MATLAB®

General Preferences for MATLAB^® Application

Setting General Preferences for the MATLAB^® Application

Select File > Preferences > General from any desktop tool to access General Preferences.

These preferences apply to all relevant tools in the MATLAB^® application.

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Toolbox Path Caching Preference

For information, see Toolbox Path Caching in the MATLAB^® Program.

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Figure Window Printing Preference

For information, see Printing and Exporting in MATLAB Graphics documentation.

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Default Behavior of the Delete Function

Files you delete using the delete function are permanently removed by default. There is no opportunity to retrieve them.

You can use this preference to instead move deleted files to the Recycle Bin on Microsoft^® Windows^®, to the Trash Can on Apple^®Macintosh^®, or to a tmp directory on The Open Group UNIX^® platforms. Then, you can recover any accidentally deleted files from these locations. Deleted files in these locations are not automatically removed; you must remove them using operating system features, such as Empty Recycle Bin on the Windows platform. When you select this preference, delete might run slower.

Function Alternative

The delete preference for MATLAB actually sets the state of the recycle function upon startup and when you change the preference. You can override the behavior of the preference by setting the recycle function state. For example, regardless of the preference setting, when you run

recycle('off')
delete('thisfile.m')

MATLAB permanently removes thisfile.m from the current directory. Files you subsequently remove using delete are also permanently removed, unless you reapply the preference to recycle or run recycle('on'). Regardless of the state of the recycle function when you end a session, the next time you start MATLAB, the setting for the preference is honored. For more information, see the recycle and delete reference pages.

Note that this preference and the recycle function do not apply to files you delete using the Current Directory browser. For more information, see Cutting or Deleting Files and Directories.

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MAT-Files Preferences

The MAT-file save format sets the default version compatibility option MATLAB uses when saving MAT-files. Use these options if you use multiple versions of MATLAB or share MAT-files with others who run a different version of MATLAB. The setting applies when you use the save function as well as when you useSave menu items for MAT-files, such as File > Save Workspace As from any desktop tool.

The MAT-file preference also applies to saving FIG-files, which include plots, as well as GUIs you create with GUIDE.

Options are

• MATLAB Version 7.3 or later (save -v7.3)—Starting in MATLAB Version 7.3, you can save data that is larger than 2 GB on platforms that allow it, which is the primary purpose of this option. Using this option is equivalent to running save -v7.3. This format of the resulting MAT-file is HDF5-based. You cannot load these MAT-files into any versions prior to MATLAB Version 7.3; in those cases, use one of the other two options.

• MATLAB Version 7 or later (save -v7)—Starting in MATLAB Version 7, MATLAB compresses the data when saving a MAT-file, thereby reducing the storage space required. When you load the MAT-file, MATLAB automatically uncompresses the data. In addition, MATLAB uses Unicode^® character encoding for strings when you save a MAT-file, making the data accessible to other users of MATLAB, regardless of the default character encoding scheme used by their systems. MAT-files saved with this option work in all MATLAB 7 versions. Using this option is equivalent to running save -v7.

• MATLAB Version 5 or later (save -v6)—Releases of MATLAB prior to Version 7 did not save compressed MAT-files. They also did not use Unicode character encoding, which sometimes prevented the exchange of MAT-files among users, particularly when they used localized systems. Specify this option to save MAT-files for use with versions prior to MATLAB Version 7. Using this option is equivalent to running save -v6.

Like other preferences, the MAT-file save format preference gets its initial value from the preference file for the previous installed version. For example, if the setting in your MATLAB 7.5 preference is -v6, when you upgrade from MATLAB Version 7.5 (R2007b) to MATLAB Version 7.6 (R2008a), the initial value in Version 7.6 is -v6.

If you upgrade from a version prior to MATLAB Version 7.3, or if you do not have a previous MATLAB version installed, the initial value is -v7.

Note   For more information about MAT-file save formats, including restrictions, see Version Compatibility Options and Remarks in the save reference page.

Function Alternative

You can override the MAT-file save format preference by using the save function with a specified version compatibility option. For occasional use, this might be more convenient than changing the preference. For example, use save with the-v6 option to ensure compatibility with MATLAB versions prior to Version 7. For more information, see the save reference page.

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Confirmation Dialogs Preferences

These preferences instruct MATLAB to display or not display specific confirmation dialog boxes.

When the check box for a confirmation dialog is selected and you perform the action it refers to, the confirmation dialog box appears. If you clear that check box, the dialog box does not appear when you perform the action.

When the confirmation dialog box does appear, it includes a Do not show this prompt again check box. If you select the check box in the dialog box, it automatically clears the check box for the confirmation preference.

For example, select the check box Warn before deleting Command History items. Then select Edit > Delete Selection in the Command History, MATLAB displays the following confirmation dialog box.

If you select the Do not show this prompt again check box and click OK, the confirmation dialog box will not appear the next time you delete items from the Command History window. In addition, the Warn before deleting Command History items check box in the Confirmations Dialogs preferences pane is cleared.

The following table summarizes the confirmation dialog boxes.

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Source Control Preferences

For information, see Source Control Interface.

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Multithreading Preferences

If you run MATLAB on a multiple-CPU system (multiprocessor or multicore), you can use multithreaded computation, which can improve performance for some operations. For more information, see Enabling Multithreaded Computation.

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Preferences

Fonts Preferences for Desktop Tools