Store a settings record in the user class. Serialize it for ease of loading / saving. Use this settings class for all storing / retrieving stuff. Works awesome.

EduNetworkBuilder/NB.cs

@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ using System.Drawing;
 using System.Media;
 using System.Reflection;
 using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
-
+using System.Xml.Serialization;
+using System.IO;
 
 namespace EduNetworkBuilder
 {
@@ -367,6 +368,11 @@ namespace EduNetworkBuilder
 
         public static NBSettings GetSettings()
         {
+            //Try getting the user settings
+            PersonClass User = GetUser();
+            if (User != null) return User.UserSettings;
+
+            //If no user, get the settings for the program.
             BuilderWindow myWin = (BuilderWindow)Application.OpenForms["BuilderWindow"];
             if (myWin != null)
             {
@@ -580,6 +586,36 @@ namespace EduNetworkBuilder
             }
         }
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Serialize any serializable class to an XML string.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of object</typeparam>
+        /// <param name="toSerialize">The object to serialize</param>
+        /// <returns>A string containing the serialized object in XML</returns>
+        public static string SerializeObject<T>(T toSerialize)
+        {
+            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(toSerialize.GetType());
+
+            using (StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter())
+            {
+                xmlSerializer.Serialize(textWriter, toSerialize);
+                return textWriter.ToString();
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// Deserialize (oposite of SerializeObject) an object from an xml string.
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of object to deserialize</typeparam>
+        /// <param name="toDeserialize">the xml string containing the object</param>
+        /// <returns>An object of the specified type</returns>
+        public static T Deserialize<T>(string toDeserialize)
+        {
+            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
+            StringReader textReader = new StringReader(toDeserialize);
+            return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(textReader);
+        }
+
         public static List<string> GetPuzzleTags()
         {
             BuilderWindow myWin = (BuilderWindow)Application.OpenForms["BuilderWindow"];