# Preference Recorder Dialog

The preference recorder detects all preferences that were changed while the Preferences dialog was open. It provides the ability to selectively record each changed preference. The impact of a recorded preference depends on where it's recorded:

- If it's recorded into the user setup, it has global impact, i.e., it applies to all workspaces of all installations, not just the current workspace.
- If it's recorded into the installation setup, it has more restricted impact, i.e., it applies to all workspaces of the current installation, not just the current workspace.
- If it's recorded into the workspace setup, it has even more restricted impact, i.e., it applies only to the current workspace. This might not seem useful, because that's the default behavior of Eclipse's preferences, but it's useful if you would like the current workspace's preference to be different from the preferences you've recorded in the broader impacting resources mentioned above.

All recorded preferences are automatically applied on startup. They can be manually applied to an already-running IDE via Help → Perform Setup Tasks…

## Preference Selection and Local Policies

Preference selection determines not only what's recorded, but also how future changes to that preference are handled:

| Each preference with an Always record into... policy will be recorded. In the future, any change to that preference will simply be recorded without prompting.
| Each preference with a Never record into... policy will not be recorded. In the future, any change to that preference will simply be ignored without prompting.
| Each preference with a Skip this time policy will not be recorded. In the future, any change to that preference will lead to further prompting.

In other words, not only are preferences selectively recorded, but also preference handling policies are maintained. As such, this dialog will appear less often as you train it to either record or ignore each specific preference. Use Window → Oomph → Setup Tasks → Preference Recorder to view or modify these policies.

Recorded preferences, as well as the associated policies, are maintained in your setups, which you can view or modify using, for example, Navigate → Open Setup → Open User.

## How to Proceed

The preference recorder dialog prompts you to take the following actions:

- Press Cancel to record nothing and to leave the policies unchanged. In this case, the preference selections have no impact on other workspaces.
- Choose the policy for the handling of each preference, i.e., always record, never record, decide later.
- Press OK, to selectively record the preferences and to update the policies.
- Uncheck the "Recorder enabled" button to disable preference recording and to avoid seeing this dialog the next time. Note that you can also enable or disable the preference recorder via the tool bar button in the Preferences dialog itself.