The play bar at the top has a field for setting what time you want the score to play from, a play/stop button to start and stop playing, and a help button. When the play/stop button is used, blue will generate a .CSD file from the current work file, starting from the play time given in the field, and will use the command line given in the project properties tab to use to play the .CSD file.

the poly object bar (shown above with only one polyObject, "root") shows what polyObject you are currently editting. if you were to add a polyObject named "phrase 1" to the main timeline shown above, then double click that polyObject to edit it, the polyObject bar would have two buttons on it, one for "root", and one for "phrase 1". you would then be editting "phrase 1"'s timeline. by clicking on the "root" button of the timeline, you would then return out of the polyObject's timeline and back in the root's timeline.

Below the polyObject bar on the left, you will see the soundLayer edittor. here you can change the name of the soundLayer, as well as mute the layer (all soundObject's on muted layers will not be used to generate notes when creating .CSD files).

on the bottom of the soundLayer edittor are four buttons, "^", "V", "+", and "-". "^" and "V" will push up or push down soundLayers. (HINT: You can move multiple soundLayers by clicking on one soundLayer, then holding down shift and clicking on the last of the soundLayers you want to move, then using the "^" and "V" buttons.) the "+" will add a soundLayer after the currently selected soundLayer. if no soundLayers are selected, then it will add one to the end of the list. the "-" button will remove any selected soundLayers. it should ask for a confirmation before removing any layers.

Below the polyObject bar on the right is the main time line. it shows the time line for the currently editted polyObject. The +/- buttons next to the scrollbars are used to zoom in on the time line, and those settings will be maintained between work sessions.

On the time line, rt-clicking on any soundLayer will show menu options for adding different types of soundObjects, or pasting a soundObject from the buffer if any soundObjects in the buffer are available. if you are using the soundObject library and use the "copy instance" button, it copies it to the soundObject buffer for use with pasting into the time line via this menu.

Once you have soundObjects on the time line, you can click on one to select it and see its editor below the time line, then click on the soundObject and drag the mouse to move the object around in time or to a different layer. Clicking and dragging near the right edge of the soundObject will allow you to change the duration of the soundObject.

You can also select multiple soundObjects by holding down shift and clicking multiple soundObjects. Holding down shift and dragging one soundObject will move all of the selected soundObjects.

If you have a soundObject selected, you can edit the properties of the soundObject also by using the soundObject property dialog (which can be opened from the menu "Windows -> Sound Object Property Dialog" or by using the shortcut "F3". From this dialog you can change the name of the soundObject, it's start time and subjective duration, and also add and remove noteProcessors (if the soundObject supports it).

Rt-clicking on a soundObject pops open a menu (shown in the picture above) which will let you add a soundObject to the soundObject library(only the one clicked on), convert soundObjects into a polyObject(any selected soundObjects), convert a soundObject into a genericScore soundObject, or cut/paste/remove. Converting to a polyObject is useful if you're editting on a time line and decide you'd like to group the soundObjects together to handle them as a single soundObject. Converting to a genericScore is useful if you're working with a soundObject that isn't a genericScore and want to start editting it as a genericScore.

The tempo editor is an optional use feature that allows editing of overall tempo for a project using a line editor. This feature starts off as disabled and closed. When in this state, whatever tempo values are saved will show as dark gray line that is uneditable. To enable the use of the tempo editor, select the checkbox marked "Use Tempo". Selecting this will redraw the tempo line in green. To open up the tempo editor for a larger view and for editing, select the down arrow button next to the "Use Tempo" checkbox.

Like other line editor objects in blue, left-clicking on an area where there is no point will insert a new point, while hovering over an existing point and pressing down, then dragging will allow moving of that point. Right-clicking a point will delete a point.

If right-clicking the tempo editor when not on a point, the following popup menu will appear:

The first option will allow editing of the values of the points entered into the line editor by use of a table with two columns: the first column being the beat on which the tempo change occurs and the right column being the tempo value that it should have. One may find using the table editor easier to use to fine-tune values.

The second option will allow changing the boundary min and max tempo values for the line editor, as well as the option for what to do for points that fall outside of the new range. The options here are "Truncate" which will set any points' values that lie outside the new range to the closest boundary value, or "Scale" which will take all point values from the old range and scale them to the new range.

Use of the tempo editor is completely optional and users familiar with Csound's t-statement for controlling global tempo may opt to disable using blue's tempo editor and to use a t-statement in the global orc section of the globals tab. Also, older blue projects that existed from before blue's tempo editor was developed can count on their projects loading and running correctly even if opened with versions of blue that do have a tempo editor, due to blue's default to disable the blue tempo editor. Regardless of which tempo system is chosen by the user, one should be careful not to use both at the same time as this will cause two t-statements to exist in the generated CSD (the hand-entered one and the one generated by blue), causing unexpected performance results.

While in the main timeline area, pressing ctrl-t when a soundObject is selected will bring up the quick time dialog. Here you can edit the start time and duration of the currently selected soundObject. When the dialog is first popped up the start time field is automatically focused for editing. You can press tab to switch between the two fields. Pressing enter will update the properties. Pressing escape, closing the dialog, or clicking anywhere outside of the dialog will cancel any changes and close the dialog.

Enabling snapping provides a grid by which to line up your soundObjects. Snap is measured in beats. To open up the dialog, press the [...] button at the top right of the score timeline window. From here you can enable/disable snap for the current polyObject you are editing as well as edit what value to snap to. Snap values are local to the polyObject you are editing.