The initialization file is a text file that contains variables that specify your DataWindow Designer preferences. These preferences include information such as the last database you connected to and the PBL you are using. When you perform certain actions in DataWindow Designer, DataWindow Designer writes your preferences to the initialization file automatically.
Normally, you do not need to edit the initialization file. You can specify all your preferences by taking an action, such as resizing a window or opening a new application, or by selecting Design>Options from one of the painters. But sometimes a variable does not appear by default in the options sheet for the painter. In this case, you can use a text editor to modify the variable in the appropriate section of the initialization file.
Do not use a text editor to edit the DataWindow Designer initialization file while DataWindow Designer is running. DataWindow Designer caches the contents of initialization files in memory and overwrites your edited DataWindow Designer initialization file when it exits, ignoring changes.
The DataWindow Designer initialization file uses the Windows INI file format. It has three types of elements:
Section names, which are enclosed in square brackets
Keywords, which are the names of preference settings
Values, which are numeric or text strings, assigned as the value of the associated keyword
A variable can be listed with no value specified, in which case the default is used.
Some sections are always present by default, but others are created only when you specify different preferences. If you specify preferences for another painter or tool, DataWindow Designer creates a new section for it at the end of the file.
DW.INI is installed in the same directory as the DataWindow Designer executable file.
You can keep your initialization file in another location and tell DataWindow Designer where it can find it by specifying the location in the System Options dialog box. You might want to do this if you use more than one version of DataWindow Designer or if you are running DataWindow Designer over a network.
To specify a different location for DW.INI:
Select Tools>System Options from the menu bar.
On the General tab page, enter the path of your initialization file in the Initialization Path textbox.
DataWindow Designer records the path in the Windows registry.
DataWindow Designer looks in the Windows Registry for a path to the file, and then looks for the file in the directory where DataWindow Designer is installed. If DataWindow Designer cannot find the initialization file using the path in the Registry, it clears the path value.
If DataWindow Designer does not find the initialization file when it starts up, it recreates it. However, if you want to retain any preferences you have set, such as database profiles, keep a backup copy of your initialization file. The recreated file has the default preferences.
