Hidden Preferences
From SkimWiki
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Hidden Preferences
Skim has a few advanced preferences that are not accessible through the UI. You can set these from the command line in Terminal.app (which can be found in the folder /Applications/Utilities). To change these preferences, make sure you quit Skim, open Terminal.app, type the defaults command with the appropriate arguments, and hit Enter. Typically, the command and arguments look like below, with the angles replaced by the appropriate value.
defaults write -app Skim <Key> -<type> <value>
If this fails with the message "Couldn't find an application named "Skim"; defaults unchanged", you can use
defaults write net.sourceforge.skim-app.skim <Key> -<type> <value>
To reset a preference to the default, you can use
defaults delete -app Skim <Key>
For example, if you want to activate full screen navigation buttons everywhere on the screen rather than just at the bottom, you type:
defaults write -app Skim SKActivateFullScreenNavigationAtBottom -boolean false
Booleans also accept values like -boolean yes and -boolean 1. Usually you can leave out -<type>, but for booleans you then need to use the values 0 or 1. Type man defaults in Terminal.app for more information.
The hidden preferences are as follows:
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Default Note Properties
- Key
- SKAnchoredNoteIconType
- Values
- -integer, 0=comment, 1=key, 2=note, 3=help, 4=new paragraph, 5=paragraph, 6=insert
- Explanation
- The icon type used for new anchored notes.
- Key
- SKDefaultNoteWidth, SKDefaultNoteHeight
- Values
- -float, a positive number
- Explanation
- The default width and height of new note when no size is provided.
- Key
- SKDefaultFreeTextNoteContents, SKDefaultAnchoredNoteContents
- Values
- -string
- Explanation
- The default text to use for new text or anchored notes when they're not based on a selection.
- Key
- SKFreeTextNoteFontColor
- Values
- -data (archived NSColor)
- Explanation
- The default color to use for the font of new text notes.
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Notes Behavior
- Key
- SKDisableUpdateContentsFromEnclosedText
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If this is false, moving or resizing a circle or box note will automatically synchronize their contents with the enclosed text.
- Key
- SKKeepNoteWindowsOnTop
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If this is true, the windows for anchored notes will float on top of the main window by default. This can be changed for individual note windows using the check button at the bottom.
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Full Screen Behavior
- Key
- SKActivateFullScreenNavigationAtBottom, SKActivatePresentationNavigationAtBottom
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, you need to move the mouse to the bottom of the page to show the navigation buttons in full screen or presentation mode. If false, the navigation buttons show whenever the mouse moves.
- Key
- SKBlankAllScreensInFullScreen
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, all screens other than the screen showing Skim will be blanked out in full screen mode.
- Key
- SKAutoHidePresentationContents
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, the contents pane in presentation mode (called through 'p' or Shift-Cmd-T) automatically hides when you make a selection.
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Apple Remote Behavior
- Key
- SKEnableAppleRemote
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, you can use the Apple Remote to control Skim.
- Key
- SKEnableKeyspanFrontRowControl
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, you can use the Keyspan Frontrow remote control to control Skim.
- Key
- SKEnableKeyboardRemoteSimulation
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- If true, you can use keyboard shortcuts to simulate the remote control. The default shortcuts are Shift-Ctr-Cmd-F1 up to Shift-Ctr-Cmd-F6. Those can be changed through hidden defaults like mac.remotecontrols.GlobalKeyboardDevice.plus_keycode and mac.remotecontrols.GlobalKeyboardDevice.plus_modifiers.
- Key
- SKAppleRemoteSwitchIndicationTimeout
- Values
- -float, a non-negative number
- Explanation
- The timeout for the little splash window that appears when you hit the Menu button on the Apple Remote. Set it to zero if you don't want it to appear.
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Automatically Open a .skim File
- Key
- SKReadMissingNotesFromSkimFileOption
- Values
- -integer, 1=always, 0=never, -1=ask
- Explanation
- When a PDF file does not have notes, but there is a separate .skim file with the same name as the PDF, Skim can automatically read the notes from that Skim file. By default it shows a dialog for confirmation, but you can also force to always or never read the notes from the .skim file without asking.
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Set Creator Code On Saved Files
- Key
- SKShouldSetCreatorCode
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- When Skim sets its creator code on a PDF file it saves, that file will open by default in Skim rather than your system default for PDF files, unless you override this on the file itself. Skim may only set its creator code for files saved as PDF, Skim Notes, or PDF Bundle.
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Autosave Interval
- Key
- SKAutosaveInterval
- Values
- -float, a non-negative number
- Explanation
- The interval for which documents autosave a backup. Use 0 for no autosave.
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Auto Crop Margin
- Key
- SKAutoCropBoxMarginWidth, SKAutoCropBoxMarginHeight
- Values
- -float, a non-negative number
- Explanation
- The horizontal and vertical margin around the page contents used to automatically determine the crop size, used for the Auto Crop functions and for the Crop functions when there is no selection.
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Magnification Glass Size
- Key
- SKSmallMagnificationWidth, SKSmallMagnificationHeight
- Values
- -float, a non-negative number
- Explanation
- The width and height of the small magnification glass used for the Magnify Tool. This is used when you click once.
- Key
- SKLargeMagnificationWidth, SKLargeMagnificationHeight
- Values
- -float, a non-negative number
- Explanation
- The width and height of the large magnification glass used for the Magnify Tool. This is used when you click twice or hold the hold the Option key.
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Preview Tool Tip Size
- Key
- SKToolTipWidth, SKToolTipHeight
- Values
- -float, a positive number
- Explanation
- The width and height of the preview tool tip, used over internal links.
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Search Highlight
- Key
- SKDisableAnimatedSearchHighlight
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- Set this to true to disable the animated flashing search highlighting on Leopard.
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Page History
- Key
- SKMaximumDocumentPageHistoryCount
- Values
- -integer, a non-negative integer
- Explanation
- The maximum number of recent documents that are remembered for reopening documents at a previous page.
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Opening DVI Files
- Key
- SKDviConversionCommand
- Values
- -string, dvips, dvipdf, dvipdfm, dvipdfmx, or the full path to any of these tools
- Explanation
- When Skim opens DVI files it needs a tool to convert the DVI to PDF. Skim looks in several standard locations for the tool. This option lets you choose another conversion tool than the default dvips, or tell Skim the precise path to the tool to use.
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Drawers
- Key
- SKUsesDrawers
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- When this is true, Skim uses drawers instead of panes in normal window mode.
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Auto Reload
- Key
- SKAutoReloadFileUpdate
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- When this is true, and Skim checks for file updates on disk, the document is automatically reloaded without asking when there are no notes or edits. We don't recommend using this.
- Key
- SKDisableReloadAlert
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- When this is true, and Skim does not show the progress bar and does not bounce the icon when a document reloads. This can lead to crashes, so we don't recommend using this.
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Reading Bar
- Key
- SKMoveReadingBarModifiers, SKResizeReadingBarModifiers
- Values
- -integer, a modifier mask
- Explanation
- A mask for the modifiers of the keyboard shortcuts (using arrow keys) for moving and resizing the reading bar. The basic modifiers are Shift=131072, Control=262144, Option=524288, Command=1048576, and can be added for modifier combinations. The default values are Option and Shift+Option respectively.
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Split PDF
- Key
- SKSplitPDFCopiesZoom
- Values
- -boolean, true or false
- Explanation
- When this is true, the split PDF view at the bottom will try and match the scale factor of the main PDF view at the top initially, rather than auto-zooming. This match may not be exact, as the PDF view at the bottom has a discrete set of zoom factors.
