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There are a few settings in DEVONthink not available through the application Settings. Most of them are intended to facilitate customer support but they might be interesting for you as well.
Note: These hidden preferences could be changed or removed with any update.
How to use the hidden preferences You can toggle or set values for hidden preferences using the `defaults` command in the Terminal application or clicking the special ON and OFF links for the desired setting. When setting these preferences via the Terminal, DEVONthink should not not be running or the changes may not be preserved when quitting. To set a preference using the Terminal, noting the commands are case-sensitive, they are written like this (excluding the parentheses): `defaults write com.devon-technologies.think (the preference name) (the preference type) (the value)`. For example, the following command enables the `` preference by setting a `-bool` (boolean type) to `TRUE`:
Terminal: `$ defaults write com.devon-technologies.think ShouldScaleAttachedImages -bool TRUE`
Some hidden preferences require you to specify a numeric value, e.g., CounterDigits. These types of preferences also need to be set via a Terminal command. Use the `-int` (integer) type before specifying the number, like so:
Terminal: `$ defaults write com.devon-technologies.think CounterDigits -int 3`
Other preferences use a `-string` type. For example, there is a preference to allow DEVONthink to detect other plain text formats as plain text, `AdditionalPlainTextExtensions`. As this command replaces the existing list of additional plain text extensions, we recommend that you first read the current list (empty by default) before adding your own to them.
Terminal: `$ defaults read com.devon-technologies.think AdditionalPlainTextExtensions` `2014-07-31 08:25:27.101 defaults[21950:3312262] The domain/default pair of (/Users/eb/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.think AdditionalPlainTextExtensions) does not exist` `# This "error" shows there are no additional formats specified.` `$ defaults write com.devon-technologies.think AdditionalPlainTextExtensions -string .otl.todotxt` `$ defaults read com.devon-technologies.think AdditionalPlainTextExtensions` `.otl.todotxt`
Available hidden preferences keys Here is a list of the available hidden preferences. Each one includes a description, its data type, and an example value: AdditionalPlainTextExtensions: Adds additional plain text extensions, separated by dots. In Terminal: `-string .dxf.nc` . AVSkippingInterval: Specify the numbers of seconds to skip forward or backward when using the right and left arrow keys with Shift held in audio/video files. The default is 15 seconds. In Terminal: `-int 5`. AdditionalXMLExtensions: Adds additional XML file name extensions, separated by dots. In Terminal: `-string .mathml` . BatesNumberDigits: Specifies the number of digits used for the Bates Numbering via the placeholder or scripting. In Terminal: `-int 4`. CounterDigits: Specifies the number of digits used for the Counter placeholder. In Terminal: `-int 5`. DatePlaceholdersWithoutLeadingZeros: Disables date and time placeholders from using prefixing zeros. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off. DisableActivityWindow: Disables automatically showing/hiding of the Activity window. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off DisableAutomaticUpdatingOfIndexedItems: Disables automatic updating of indexed items. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisableBadgeLabel: Disable the badge label on DEVONthink's Dock icon. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisableFileSystemEvents: DEVONthink no longer listens to file system events. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisableFileCoordination: DEVONthink no longer uses file coordination, registering its interest in certain files and waiting for replies. This can cause very long delays if the coordinating process isn't responding quickly. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off DisableHighlightColorMapping: Uses the same colors when highlighting documents in dark and light mode. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisablePDFDarkMode: Disables the dark mode appearance for PDF documents. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisablePDFValidation: Disables validating PDFs created by merging, converting, or clipping. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DisablePreprocessedClipping: Disable additional processing of a web page's content before sending the clipped file to DEVONthink. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off DisableRelativeDates: Disable displaying relative dates, e.g., "Today" in the item list. This will instead always show absolute dates, e.g., "2023.02.14". In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off DisableTagAutocompletion: Disable displaying the popup of tag suggestions when entering tags, e.g., in the Tags bar. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DontAutomaticallyEnableOperatorsOptions: After a toolbar search, disables automatically enabling the Operators & Wildcards option in the Search inspector. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off DontSetFindPboard: Disable using macOS' shared pasteboard, avoiding search terms from being automatically used in other applications. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off EnableApplicationFiles: Applications can be imported/indexed. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off EnableFSEventLogging: Enables logging of filesystem events when requested by our support team. This setting should not be needed for general use. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off EnableEvernoteRTFDImport: Enable this to import notes from Evernote notebooks as rich text files. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off EnableSearchFieldAutocompletion: Enable this to have DEVONthink attempt to complete search strings as you type them in the toolbar search field. Note this option only works when the search options Live while typing and Partial matches while typing are disabled. (Read more...) In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off ForceEditablePDFs: Some PDFs contain objects that are problematic for Apple's PDFKit. DEVONthink opens these files in a read-only state. Enable this option to disable this behavior and open all PDFs as editable. Note: This does not eliminate the potential for problems with certain PDFs. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off IndexRawMarkdownSource: Index the source code of Markdown files instead of the rendered content only. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off MaximumNumberOfRecentDestinations: Specify the number of recent destinations shown in the Recent Destinations section of the context and popup menus, e.g., in the Move To popover. The default value is `10`. In Terminal: `-int 15` MaximumNumberOfRecentSearches: Specify the number of recent searches available in the toolbar search field or the Search inspector. The default value is `10`. In Terminal: `-int 15`. MonospacedSidebarFont: Use a monospaced system font in the sidebars of main windows. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off MonospacedViewFont: Use a monospaced system font in the item list of main windows. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off PersistentSortingOfSearchResults: Retains the last sort method used in database search results. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off PlainTextIsMarkdown: Treat all plain text files as markdown. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off RawMarkdownPasting: When pasting rich content into a Markdown file, the formatting is converted to Markdown. Enable this to ignore formatting and paste as raw plain text. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off RawOPMLImport: Imports `.opml` files as native files instead of parsing and creating groups, feeds, etc. from them. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off RichNotesWithoutAttachments: Services create RTF instead of RTFD. In Terminal: `-bool FALSE` or choose: On | Off ShowAdditionalInfoInPathBar: Shows some details about the selected item in the Information Bar. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off SyncDebugLog: Enable additional sync logging for debugging. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off WindowToolbarStyleExpanded: Enable the expanded toolbar style on macOS Big Sur. This shows the title bar above the toolbar instead of the new unified default style. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off WindowToolbarTitleHidden: Disables showing the window title in main windows. Note this only works if the `WindowToolbarExpanded` hidden preference is not used. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off SERVER ServerDebugLog: Enable additional logging for debugging DEVONthink's webserver. In Terminal: `-bool TRUE` or choose: On | Off