Review of Audacity Sound Recording Software

The web site http://audacity.sourceforge.net/provides free recording software.  I got to Audacity via Flickr which I also tried and uploaded a photograph but still need to connect it to a map. According to the website:

"Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems."

The software is simple enough to load and to conduct the basic recording but I have yet to figure out how to edit my recordings. The file menus are not as intuitive as I would like and like most males I refuse to look up the Help menu. I have already recorded a Introduction to my AMY Weekly Assignment and have received positive reviews. I had saved the recording as .wav but that creates a very large file which can be difficult to upload depending on your classroom. I tried to save MP3 but failed with the intent of creating as RSS field as was recommended. In order to save as MP3 file you must down load a “lame_enc.dil” I have the Vista operating system so when something does not work I blame Vista.