# The Current Selection, the Editing State, Red Light Green Light and What's With All Those Round Coloured Buttons?

Yate maintains three sets of data. The first is the initial contents of the files prior to any modification. You can revert to this version of the data at any time. The second is the current value. This represents the data that will eventually be saved to the files. The third is the current editing state.

Whenever you change the file selection, a new editing state is established. The editing portion of the main window will change to reflect the contents of the file or files that have been selected. This editing state will persist until a different file selection occurs, the files are saved, or the files are refreshed. You can undo changes to the editing state or manually update the contents. See The Editing State for more information.

When a file has unsaved changes the indicator light to the left of the file in the list of files will be red. When the file has no unsaved changes the indicator will be green.

You've probably noticed the round coloured buttons to the left of almost every field in the edit panels. These buttons are function buttons. They are used to reflect the changed state for individual fields. They are also used to access additional functionality for their associate field via a context menu displayed when you click on the button. The following colours may be displayed:

> Clear
>   The field is inactive
> Green
>   No changes
> Orange
>   Different than the initial value when first loaded
> Yellow
>   Different than the value at the start of the editing state.
> Red
>   Different than the initial and editing state values

At any given time you can review what changes have been made to the selected files via the View>Changes menu items. The Log Viewer will open with a description as to what has changed in the files since they were first opened.

Clicking on the round coloured button to the left of a field will display a menu with the functions available for that field. The following functions may be available:

> Why is the Text Blue?
>   Yate thinks something is invalid in the field. See What's With the Blue Text? for additional information.
> Set to time
>   Certain time oriented fields have a function to set the field to now or today.
> Clear All Spaces
>   Spaces in ISRC fields are meaningless. However, certain sites post ISRC values containing spaces. The ISRC text field will remove all spaces when the Yate Transformations>Compress function is executed but that is only useful when a single file is selected. This function will remove all spaces in the ISRC fields of all selected files.
> Choose Value...
>   When a single file is selected, the function allows you to choose the initial, edit or current value and optionally edit the value. When multiple files are selected you can choose from among any of the unique values, view the initial and editing state values and optionally edit the value.
> Append to Values...
>   You can use this function to append additional roles to the Musician Credits and Involved People fields when multiple files are selected.
> Multi Field Editor...
>   Displays the Multi Field editor with the associated field selected.
> Multi Field Editor Actions
>   The Multi Field Editor can run actions on specified fields. The menu is populated with the actions displayed in the Multi Field Editor's Action panel after removing those actions which are not deemed to be appropriate. When an action is run, the associated field will be the Supplied Fields Set if extracted by a Extract Preference Set statement. Note that the selected fields in the Multi Field Editor will not be modified and the Multi Field Editor will not be displayed if it is closed.
> ➡ Associated Multi Item Panel
>   Various metadata types can have more than one item. The Edit Panel area of the main window has fields to display the default value associated with these types. For example the Comments field. There are predefined edit panels to view these multiple item types and they may be mapped to any tab in the edit panel area. Selecting the function will switch to a panel displaying the appropriate multiple item editor. If the editor is already mapped to a panel it will simply be opened. If the editor is not mapped, it will be mapped to the last (lower right) edit panel preset button and it will be opened.
> Add to List
>   For controls which can be associated with lists, you can add the currently displayed item to the associated list. Note that non standard delimiters will be used if the appropriate settings have been made and the field does not contain a multi-value separator. More information on non standard delimiters can be found in Advanced List Settings. This function may not be effective with fields which have auto-save enabled.
> Add to List Ignoring Alt Delimiters
>   For controls which can be associated with lists, you can add the currently displayed item to the associated list, ignoring all delimiters except for the multi-value separator. More information on non standard delimiters can be found in Advanced List Settings. This function may not be effective with fields which have auto-save enabled.
> Remove from List
>   For controls which can be associated with lists, you can remove the currently displayed item. This function may not be effective with fields which have auto-save enabled.
> List Items Containing Text in Field
>   Typically when you want to choose an item from a list for a field, you click on the disclosure button to the right of the field. This allows you to choose the desired list item. If you wish to see all list items containing the text in the field, you can use this menu item. Selecting an item in the displayed popup menu will set the field to the item's title. Note that this menu item is replicated on the application's Edit menu so that a keyboard shortcut can be applied. Note that leading words in the Natural Sort Exception Set are ignored. This ensures that if the list item does not have a leading article and the field does, the item will be matched. The application menu item or an assigned keyboard shortcut will only work while you are editing an appropriate field.
> Enable/Disable Auto-Saves
>   For controls which can be associated with lists, you can toggle the auto-save state.
> Enable/Disable Autocompletes
>   For controls which can be associated with lists, you can toggle the autocompletes state.
> Format...
>   The Musician Credits and Involved People fields can be formatted. More information can be viewed on the format sheet's help.
> Synthesize
>   The Episode ID field an be synthesized from the Season and Episode fields.
> Key Notation
>   The Initial Key field can choose from a list of available key notations.
> Classification Presets
>   The Classification field can choose a value from a menu displaying preset values.
> Set field to empty
>   When multiple files are selected and the field value is not unique, Mixed is displayed for the value. You can enter a value but to set the field to empty you mush type spacebar then backspace. This function is a convenience method to do the same.
> Set to Unrated
>   When multiple files are selected and the rating field is not unique, you can set them all to unrated by selecting this item.
> Revert to Editing State Values
>   Use this entry to revert the field to the values it had when first selected.
> Revert to Initial State Values
>   Use this entry to revert the field to the values it had when first loaded.

Additional information:

The Multi-Value Delimiter, Fields and Preference Lists

Yate Transformations