# The Main Window

Yate's main window is where you do most of your work. The window is divided into a number of panels. The width of the panels may be resized by dragging the thin borders separating them.

### The File List Panel

This is where your list of open files is displayed. Files can be added via the File>Open menu item, by dragging audio files to the file list area from the Finder, from the File Browser, by dragging files from iTunes or from a file or folder reference in the system clipboard. You can also drag in m3u, m3u8, csv, tsv and tab files. Artwork files and web images dragged to the file list will be added as artwork to the selected files. How audio files are opened is controlled by the Open Mode.

Note that as a convenience you can drag a Yate preference file to the file list area. The dragged file will be imported as if the Yate>Import Preferences... menu item was used. If you hold down the Shift key while dragging in the file, its contents will be displayed as if Yate>Examine Preference File Contents... menu item was selected. This is convenient when importing actions downloaded from the Resources web page accessible from the Help menu.

Most data displayed in the file list panel can be edited inline. You control which data is displayed by adding or removing columns. This is done by right clicking anywhere in table header. You can also rearrange columns by dragging their column header. You can save different column arrangements as presets by selecting the Presets>Manage... menu item from the context menu. Note that when inline editing in the Track or Disc column you are editing the total count as well as the value. For example a track edited as 2 will set the track number to 2 and the track count value to empty. Editing a disc value as 1 of 3 or 1/3 will set the disc number to 1 and the disc count value to 3.

Audio files can be previewed by selecting a file and hitting the space bar. Alternately, you can use the Preview toolbar icon. Remember that any artwork displayed by the preview function reflects the artwork in the file and does not reflect any unsaved changes made to the artwork. More information can be found in Previewing Tracks and Other Files.

There are a large number of functions available from the context menu when activated in the list of files. You can remove context menu items that you never use via Preferences-File List.

### The Editing Panel

The content of this area changes depending on which panel selector is active. Fields in this panel either reflect the contents of a single selected file in the file list or the aggregate content of multiple files selected in the file list. When multiple files are selected, fields only display a value if the value is common to all the selected files. Mixed is displayed to imply more than one value.

When the text in a field is displayed in blue, the field contains control and/or newline characters. Typically this means that there are multiple lines of input of which only the first is visible. Clicking on the field's associated function button and selecting Choose Value will allow you to see the full contents of the field.

Various text transformations can be performed directly in a text field by accessing functions in the Yate Transformations submenu on the field's context menu.

Text fields have a function button to the left of the field. The button's colour indicates the change status of the field. A function button has a context menu which displays operations which can be performed on the associated field. They also contain a sub-menu describing the various colour codes.

Clicking on a panel preset button will change the information that is displayed. There are a number of edit panels which can be assigned to any panel preset button. Right clicking on a panel preset button will display a full list of the available edit panels, some of which might be in a Others submenu. From this context menu you can choose the panel to associate with the preset button, select saved preset configurations, save preset layouts and edit custom panels. Any given panel can only be assigned to one preset button. If you want quicker access to all of the possible edit panels you can display the Edit Panel Picker from the applications's Window menu. See Main Window Layout for more information.

The Others submenu can be used to hide panels that you seldom use. To move a panel in or out of the Others submenu, hold down the Shift key and click on the context menu item.

You can rearrange panel selector buttons by dragging a button and releasing it when the hand pointer is in the the new desired location.

The last selector button (marked special preset in the above image), is automatically assigned panels used to represent multiple items for fields.

### The File Browser

The File Browser allows you to traverse the file system and displays a single folder at a time. You can load files into Yate directly from the browser's context menu or by dragging files to the File List panel. Files in the browser can be previewed and opened by their default application.

The type of files revealed in the File Browser can be configured by the View menu item in its context menu.

Files can be previewed by selecting a file and hitting the space bar. More information can be found in Previewing Tracks and Other Files.

### The Audio Information Panel

This panel displays read only metadata associated with a single file. Note that when a Stem file (stem.mp4) is selected, double clicking in the panel will display the stem metadata.

### Yate's Window Menu

From the Window menu you can hide or show the toolbar, status bar, audio information panel and the file browser. You can flip the file browser from the left to the right of the window. You can also flip the file list to the right of the editing panel.

Additional Information:

Opening files and the Open Mode ... Controlling what gets opened

Hide / Show Files

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

Multiple Items and Multiple Values

The Custom Panel Editor