How can I configure default preferences for oXygen XML editor?

Symptom

You want to configure default preferences for oXygen Author or Editor.

Problem

As with any other Eclipse plugin, the preferences for the oXygen XML Editor or Author plugins are stored in the Eclipse preferences store in the user's workspace. Each time you create a new workspace, you need to reimport your preferences into the workspace or reset your preferences manually.

Solution

To have your preferences imported automatically, you need to export the desired preferences from an existing instance of the oXygen editor and use them to create a custom preferences file for the XML editor to import by default.

To create the custom preferences file:

1. In the DITA CMS Eclipse Client, configure the oXygen preferences as desired in: Window > Preferences.
2. Click Apply to apply the changes.
3. Click oXygen XML Editor or oXygen XML Author.
4. Click Export Global Options to export the preferences.
5. Save the file in the %EclipseDir%/configuration folder.
6. Open the file in a text editor and clean the file so only your customized preferences remain (delete factory default preferences) and save the file.

To configure oXygen to import a custom preferences file:

1. Locate the config.ini file in the %EclipseDir%/configuration folder and open it in a text editor.
2. Set the com.oxygenxml.default.options property with the path to your custom preferences file by adding the following line to the file:

   com.oxygenxml.default.options=file\:{path to oXygen preferences file}

3. Save the file.

com.oxygenxml.default.options=file\:OxygenPreferences.xml

Information from the oXygen website: http://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-editorEclipse/index.html#topics/default-options.html.