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Instead of finding the options you want to change by moving down through the structure of groups, you can specify the particular option, face or group that you want to customize.
If you want to alter a particular user option variable with the customization buffer, and you know its name, you can use the command M-x customize-option and specify the option name. This sets up the customization buffer with just one option--the one that you asked for. Editing, setting and saving the value work as described above, but only for the specified option.
Likewise, you can modify a specific face, chosen by name, using M-x customize-face.
You can also set up the customization buffer with a specific group, using M-x customize-group. The immediate contents of the chosen group, including option variables, faces, and other groups, all appear as well. However, these subgroups' own contents start out hidden. You can show their contents in the usual way, by invoking `[Show]'.
To control more precisely what to customize, you can use M-x customize-apropos. You specify a regular expression as argument; then all options, faces and groups whose names match this regular expression are set up in the customization buffer. If you specify an empty regular expression, this includes all groups, options and faces in the customization buffer (but that takes a long time).
When you upgrade to a new Emacs version, you might want to customize new options and options whose meanings or default values have changed. To do this, use M-x customize-changed-options and specify a previous Emacs version number using the minibuffer. It creates a customization buffer which shows all the options (and groups) whose definitions have been changed since the specified version.
If you change option values and then decide the change was a mistake, you can use two special commands to revisit your previous changes. Use customize-saved to look at the options and faces that you have saved. Use M-x customize-customized to look at the options and faces that you have set but not saved.
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