Saving settings in matlab

Question

A dumb question really ... but lately I've been working on some project all day long, and my eyes are hurting. How can one save settings (color settings to be exact) in matlab, so one can reload them / interchange them for different ones when day goes and night comes ?

A subquestion - where exactly does matlab (2008b in this case, I think) saves its settings ? Can they be backuped ?

Answer 1

Settings are stored in the preferences directory. For a particular user per install you can find where it is using the prefdir command at the Command Prompt. I wrote a bit about it on our official blog, if you'd like more information. http://blogs.mathworks.com/desktop/2009/12/07/the-preferences-directory/

Answer 2

Preferences are stored in user-readable text files in the prefdir folder. Each of the line entries in this file corresponds to a single preference. These entries are explained here: http://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/changing-system-preferences-programmatically/

Per your request, you can have two versions of the relevant preferences file, and programmatically (or manually) switch them (don't forget to restart Matlab after changing the preferences.)