# Discover SwitchUp

SwitchUp makes it easy to manage multiple setting profiles (preferences and data) for almost any application. It's like a multi-user environment for each application.
SwitchUp can also be used to move an application's settings to a new computer, simulate a "first run" experience, separate settings for work and home, create backups of settings, and more…

### Switch an applications settings
| Switching settings is what SwitchUp was built for. Simply drop an application on SwitchUp and it will almost always find all the settings needed to be switched. To see what files SwitchUp is going to switch, right-click (ctrl-click) on a profile and choose 'Edit'. You're now viewing the profile editor. The files listed here will be copied when this profile is activated. Click the radio-button next to a profile to activate it.

### Simulate a "first run" experience
| Developers and testers will often trash their application data and preferences files to simulate what a new user will see when they first run their application. To simulate a "first run" with SwitchUp simply select "New Empty Profile" from the Profile menu. Click the radio-button next to the new profile to switch. You are now running as if your previous settings had never existed. Switch back to the default profile and you're back where you left off.

### Move your settings to a new computer
| After dropping an application on SwitchUp, it created a `.switchUp` file. By default, this file is stored in your user's `Library/Application Support/SwitchUp` folder. The `.switchUp` file contains all the files for all the profiles for the SwitchUp document. If you copy this file to a new computer you can then 'restore' the active profile and now the new machine has the same data as the previous machine. Note: SwitchUp does not actively archive the files for the active profile. To ensure the `.switchUp` file has the latest copy of the active settings data, switch to another profile before copying the `.switchUp` file to another computer.

### Create backups
| Copying a profile can be used to create a backup of the given data. This is useful when you're testing beta software and want to make sure your current settings are safe before running the latest beta.

### Locking a profile
| A locked profile is a profile that will never change. While active, you may do things that cause some of the data files to change, when you switch away, and back to a locked profile it always starts back with the data as it was when it was first locked. To lock a profile double-click on it to open the profile editor and check the 'Locked' checkbox. Note: You may only lock profiles if your document is set to "Copy Files". The lock option will be disabled if your document is set to "Move Files".

### Application specific preferences
| Click the disclosure triangle next to the application icon. By default these preferences mirror the global preferences. Once changed, they will maintain their setting regardless of the global preferences.

### Move files instead of copying them
| Copying a large set of data files (think Mail) can be time consuming and wastes disk space, so you can choose to move files instead of copying them. If the files being moved and the `.switchUp` file are on the same HD partition, switching becomes an almost instant operation. Note: Moving files will disable the 'restore' feature. This is because SwitchUp no longer maintains a backup of the data files for the active profile.

### AppleScript support
| Here's an example AppleScript: tell application "SwitchUp" tell document "Mail`.switchUp`" make active profile "Home" with allow quit end tell end tell Consult SwitchUp's AppleScript dictionary for more details.

### Automator action
| Use Automator to switch to a specific profile. Find the `.switchUp` file you want to work with (by default, located in your user's `Library/Application Support/SwitchUp`) and drag that into Automator. Now add the SwitchUp "Switch Profile" action. Supply the name of the profile to activate and you're on your way.