Cocoa Color picker pref

[anarchie]

The file you're looking for is ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
More specifically, the key within that preference file pertaining to the colors is NSColorSwatchData, and you can transplant that from one file to the other if you don't want to muck up stuff like your double-click threshold...

[Arden]

Why not back up the whole file, and save all those preferences at the same time? But thanks for pointing this out.

[aqsalter]

Fabulous!

I noticed that her desktop picture got reset at the same time.

So that file must have gotten trashed and reset all the GlobalPreferences...

@Arden:
I do do backups, as I said in my original post. And now I can restore that file from my backup!!

Anarchie, thanks for the information. Where did you find out about Global prefs... is it in Apple documentation?

Since it's a . file no wonder I didn't see it.

I really think this is valuable information.

[anarchie]

I found it by running fs_usage to watch filesystem activity, then messing around with a color picker to see what files get changed, and then examining each file for color-related stuff. The file didn't actually get touched until I created a new Terminal window, however...

[aqsalter]

This is really good work.

Is this documented anywhere?
anyone?

@Arden
No hard feelings huh? As I said I appreciate your helpful comments. But my original question was quite specific... I'm not really a newbie and I knew exactly what information I was after.

Anarchie addressed my questions very succinctly in both his posts... if you know how to edit .plist files, it is, as anarchie pointed out, preferable to just copy the NSColorSwatchData section than the whole file... Since copying the whole file will reset many "global" settings back to old settings and all I said I wanted was the previous ColorSwatch data.

...Anyway thank you both.

[Arden]

Well, it's like I said: if you know the file, then use back that up, but if you don't, use another form of backup. While it wouldn't have helped you recover your original colors, my method would have helped you recover them if this ever recurred.

I'm glad I could at least attempt to help. What, out of curiosity, do you (and your wife) do?

[Simbad]

In your User Library folder, you will find a color folder. In there is your color palette plist.
Simply replace that with your backed up version, from before the crash, and your palette will be restored.

Peace.
Simeon.