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Hide TextEdit's ruler by default
Authored by: fferitt25 on Aug 13, '13 10:03:51AM

As the other commentors have pointed out - going to the PREFS and unchecking "Show Ruler" does in fact disable the Ruler from being shown when opening a New Blank Document (RTF or Plain format).

So Yes - no need to force the OS by using Terminal for this.

Also of note - 10.6.8 version of TextEdit hid the Text Styles buttons and options (Underline - Spacing - Font etc...)

While the 10.8.x version of TextEdit does not. Even with the Rulers hidden the Formating options remain.

There may be some magical Defaults Write command to hide that as well in RTF mode - but I personally am in Plain text mode 99% of the time anyway so I don't ever see it.

Too many people on this Site in recent years tend to goto the Terminal for very basic things that don't require the Command Line. This is a good example.



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Hide TextEdit's ruler by default
Authored by: keirthomas on Aug 13, '13 01:03:15PM

I think you underestimate the amount of work involved in "going to the Terminal". Some of the people who come up with those tips are the knights of the OS X hacks scene!

I've no idea how this guy found this "defaults write" hack but there are two ways of doing so that are known right now: (1) examining the app's prefs file, or (2) using GNU debugger to examine the app while it's running (as described by Arctic Mac (http://arcticmac.home.comcast.net/~arcticmac/tutorials/gdbFindingPrefs.html)).

This was shown quite nicely a year or two ago when people got annoyed at bouncing scrolling in certain apps (i.e. scroll too far and it stretches). People used these techniques to find a solution and, trust me, it takes quite a bit of effort and dedication. It's not trivial.

What sometimes happens, though, is that somebody turns up what seems like a great "defaults write" hack but doesn't realise it's actually a legitimate option offered in the preferences dialog box. That's what happened here. I've done it myself quite a few times when writing my book (I spotted them before publication) but it's inanely annoying.

So spare a little thought for these guys. They're not doing things dogmatically by the terminal because it gives them a kick. They're exploring and finding new capabilities and solutions within software.

Sadly, however, there aren't as many of these guys around as there used to be -- perhaps because it is so hard to do.

---
Author of Mac Kung Fu
Over 400 tips, tricks, hints and hacks for OS X
My tips blog: http://mackungfu.org



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