
This pane is more than a scratch pad to keep track of what happens when function buttons are pushed. It also interacts with the JMRI throttle.
When you use the roster pull-down on the JMRI throttle to select a loco from your roster, the function buttons will be marked with the descriptions you have entered for those functions in this pane.

You may also edit the function button text in the JMRI Throttle and save those changes to the selected Roster entry. To use these changed entries in the future, make sure you click on the to save these values into the Roster entry that is in use.