News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

March 3, 2008

software

The Secrets of configuration

Posted Mar. 3, ’08, 6:34 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Software

p-list There’s a lot of hidden options in the software that you use every day. By using the defaults command or manually editing .plist files, you can do things like change the Dock background, change its pinning, and much more. Typically, Mac users have used long standing GUI utilities like Tinkertool to get at them rather than resort to using the Terminal.

A new software product, Secrets (developed by Quicksilver prodigy Alcor) does basically the same thing, but with a much bigger scope. It doesn’t just cover Apple’s included applications, but also third-party favorites like Acorn, Adium, and Twitterrific. Even if you decide not to use the preference pane that’s in beta, the website (down as of this writing) supplies the information for you to set these options using the Terminal yourself.


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