Forum: CAT Tools Technical Help
Topic: Exporting CAT settings to new computer
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: @Jo
[quote]Jo Macdonald wrote:
In Word, Thunderbird and Firefox, unless my memory fails me you can export settings for toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and things like bookmarks, contacts, events, etc. [/quote]
Hardly! I always forget things when I move to a new system, no matter how careful I am. And different versions of the software may store things in different places. And the "export settings" may not actually export all settings.
For Word, remember to copy normal.dot (or: go into your macros and copy/paste them to a text editor). With Thunderbird, one can save most things by just copying the user profile (but loading the user profile on the new computer requires starting Thunderbird with a command line argument that you'll have to google for). I remember long ago when I still used Opera browser, there was a simple and standard way to back up everything... until one day the standard way was different, and I ended up losing hundreds of bookmarks because the bookmarks were now stored somewhere else. I always miss a couple of add-ons or plugins and then I have to go figure out where to download them from again. And some things you just have to copy manually, e.g. cookies and site passwords.
Jo, if it's a new ThinkPad, why not just get a brand new hard drive, too? That way, you can go look for files and settings on the old drive if and when you discover that they're "missing" on the new computer.
Topic: Exporting CAT settings to new computer
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: @Jo
[quote]Jo Macdonald wrote:
In Word, Thunderbird and Firefox, unless my memory fails me you can export settings for toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and things like bookmarks, contacts, events, etc. [/quote]
Hardly! I always forget things when I move to a new system, no matter how careful I am. And different versions of the software may store things in different places. And the "export settings" may not actually export all settings.
For Word, remember to copy normal.dot (or: go into your macros and copy/paste them to a text editor). With Thunderbird, one can save most things by just copying the user profile (but loading the user profile on the new computer requires starting Thunderbird with a command line argument that you'll have to google for). I remember long ago when I still used Opera browser, there was a simple and standard way to back up everything... until one day the standard way was different, and I ended up losing hundreds of bookmarks because the bookmarks were now stored somewhere else. I always miss a couple of add-ons or plugins and then I have to go figure out where to download them from again. And some things you just have to copy manually, e.g. cookies and site passwords.
Jo, if it's a new ThinkPad, why not just get a brand new hard drive, too? That way, you can go look for files and settings on the old drive if and when you discover that they're "missing" on the new computer.