Audacity help

Bear with me, I'm a novice with this but searching on google doesn't help me (not simple enough).

I'm needing some sections of songs to load onto a sampler for presentations, room introductions etc. I've been told audacity is my friend when trying to make these samples but I just can't get started. I can load a song up, play it but that's about it :mad:

All I'm wanting is to take small samples from mp3's already on my computer - any advice ??

Copy the bit of the track you want and paste into a new file,then save the new file as mp3 and not audacity's own file format.

So you've opened Audacity and have a track loaded in already?
Project - Import Audio etc...

If you have the track loaded that you want to take a sample from just use the Magnifying Glass icon to make the wave forms bigger (and easier to cut and paste).
Select the section of the wave form you want and it will be highlighted.
Cut and Paste it in to a new stereo track by doing firstly (obviously) select cut either by right clicking or using the EDIT icon on the top information bar.
Select PROJECT again and then in select NEW STEREO TRACK from the drop down menu. Select paste and your selection will appear in the new stereo track.
Delete the track you imported first of all and then you are left with just your selection.

When you're finished doing what you're doing, select FILE and then in the drop down menu select either EXPORT AS MP3 or EXPORT AS WAV.

That's it!

I should imagine you already downloaded the recommended LAME extension because you probably wouldn't be able to play anything otherwise?

Hope this helps.