I have a question about my Mac program's preferences window. I have an application with a CoreData-based back end. My program includes a feature that allows users to switch out the database for a different one. I do not expect users to do this very often—perhaps once or twice a year.
Now, many of the options that users can tweak are stored in the database. These options need to be configured once every time that a new database is used, because they are specific to the database itself.
The Apple Human Interface Guidelines on Preferences state this:
As much as possible, ensure that users rarely need to reset preferences. Ideally, preferences include settings that users might want to change only once. If there are settings users might want to change every time they open your app, or every time they perform a certain task, don’t put these settings in preferences. Instead, you could use a menu item or a control in a panel to gives user modeless access to these settings.
My question is this: Are my database-level settings valid candidates for the preferences window? Does "once or twice a year" count as "rarely"? If not, are there any downsides to creating a second panel (with many panes that are controlled by an NSToolbar) that looks just like a preferences panel but is accessed from a different menu item ("Database Preferences" for example)?
