It is designed for quick copy setting for a single module from one profile to another without the need to switch to it (or multiple other profiles) every time you change some option and want it to be exactly the same across all of your profiles on alts or different specs.
So here is a quick and the most detailed guide for it I can come up with.
Short version for people who don't want to read
Where to access it?
The options are in the new "Module Control" section in config.
How does one copy stuff?
- Step 1 - select profile to mess with.
You can't select your current profile. It is already "selected" and will be always used in settings exchange.
- Step 2 - Select what addon/plugin you'll be moving settings around for.
By default the list consists only of ElvUI itself + a section for movers.
When and if any plugin will use built in API for supporting this feature, their section will also appear in that list.
Movers are not included in in general copy due to they are basically a module of sorts by themselves + I can bet a lot of people will not want to copy positions of stuff.
- Step 3 - Choose the module you want to copy and if you want to actually copy everything in that module.
Most modules allow for selecting parts of them to be transferred. For example, you can copy just one actionbar or just one unit type in nameplates.
- Step 4 - Push the button!
After you selected what you want to transfer, you click the button that suits you needs. If you want to copy settings from selected profile to the current one, than "Import" is your choice. Other way around? The export will take your current settings and move them to another profile.
In any case you'll see a confirmation box showing up saying what and where you want copy. Confirming your choice will result in a brief "freezing" of your UI due to after copying settings ElvUI will need to reapply everything on your current profile. It affects importing for the most part, but can happen for export in case of extremely large portions of settings being transferred.
When all this is done you'll have the settings in both profiles (for module in question) exactly the same. And you turned this
into this
What settings are affected and what are not?
As said before most modules allow for selecting parts of them to be transferred. Those subsections are determined by the internal structure of modules' settings table. "General" usually means "everything in the root of module table that doesn't have own sub-table". If settings in question are in its own sub-table, that table can be displayed as a separate section checkbox. Some of those tables do not make any sense to be outlined as a section and thus falls under "general" checkbox.
The second thing is that the feature affects only "profile"-type options. You can learn about the differences here.
Private settings are still easy to copy over with standard export/import, also a lot of those will require you to reload your UI or even do a relog to take effect and not cause major errors.
Global settings are not included cause they are global and apply on all the characters anyways (duh).
Are checkboxes and selected profiles remembered when I change something?
Yes. Those are considered a part of global options and you'll need to make sure you don't forget to uncheck that mover you were copying over yesterday and changed your mind afterwards. If the need arises we can change this behavior for those to reset after export or import was done.