Import and export

What gets exported

Exporting saves your categories and all their items (including workspaces) to a single JSON file. Your usage history, which is what Most Used is built from, is never included: it is specific to the machine you are on. Neither is your clipboard history, nor your Add-on Settings, so an export is your categories and nothing else.

Where these four commands live

Import, both exports and Reset to defaults are all in the More actions menu, rather than on buttons of their own. Open it with the Applications key while you are in a list, or with the More actions button next to it. They are jobs you do once in a while, and every button is another Tab press between your list and NVDA's OK button.

All four are on the menu in both lists, the categories and the items inside one, because an export always includes categories together with their items whichever list you asked from. Importing or resetting replaces the whole set, so both of those take you back to the category list when they finish.

Exporting everything

1. Open the settings panel (NVDA + N, Preferences, Settings, Dial)
2. On the Categories and items tab, press the Applications key in the list
3. Choose Export all
4. Choose where to save the file (Documents, OneDrive, a USB drive)
5. Click Save

The file is plain text JSON. You can open it in any text editor if you ever want to inspect or hand-edit it.

Exporting a single category

If you want to share just one category - say your "Snippets" setup with a friend - select that category in the list, open More actions and choose Export this category. The exported file contains only that one category and its items. It is on the item list's menu too, where it means the category you have open.

Importing

1. Open More actions in the category list and choose Import
2. Pick the JSON file
3. If any imported categories share names with categories you already have, you'll be asked how to handle the conflict

An import is not written to disk until you choose OK on NVDA's settings dialog, the same as every other change you make in the panel. So if you decide against one, Escape out of the settings dialog and nothing that came in is kept.

The conflict prompt

When category names collide, you have three choices:

• Replace existing - your current categories with the same names are overwritten by the imported ones
• Keep both (rename imports) - the imported categories are renamed with "(imported)" tacked on, and nothing existing is touched
• Cancel import - the import is aborted and nothing changes

The choice applies to the whole import, not per-category. If only some of the imported categories conflict, the non-conflicting ones are always added regardless of which choice you pick (unless you cancel).

Moving to another computer

1. On the old computer, choose Export all from More actions and save the file to a place you can access from the new computer (cloud drive, USB stick, email)
2. On the new computer, install the Dial add-on
3. Open the settings panel and choose Import from More actions
4. Pick your exported file
5. Choose Replace existing when prompted (the new install only has demo data anyway)

Note: applications you've added by full path may not exist at the same path on the new computer. After importing, browse through your items and update any application paths that have changed.

Resetting to defaults

Reset to defaults, in the same More actions menu, wipes your current categories and replaces them with the ones a fresh install comes with. It asks you first, and like an import it only lands when you choose OK, so Escape is the way back if you change your mind before then. Once it is saved there is no undo, so if you might want your current setup back later, export it first.