FileMaker gives you control over three kinds of preferences: application, document, and Web. Application-level preferences affect every document used by FileMaker. Document-level preferences apply only to the open database, which if you like, lets you create a different set of preferences for a particular database. The Web preferences are covered separately in Setting Up and Configuring the Web Companion on page 274.
Before you start setting your preferences, here's a quick rundown of the choices for each tab of the Application Preferences dialog box: