Gain access to all aspects of preference systems for Mac OS X. Work with three management components, control point to point references, display and edit any files formed and processed according to the Apple list standard. Save and restore sets of settings.
PrefEdit is an application to manage nearly all aspects of the preference system contained in every OS X installation. The program consists of three components which are tightly integrated with each other:
- An entry point to the preferences database of OS X, with access to all settings which are effective for your user account,
- a browser and editor for OS X property list files (plists),
- a browser for preference manifest files.
Property list files are the technical means used by OS X to store user preference settings in the background. This file type is also utilized by OS X for many other purposes, not only for building the preference database. You can use PrefEdit to display and edit all files compliant with Apple's plist standard.
Preference manifest files contain descriptions for so-called Managed Preferences. If modifying a user preference setting is not only of interest for the application owning this setting, but access to the setting should be possible for “foreign” applications, too, the vendor of the application can publish technical details about these preferences formally. Such a description specifies which setting with what name has which meaning for an application. In addition, the possible value range, as well as the meaning of each single value can be defined. Apple's Workgroup Manager application uses manifest files to present such remotely managable settings.
PrefEdit is directed both to software developers and to end users who like to have full access to each and every aspect of preference settings for the system and applications. The program is capable of visualizing the complete search path and priority of user default settings, exactly imitating the view each OS X application has on the preferences database.
PrefEdit was the first preference editor ever published for OS X. With its long experience and maturity, it has become one of the most advanced preference management applications for OS X available today.
v3.0 [Jun 8, 2013]
- The application and its user interface have been revised completely. Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 or later is now needed for operation.
- Due to changes in the architecture of the preferences subsystem of OS X, the differentiation between access to user defaults (preferences) and access to property list files had to be given up.
- Accessing preference settings of applications protected by the OS X application sandbox is now fully supported.
- Support for work without Save and the feature “Versions” has been added.
- The application can now process external modifications to preference domains or property lists live.
- Property list files can now be edited either in sorted form or by keeping the internal order of their XML representation.
- It is now possible to sort preferences or data items of type dictionary by alphabetical order of their keys.
- Copy / Paste is now supported in unlimited fashion for all components of property lists or preference settings.
- Drag and Drop is now supported in unlimited fashion within files or between different files.
- The application now explicitly differentiates between values of type integer number and real number.
- Search operations for keys and values in the entire preferences database have been accelerated significantly.
- The view on the preferences search path and on the different scope of user defaults has been changed. The correlations to the files' storage locations are now emphasized more strongly. Overridden, ineffective settings in the search path are no longer visualized for easier understanding.
- The license agreement for the App edition of PrefEdit has changed: For private, non-commercial users, the site license (use by an unlimited number of persons at a site) has been replaced by a single-user-multi-machine license (use by a single person on all her own computers). There are no changes for non-private users.
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