. Checking several positions helps distinguish a shared starting offset from changes within the sequence.

Keep the verified labels available for later work

After checking the markers, save the Audacity project and retain the source text file. In Audacity 4, the label track’s menu includes Export labels; the current manual says exporting from a particular track’s menu exports that track’s labels. This provides a text copy of your corrected timings. Label Track Item

Audacity 3 has a different export limitation: its documented Export Labels operation combines labels from multiple label tracks and cannot export only a selected label track or a selection within one. Keep this distinction in mind if your project contains several sets of annotations. Importing and Exporting Labels

If your next task is exporting separate audio files by labeled region, preserve another version boundary: Audacity 4.0.1’s release notes list multiple export by track or labeled region as a feature added in that release. Do not assume every Audacity 4.0 installation has it. Audacity 4.0.1 release notes

Finish this import task with a saved project whose chapter names and positions match the current audio. Keep the converted text file as a reusable timing record, and repeat the first–middle–last alignment check whenever you apply it to another edit.

Sources