window-maker.github.io/docs/guidedtour/prefs.html

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title: Guided Tour - Prefs
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<h1>
<center>Preferences</center>
</h1>

<p>
</p>

<center><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" src="images/wprefs.jpg" alt="Amanda by Agnieszka Czajkowska"></center>

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">WPrefs.app</h2>
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<p>WPrefs.app is the heart of the configuration process in Window Maker.</p>

<p>Upon installing Window Maker and running it for the first time, the
WPrefs icon is already docked. By default, it's the one with the
GNUstep logo in the background and a few tools in the foreground
(although your distibution may use the plain GNUstep icon or something
enitrely different). Normally Linux distributions position WPrefs as
the second or third icon in the
Dock column by default, just above or below the terminal icon. <br>
</p>

<center>
<p><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" alt="GNUstep Logo with Tools" src="images/wmakerconf.png" align="middle" hspace="20"><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" alt="GNUstep Logo" src="images/gnustep_64.png" align="middle" hspace="20"><br>
</p>
</center>

<p>Double-clicking on this icon opens the WPrefs.app window.
Across the top of the window there is a row of icons, each one
corresponding to a group of settings options. There is a checkbox for
balloon help on the bottom left of the WPrefs.app window. Most of the
following is taken directly from the content of the ballon help dialogs.</p>

<h2>Available preference settings</h2>

<ul>

  <li><a href="#wplace">Window handling</a></li>
  <li><a href="#switch">Window Focus</a></li>
  <li><a href="#menu">Menu</a></li>
  <li><a href="#icon">Icon</a></li>
  <li><a href="#ergo">Ergonomy</a></li>
  <li><a href="#search">Search path</a></li>
  <li><a href="#worksp">Workspace</a></li>
  <li><a href="#other">Other</a></li>
  <li><a href="#appmenu">Applications menu</a></li>
  <li><a href="#keyb">Keyboard shortcut</a></li>
  <li><a href="#mouse">Mouse</a></li>
  <li><a href="#appear">Appearance</a></li>
  <li><a href="#exp">Expert user</a></li>
  <li><a href="#font">Font configuration</a></li>
  <li><a href="#edit">Editing the configuration file</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="whand">Window handling</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 519px; height: 414px;" alt="WPrefs.app window handling preferences" src="images/prefs1.png"></center>

<br>

Clicking the second icon allows you to select the window handling
options. Clicking on this icon opens a panel allowing you to define the
default placement and properties of windows in the workspace.
<ul>

  <li>
    <p><em>Window placement</em><br>
You can use the sliders around the screen representation to modify the
original placement.
The gadget tells Window Maker how to order windows on the screen: <span style="font-style: italic;">Random</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Manual</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Cascade</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Smart</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">Automatic</span> is the default.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Edge resistance</em><br>
To set the edge resistance and whether it resists or attracts windows.
According to the selection, windows resist or attract when moved
against other windows or the edges of the screen. The slider defines
the threshold. Some applications' title bars may disappear
at the top of the screen, with the window being too high for the screen
area. Setting the edge
resistance to "0" may solve this problem.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Open dialogs in the same workspace as their owners</em><br>
Obviously, whether to force dialog boxes "spawned" by an application to
open in same workspace as their owners.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Opaque move/resize</em><br>
Clicking on <span style="font-style: italic;">opaque move</span>
causes windows to be moved with their contents visible. If not checked,
only the frame is displayed during the move. <span style="font-style: italic;">Opaque resize</span> makes window contents
visible during resizing, otherwise only the frame is displayed.<br>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>When maximizing</em><br>
This option allows the window to cover (or not) icons or the dock when
maximizing. </p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="switch">Window focus</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 519px; height: 411px;" alt="WPrefs.app window focus controls" src="images/prefs2.png"></center>

<br>

The first icon from the left-hand side controls the way windows get
their focus (how they are activated).
<ul>

  <li>
    <p><em>Input focus mode</em> (two choices are available): <br>
    <strong>Manual</strong> - click on the window to set keyboard input
focus.<br>
    <strong>Auto</strong> - set keyboard input focus to the window
under the mouse pointer.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Install colormap in the window</em><br>
Select either (a) install the colormap in the window that has the input
focus or (b) that is under the mouse pointer.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Automatic window raise delay</em><br>
Setting the delay (in msec) for automatic window raising</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Checkboxes</em><br>
The topmost check box prevents applications from receiving the focusing
mouse-click (I don't know why you would use this, but some people
obviously find it useful).&nbsp;
The bottom checkbox allows you to choose whether newly-opened
application windows automatically receive the focus, or must be clicked
to gain focus. </p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="menu">Menu</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 519px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app menu preferences" src="images/prefs3.png"></center>

<br>

This panel allows you to set menu scrolling speed and submenu
alignment with the parent menu. In addition, two checkboxes are
provided:
<ul>

