# Logging Data and the Log Viewer

The Log Viewer is used to display a variety of information, whenever information is best displayed as simple text. It is manually invoked by various File>Log menu items and is used to display hexadecimal representations of binary data in fields. The content of anything displayed in the Log Viewer can be saved via the File>Save or File>Save As... menu entries.

File>Log Text will display all of the current tag information, for each file in the selection.

File>Log Raw data will display what is known about the raw structure of the tag as originally found in each selected file. While the display varies somewhat for ID3 and MPEG-4 files, the content is essentially the same. Each line shows the start offset, end offset, and length as well as the name of the tag component. In MPEG-4 files, these components are called atoms. In ID3 files, they are called frames. The ID3 lines also display a hexadecimal representation of the flags associated with the item. In FLAC files much less information is currently displayed. Note that stem metadata will be displayed for Stem files (stem.mp4).

File>Log Text & Raw data is equivalent to doing both of the above.

File>Log Changes to Initial State will itemize everything that has changed in all of the selected files, since the files were opened or last saved.

File>Log Changes to Editing State will itemize everything that has changed in all of the selected files, since their Edit State was last set.

File>Log Validation errors will show various places where the current contents of the tag information do not live up to the strict requirements of the specifications. In many cases Yate does not impose the letter of the law as far as the specifications go while editing. This is especially true in places where the ID3 specification states that fields which allow multiple items must be unique in one or more respect.