Global vs. per-language settings

Overview

Lexxio can hold multiple languages at once, each one living in its own workspace. Every setting in the app falls into one of two buckets: global, meaning one value shared no matter which language you're using, or per-workspace, meaning each language keeps its own separate value.

Most confusion in Settings comes down to not knowing which bucket a given setting is in.

A concrete example

Say you're learning French and Japanese, each in its own workspace. You turn on Coach while working in French because you want the extra guidance. Switch to your Japanese workspace, and Coach is still off there, untouched. Coach is a per-workspace setting: French and Japanese each keep their own value.

Now change your library's sort order while in French, say from "recently added" to "title." Switch to Japanese, and the library is sorted by title there too. Sort order is global: one value, shared by every workspace.

Same Settings screen, same kind of toggle, two different behaviors.

Roughly, what falls where

Per-workspace settings are usually about how you read a particular language: your reading level, your highlight color and accent theme, whether Coach is on, whether verse numbers show, font size and reader layout, and (for Spanish specifically) whether you include vosotros and vos forms.

Global settings are usually about the app as a whole: its overall visual theme, your read-aloud voice choices, your native language, and how your library is sorted and displayed.

This isn't meant to be a complete list. There are too many individual settings to memorize case by case, and that's not really the point. The point is knowing the concept exists, so you check rather than assume.

The one that trips people up

The Translate screen has a history length setting, how many past translations it keeps around, that sits visually right next to your per-language translation settings. It looks like it belongs to whichever language workspace you're currently in. It doesn't. History length is global, shared across every language, even though the section around it reads like it's specific to one.

Why the Settings screen doesn't sort this out for you

Settings is organized by topic, things like "Translation defaults," not by whether a setting is global or per-workspace. That means a single section can genuinely mix both kinds: some settings in it apply everywhere, others only to your current language, and nothing on screen marks the difference.

The practical habit: when you change a setting, switch workspaces afterward and check whether it followed you. That tells you more than guessing ever will.

See Adding and switching languages for how workspaces work, and Changing the app's look for a small, concrete example of this same theme-versus-accent-color split.