# Export Preferences

Preferences are exported by type via the Yate>Export Preferences... menu item. Basically, you name a file to receive the output and select which item types to export. The created file is a Yate plist file which optionally can be zipped.

When everything is selected, you're exporting all of Yate's preferences. You can remove whatever item types you don't want to export. The Settings element refers to all of Yate's settings not represented elsewhere in the list. This includes all individual preferences, the open/close mode for the main window list of files and the visibility and position of columns in the file list. Typically you select to export everything.

Individual items may be exported via the Export button found in most preference panels. When exporting Export Sets, Tag Sets, Rename Templates and File to Tag Templates from the preference panels, you are doing a smart export. When doing a smart export, all Custom Field accesses are exported in such a way that they can be conditionally remapped when imported. The custom field information included in the export file contains all the low level mappings associated with the Custom Fields. For this reason it is not necessary to have the FLAC/OGG mappings as a separate export.

The export of actions from the Action Manager is also a smart export. This means that when distributing actions or templates, individual smart exports are a better choice than the menu based export of preferences. The menu based exports are almost always backups and typically should include all available item types.