  <li>The topmost box forces submenus to open inside the screen instead
of scrolling&nbsp; when they would otherwise be off-screen.<br>
  </li>
  <li>The middle box allows submenus to open off-screen, but causes
off-screen menus to scroll when the mouse pointer is
moved over them. This setting is also of value if you "tear off" a menu
and leave it positioned on the desktop. In that case, you might wish to
"park" the menu off-screen (with only the titlebar showing, for
example) and have it reappear when you mouse over it. This is
convenient in some workflows, as when you have multiple applications
open and you are using the window list menu to switch between
applications.</li>
  <li>The bottom box allows you to assign EMACS-like keybindings for
the selection of menu items.<br>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="icon">Icon</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 516px; height: 410px;" alt="WPrefs.app icon preferences" src="images/prefs4.png"></center>

<br>

<br>

<p>Set icon or miniwindow handling options.<br>
</p>

<ul>

  <li><em>Icon positioning</em><br>
This area defines the initial placement of miniwindows or icons will be
displayed: <span style="font-style: italic;">bottom, top, right, left</span>...<br>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Checkboxes</em><br>
The topmost box enables/disables auto-arrangement of icons.&nbsp; The
bottom box places miniwindows for opened applications on all existing
workspaces (<span style="font-style: italic;">omnipresent</span>).</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Iconification animation</em><br>
When an application's window is miniaturized, <span style="font-style: italic;">miniaturization animation style</span>
offers four animation choices.</p>
  </li>
  <ul>
    <li>Shrinking/Zooming,<br>
    </li>
    <li>Spinning/Twisting,<br>
    </li>
    <li>3D Flipping, or<br>
    </li>
    <li>None </li>
  </ul>
  <li>
    <p><em>Icon size</em><br>
Selects the size of the icons shown when a window is miniaturized and
for application icons. Dockapp developers usually assume that tiles
will be 64x64 pixels, so it's
probably a good idea to leave it at that size, unless you know you
won't be using dockapps.</p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="ergo">Ergonomy</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 518px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app ergonomic settings" src="images/prefs5.png"></center>

<br>

Various types of information are defined in this panel.
<ul>

  <li>
    <p><em>Size display</em> <br>
Window Maker provides a box that informs you about the size of a window
during resizing. You may choose to have this display (a) in the center
of the screen, (b) the center of the screen, (c) the center of the
resized window, (d) the side and bottom of the window as a technical
drawing-like size display or (e) not at all.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Position display</em><br>
Same information as above but regarding the screen placement of a
window while moving (no technical drawing-like option).<br>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Workspace border</em><br>
You can set a small border for the workspace. This allows you to easily
access the clip (for instance) when windows are maximized.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Show balloon text for</em><br>
Selecting
checkboxes displays balloon text for: incomplete window
titles, miniwindow titles, application and dock icons, or internal
help. This may be useful for new users but many people find having help
balloons pop out all over the desktop gets annoying quickly. I use the <span style="font-style: italic;">incomplete window title</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">miniwindow title</span> options and none
of the others.<br>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Checkbox</em><br>
The top check bos, if selected, raises a window when switching focus
with the keyboard. The bottom box enables a keyboard language selection
button on window titlebars (must have multiple keyboard maps/locales
defined - this is handy if you are working in multiple languages in
applications such as word processors, for example).<br>
    </p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="search">Search Path</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 521px; height: 408px;" alt="WPrefs.app icon and pixmap search path settings" src="images/prefs6.png"></center>

<br>

This panel is used to add or delete directory paths to search for
icons and pixmaps. These paths are used in the <span style="font-style: italic;">settings</span>
dialogs for dockapps and docked application icons, so having a good,
complete set of defined paths is important.&nbsp; This may require some
manual intervention, especially upon initial setup, since some default
paths will not be present on your system, while others not predefined
will be present.&nbsp; Use the <span style="font-style: italic;">add</span>
and <span style="font-style: italic;">remove</span> dialogs to
configure according to what is actually available.<br>

<h2><a id="worksp">Workspace</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 520px; height: 410px;" alt="WPrefs.app workspace preference settings" src="images/prefs7.png"></center>

<br>

This panel defines navigation features within the workspace.
<ul>

  <li>
    <p><em>Workspace navigation</em><br>
Selecting the first
checkbox allows switching to the first workspace when
switching past the last workspace and vice-versa. Selecting the second
checkbox allows windows to be dragged from one workspace to another.
Selecting the third checkbox
cause a new workspace to be created when windows are dragged off the
last existing workspace. A selection menu allows you to define where
the workspace name&nbsp; is displayed each time you move from one
workspace to another (or not to display the workspace name at all).</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Dock and clip</em><br>
Enables / disables the dock and/or the clip. I have seen some
interesting configurations using no dock but having the clip present.
For users who prefer a bottom or top "panel" of application launchers,
system monitors and other tools, this is a very valuable bit of
flexibility.<br>
    </p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="other">Other</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 516px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app other workspace configuration settings" src="images/prefs8.png"></center>

