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System preferences

Dock, keyboard, trackpad, mouse, screenshots and the computer's name, one line each.

What you’d otherwise click through in System Settings is a line in config/:

# config/dock.conf
dock visibility hidden

# config/trackpad.conf
trackpad tap-to-click true
trackpad three-finger-drag true
Setting Values
dock visibility always, autohide, hidden
keyboard repeat-rate a number; lower is faster (System Settings stops at 2)
keyboard repeat-delay a number; lower is shorter (System Settings stops at 15)
keyboard press-and-hold true: holding a letter shows its accents; false: it repeats
trackpad speed 0.0–3.0
trackpad tap-to-click true, false
trackpad three-finger-drag true, false; moves three-finger swipes to four fingers
mouse speed 0.0–3.0
mouse secondary-click right, left, off
mouse natural-scrolling true, false; macOS applies it to the trackpad too
screenshot save-to clipboard, desktop (macOS’s default), preview
system hostname letters, digits and hyphens; from $hostname in dot.toml

dot explain <topic> prints each one with its values, and the settings reference has them all.

Good to know

  • Some changes need a new session. Keyboard and trackpad changes take effect after you log out and back in; apply says so when it applies one.
  • Some need your password. system hostname sets all three of macOS’s names for the computer, which needs sudo; check shows it as (sudo) and apply asks.
  • Accents on a US keyboard. With keyboard press-and-hold true, holding a letter shows its accents. In any app, including the terminal, ⌥ e then a vowel gives á é í ó ú, and ⌥ n then n gives ñ.

A preference dot doesn’t have

Add it as a setting of your own: Add a setting.

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