Recovering Settings from Old or Corrupt Preferences

From NeoWiki

Corrupted preferences files can sometimes cause difficulties with NeoOffice. In these instances, the Troubleshooting Tips page recommends removing the NeoOffice 2.1 folder from ~/Library/Preferences. This will solve the problem with corrupted preferences, but trashing the entire folder means that you will lose custom defined autotexts, templates, backups, key commands, menus, etc.

In order to salvage these items, it is necessary to isolate the corrupted folder in the preferences file. You can do so following this method:

1. If you have not done so already, move your (corrupted) NeoOffice 2.1 folder from ~/Library/Preferences to the Desktop.
2. Make a copy (in Finder File>Duplicate) of the NeoOffice 2.1 folder. Keep this is a safe place until the procedure is done. (This gives you a backup in case you make a mistake)
3. Select half of the folders in the users folder of the old preferences folder (The one on the desktop) and drag them into the new (uncorrupted) folder (~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice 2.1/user). When it warns that this will replace folders of the same name, click ok
4. Restart NeoOffice and check to see if the bug you experienced reappears. Quit NeoOffice. If the problem did not reappear, the first half of the preferences are ok; add the second half of the old preferences back into the current preferences folder, restart NeoOffice, and see if the bug reappears.
5. Once you know which half of the preferences contains the corruption, pull that half (the one with a corruption somewhere) back onto the desktop. Quit NeoOffice.
6. Put one folder of this corrupted half from the desktop into the current preferences file (~/Library/Preferences/NeoOffice 2.1/user), restart NeoOffice, and check for the bug. (Be sure to quit NeoOffice between checks)
7. Repeat this until you find the offending folder
8. If there doesn't appear to be anything vital to your work in the corrupted folder, you can drag it to the trash.
9. If it is a critical folder (like templates) Continue this process with the files in the folder.

If you know that there are only a few folders that contain work you don't want to lose (e.g. autotext, templates or backup), you can try just dragging those back in one at a time and see if they create problems, rather than starting with the "half and half" method.