The variables pane displays the values of your script’s variables.

• When you simply run a script, the variables pane displays the script’s persistent variables (top-level entities — script objects, script properties, and globals) after execution. It doesn’t show local variables, because when the script finishes executing, local variables have gone out of scope.

• When you debug a script, the variables pane also displays local variables.

To see the variables pane:

• Choose View > Result & Variables Tab.

• Or, click Result & Variables in the toolbar.

Variables are displayed in alphabetical order, grouped into the following categories:

1. Inherited variables (blue background).

   A script’s persistent variables include those acquired through AppleScript’s script object inheritance mechanism.

   By default, a script’s parent is the AppleScript scripting component. Therefore, the variables pane will usually display this object and its variables twice — once by virtue of being the script’s parent, and again by virtue of being the global script object AppleScript.

2. Top-level entities.

The variables pane is an outliner, with all that this entails. For example:

• You can double-click a line of the variables pane to see that value displayed in a separate explorer window.

• You can edit the value of persistent top-level entities (such as properties and globals) shown in the variables pane; you might use this feature to experiment with your script’s behavior under different initial values of your persistent entities.

• You can filter the outline by showing and working with the scope bar.

  To show the scope bar, Control-click in the variables pane and choose Show Scope Bar from the contextual menu.

  No variables appearing? Show the scope bar and make sure you’re not filtering them all out.

• Recently changed values are displayed in red.

Script Debugger preserves the value of persistent top-level entities when a script is saved and re-opened.