How do I copy my Nisus Writer preferences between Macs?

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martin
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How do I copy my Nisus Writer preferences between Macs?

Post by martin »

Nisus Writer Pro version 3 makes it easy to backup, restore, and sync preferences and other settings. You can configure Nisus Writer to use a single folder for all settings. This is called the "synchronized settings location" and can be set in your General preferences:
sync.png
sync.png (59.91 KiB) Viewed 9117 times

Although it's probably best to use a cloud storage location like Dropbox or iCloud for your settings, so they can be automatically synchronized between Macs, any local folder can be used. In this way you could manually collect the contents of this settings folder, either as a backup or to manually copy the settings between Macs.

For more details see this FAQ topic on how to sync or restore settings between Macs.



Nisus Writer Pro version 2
The following instructions are only for version 2.x and are provided for legacy users. The following details are obsolete for version 3.

In older versions of Mac OS X, duplicating preferences from one Mac to another only required copying an application's preferences file. This file stored most of the settings you see in your Nisus Writer preferences window. However, things are now more complicated.

Starting with Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the system caches application preferences in memory (RAM). This means that the preferences file on disk will be ignored after you turn on your Mac. Any changes to the preferences files while your Mac is turned on will also be ignored. To synchronize preferences between computers you will need to use the Terminal application.

How To Copy All Preferences Between Your Computers
To copy all of your Nisus Writer Pro (NWP) preferences between two Macs:
1. On the Mac which has the preferences you want to duplicate, quit NWP if it is running.
2. Launch Apple's Terminal utility application.
3. In the Terminal, at the command line prompt, paste the following command:

Code: Select all

defaults export com.nisus.NisusWriter ~/Desktop/NisusWriterPrefs.plist
4. Press the Return key to execute the command.
5. If the command was entered correctly, you should see a new file on your Desktop.
6. Copy the new NisusWriterPrefs.plist file to the destination Mac's Desktop.
7. On the destination Mac, quit NWP if it is running.
8. Still on the destination Mac, launch Terminal, and paste the following command:

Code: Select all

defaults import com.nisus.NisusWriter ~/Desktop/NisusWriterPrefs.plist
You should now be able to relaunch NWP on the destination Mac and see all of your preferences in effect.

NOTE: some application settings are stored outside of the preferences. For example, the Nisus New File template is a separate document that stores the settings used for new documents (eg: default font, window size, etc).


How To Copy Just Keyboard Shortcuts
If you only want to copy your keyboard shortcuts from one Mac to another, without affecting other preferences, you can use a modified list of steps to clone just that single preference:

1. On the Mac which has the keyboards shortcuts you want to duplicate, quit NWP if it is running.
2. Launch Apple's Terminal utility application.
3. In the Terminal, at the command line prompt, paste the following command:

Code: Select all

defaults write ~/Desktop/NisusKeys.plist 2:com.nisus.Menus.keyequivalents "$(defaults read com.nisus.NisusWriter 2:com.nisus.Menus.keyequivalents)"
4. Press the Return key to execute the command.
5. If the command was entered correctly, you should see a new file on your Desktop.
6. Copy the new NisusKeys.plist file to the destination Mac's Desktop.
7. On the destination Mac, quit NWP if it is running.
8. Still on the destination Mac, launch Terminal, and paste the following command:

Code: Select all

defaults import com.nisus.NisusWriter ~/Desktop/NisusKeys.plist
You should now be able to relaunch NWP on the destination Mac and see all of your keyboard shortcuts in effect.


How To Copy Other Settings Between Your Computers
Some settings in Nisus Writer are not stored by OSX's preferences, but instead reside in a special place on disk. These settings include customizations to languages, special characters, and the Document Manager. You can find the files that store these special settings inside Nisus Writer's sandbox container, located at:

Code: Select all

~/Library/Containers/com.nisus.NisusWriter/Data/Library/Application Support/Nisus Writer Pro
You can quit Nisus Writer, copy these files between your Macs, and then relaunch Nisus Writer to have it pick up the copied settings.
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