<br>

<br>

<p>This panel sets icon slide speed, shade animation speed, smooth
scaling and titlebar control (button) style. Animations and sound are
also defined here.</p>

<ul>

  <li>
    <p><em>Icon slide speed</em><br>
Selecting the left icon gives the slowest result, selecting the right
one gives the fastest.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Shade animation speed</em><br>
Same as icon slide</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Smooth scaling</em><br>
If selected, neutralizes pixelization effect on background images. The
side-effect is to slow down background image loading.</p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Titlebar style</em><br>
To choose a more or less "NeXTish" titlebar. (The top version is
"newer," while the bottom left is ca. 1990 and the bottom right is ca.
1988.)<br>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Animations</em><br>
Selecting the animations icon enables animations for window
miniaturization, shading and so on.<br>
Selecting
the superfluous icon enables "ghosting" of dock (when moved -
especially when moved from one side of the screen to the other) and
explosion
animation for icons you remove from the dock.<br>
    </p>
  </li>
  <li>
    <p><em>Dithering colormap for 8bpp</em><br>
For 8-bit displays (anyone still have one of these?) this enables
dithering and changes the number of colors to reserve either for
applications or for Window Maker. The Default setting almost always
gives the best result.</p>
  </li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="appmenu">Applications menu</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 517px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app application menu configuration" src="images/prefs9.png"></center>

<br>

<br>

<p>In this panel the applications menu and the commands to launch each
application can be defined. This panel has been changed in version
0.63.and later. It now displays the actual menu thus allowing direct
editing. This can be done only if the menu is in property list format.
Menus in plain text format can't be edited in WPrefs. Check the README
file in the Window Maker directory on how to use one or the other.</p>

<h2><a id="keyb">Keyboard shortcut</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 518px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app keyboard shortcut settings" src="images/prefs10.png"></center>

<br>

Many actions in Window Maker have predefined keyboard shortcuts.
These actions mainly concern windows and workspaces.
Modifying, adding or removing shortcuts can be done in this panel.
Defining a shortcut can be done interactively, capturing the key
combination.
<h2><a id="mouse">Mouse</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 520px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app mouse configuration" src="images/prefs11.png"></center>

<br>

This panel sets the mouse speed and double-click delay.
Mouse button bindings can be defined and can be disabled or enabled.
<p>The default setting binds the right mouse button to the applications
menu, middle button to the window list menu and left button to window
selection (focus). Of course, with a two button mouse, the middle
button binding will not work. However, on some OSes pressing both
buttons at once gives the same result as the one obtained with middle
button.</p>

<p>Starting from version 0.65 on, the mouse wheel can be used to switch
workspaces. This is not default behavior and must be enabled here.</p>

<p>The mouse grab modifier represents the keyboard shortcut to use for
actions like dragging windows with the mouse or clicking inside the
window. Mod1 (Alt) is the default.</p>

<h2><a id="appear">Appearance</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 520px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app appearance settings" src="images/prefs12.png"></center>

<br>

In this panel, everything related to the appearance of the GUI (except
the background color or image) can
be configured. Windows, menus and icons can have their own background
"texture," meaning color gradients of various types can be configured
here. Texture, color, menu style, and title alignment can be fully
customized.
<h2><a id="exp">Expert user</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 519px; height: 411px;" alt="WPrefs.app expert user settings" src="images/prefs13.png"></center>

<br>

Using this panel implies some knowledge. Many options are available.
Among these are:
<ul>

  <li>Disabling miniwindows (useful when using with KDE and GNOME)</li>
  <li>Using (or not) xset</li>
  <li>Saving session on exit (highly recommended!)</li>
  <li>Using SaveUnder in different objects</li>
  <li>Using Win style cycling (added from version 0.63.0)</li>
  <li>Disabling confirmation panel for the kill command</li>
  <li>Disabling cycling colors highlighting of icons</li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="font">Font configuration</a></h2>

<center><img style="width: 517px; height: 411px;" alt="Wprefs.app font configuration options" src="images/prefs14.png"></center>

<br>

This panel allows you to configure fonts for the window and menu
titlebars, for the menu body text, and for the icon and clip
text.&nbsp; In addition, a font may be defined for desktop messages.<br>

<h2><a id="edit">Editing the configuration file</a></h2>

<p>If needed, the defaults configuration file found in
$(HOME)/GNUstep/Defaults/WindowMaker can be edited by hand. This file
is a database with a property list syntax. When selecting an option in
WPrefs.app, it's written down into this file. When modifying this
defaults file, it's very important to follow the syntax.<br>
</p>

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