ISPF saves several different edit modes in an edit profile. The user can specify the desired edit profile on the Edit Entry Panel. If the Profile field is left blank, the data set type is used as the profile name.

To preinitialize a set of edit profiles for first-time users, do these steps:

1. Start ISPF.
2. Select the Edit option.
3. Set the edit profile with the defaults you chose.

   For example, to set "COBOL FIXED 80" in your profile, edit a member of a partitioned data set that has a RECFM of F or FB, a LRECL of 80, and a type qualifier of COBOL (or enter COBOL as the profile name on the Edit Entry Panel).

ISPF provides two methods for setting defaults for new edit profiles. You can set up a profile called ZDEFAULT in the ISPTLIB concatenation, or you can modify the edit profile defaults in the ISPF configuration table. The ISPF configuration table method is recommended because it is easier to maintain than the ZDEFAULT method. The ZDEFAULT method can still be used by individual users.