Abstract: A system and method for automatically managing the storing and restoring of application or electronic document states based on the context of an application or electronic document. A state, in this case, refers to all possible settings of an application or electronic document, such as, for example, preference and option settings. A state also refers to the placement and appearance of all the elements that comprise a Graphical User Interface, including palettes, toolbars, menus and so on. When the user takes an action which causes the context of the application to change, the program module detects the change, stores the state of the application and/or electronic document for the context being exited, and restores the previous state of the application and/or electronic document for the context being entered.