LogUI build 77 improves readability of log entries

As I explained a couple of weeks ago, log entries come in four flavours: regular, activity, boundary and signpost. These types have previously been distinguished by a single digit in the entry. Although the latter two aren’t commonly used, boundaries because they’re uncommon, and signposts because they’re seldom useful, activities do need to be distinguished from regular entries. This new build of LogUI uses emoji to do that, and brings improvements in exported entries.

Log list

Rather than display a single digit for the type of each log entry, LogUI now uses an emoji:

regular entries are marked with a ▶️ right-pointing triangle,
activities with a 🥎 softball,
boundaries with a 🎬 clapper board,
signposts with a 📍 round pushpin.

Those make it much easier to scroll down through entries looking for activities, for example.

Rich Text export

Those are also shown in extracts exported to Rich Text Format files. Those exports have been improved to more closely reflect entries as they’re displayed in LogUI’s window, including the new type emoji, with the addition of extra fields for signposts.

Copy

The other form of exported entries are those copied from the list, by selecting them in the window and using the Copy command. Rather than trying to copy the full text contents of all the fields, this has previously brought a selection separated using tabs. In this version, the fields are expanded and use a vertical bar | as a separator, to provide
date | level | category | sender | process | subsystem | message or signpostName

Where an entry has no data for that field, it’s left empty. As signpost entries don’t have message fields, and the other three types don’t have signpostNames, the last of those depends on the entry type. This should make copied signposts more meaningful.

LogUI 1.0 build 77 for macOS 14.6 and later is now available from here: logui177
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

Enjoy!

4Comments

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1

Enzo Vincenzo on October 20, 2025 at 6:50 am

Thank you, Howard! I see you’re doing a great work! You are indeed making LogUI very beautiful, unique and useful!
By the way, could you help me understand if, in this case, referring to the excellent results you are achieving, I used the word ‘work’ correctly? Or should I have trusted the translator (DeepL or Google) who suggests ‘job’?
Would you use a different word or phrase to express the concept?
Thank you 🙏

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  hoakley on October 20, 2025 at 9:33 am
  
  Thank you, Enzo.
  Idiomatic English would opt for either “doing a great job”, or “doing great work”, and my preference would be to use the first of those. But you’re perfectly understandable, so please don’t sack the translator.
  Howard.
  
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3

Duncan on October 20, 2025 at 10:24 am

As someone who used to work in film production I like your choice of the clapper board (or ‘slate’) as the boundary marker.

(While they’re principally used by the editor to sync the sound and film together, they also serve to identify the start (or tail end) of a film-take, which is analogous to your use in the log entries. A very clever use of available emojis.)

I’m guessing you chose the softball emoji to denote activity in part due to its stand-out color?

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- 4
  
  hoakley on October 20, 2025 at 2:43 pm
  
  Thank you, Duncan. As you’ll have gathered, I enjoy selecting emoji that are distinctive visually and tie in with their meaning as well. Yes, the softball emoji caught my eye as it’s activity-related, distinctive in form and colour, and fun.
  Howard.
  
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