Your initialization script is a normal Praat script that is run as soon as you start Praat.

On Unix or macOS, you create an initialization script by creating a file named "praat-startUp" in the folder /usr/local, or putting a file “.praat-user-startUp” or “praat-user-startUp” in your home folder (if you rename the Praat executable, these names have to change as well).

If you have more than one of these files, they are run in the above order.

On Windows, you create an initialization script by creating a file named “praat-user-startUp” in your home folder, which could be C:\Users\Miep if you are Miep.

If you have both of these files, they are run in the above order.

Example

If you like to be greeted by your husband when Praat starts up, you could put the following lines in your initialization script:

What not to use an initialization script for

You could set preferences like the default font in your initialization script, but these will be automatically remembered between invocations of Praat anyway (in your preferences file), so this would often be superfluous.

For installing sets of menu commands at start-up you will probably prefer to use plug-ins rather than a single start-up file.

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