WPrefs.app is the Window Maker preferences editor. Through a graphical
interface, it enables users to edit nearly every aspect of the Window Maker
look and feel. In addition, it can control certain aspects of other external
programs, such as the xset utility which is included with X Windows.
The GUI is modeled after the NEXTSTEP[tm]
Preferences utility, and is very straightforward and intuitive to use.
Using the screenshot above as a reference, one can see a row of horizontal
icons. Within WPrefs.app, clicking a particular icon will display a screen
containing a subset of options. Currently, there are thirteen sections which
affect the following:
- Keyboard focus switching policy, colormap switching policy for
input/mouse focus and 8bpp displays, and other related options
- Window handling options like initial window placement style, edge
resistance, opaque move, etc.
- Various menu related options, such as scrolling speed and alignment
of submenus
- Icon/Miniwindow options, including icon position area, size of
icons, and miniaturization animation style
- Miscellaneous options like window resize line display position,
workspace border width and position, toggles for balloon text
display, and keyboard focus/language switches
- Icon and Pixmap search paths
- Workspace navigation features, such as wrapping around to first
workspace upon reaching the last, switch workspaces while dragging
windows, automatic creation of new workspaces, and disable/enable of
the dock and clip
- Animation speeds for icon sliding and window shading, titlebar
styles, auto-smoothing of background images, toggles to
enable/disable animitations and superfluous related items, and
dithering options for 8bpp displays
- Menu editor, allowing
extensive real-time display/editing of all menu items
- Keyboard shortcut mapping/editing for a number of events
- Mouse speed/acceleration, double-click delay, mouse button bindings,
etc.
- Background texture/color/font configuration for windows, menus, and
icons
- Other miscellaneous advanced options like saving session on exit and
the disabling of miniwindows and confirmation panels
In summary, WPrefs.app is an extremely powerful application that completely
eliminates the need for users to hand edit text-based configuration files.
The biggest advantage WPrefs.app and Window Maker provide over other window
managers is the ability to apply many of the changes on-the-fly, preventing
users from having to restart the window manager before changes take effect.
WPrefs.app can be launched by right clicking on the desktop to bring up the
main menu, and then selecting Appearance -> Preferences Utility (or by
clicking the WPrefs appicon on the Dock). WPrefs.app has been included in
the Window Maker distribution since version 0.18.0, and is updated as
necessary to correspond with options in the latest release.
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