Prefs Editor For Mac

With the launch of the 10.8 operating system, it is not longer possible to change the .plist files in the default Library > Preferences folder. Prefs Editor is a free property list editor designed to provide a simpler alternative to quickly modify preference values on OS X Mountain Lion and up.

In other words, the new caching system for app preferences, called “cfprefsd”, makes it harder to change values in the plist file in Xcode’s plist editor or other similar tools. The way around this is to use the “defaults” command, but this is quite time consuming.

Prefs Editor works exactly like Xcode’s preference editing tool, but which also allows you to manipulate values using the CFPreferences function instead of directly editing the properties file. It also supports copy / paste and even deleting all entries simultaneously using a “Select All” option.

However, Prefs Editor is not as complex as Apple's Xcode integrated development environment, and it does not allow for changing the type of existing elements and for moving elements into different rows.

Despite that, the Prefs Editor app does come with the ability to automatically save any modification as soon as it is made. You can insert new Dictionary, Array, String, Number, Boolean, Date and Data elements to your properties list. Once you have made your changes you can use the Sync option from the File menu or via CMD + S.

Taking everything into consideration, Prefs Editor is a reliable application preferences editor designed to help you to effortlessly modify preference values in .plist files for faster testing.

It brings back the ability to directly make changes to property files without having to rely on the not-so-speedy Xcode IDE just for editing a couple of preference files.