Tweak your settings with TinkerTool

TinkerTool (bresink.com) is a long-standing app for tinkering with various system settings. It’s a smart tool to have in your Applications folder, because it enables you to adjust far more options for Finder, the Dock and the desktop than are available in System Preferences. TinkerTool offers a graphical interface for many of the defaults commands you would otherwise have to type into Terminal, making it a much less intimidating way to fine-tune OS X. 1 You can show hidden files using the Finder options in TinkerTool. But we like many other options found here, such as the ability to add a Quit item to the Finder menu, and restrict access to features such as Connect to Server, Eject, and Go to Folder. Handy if you want to create a foolproof system. 2 One item to look out for is ‘Use transparent icons for hidden applications’. When enabled, the Dock icon for any app that’s hidden will become transparent. Also, the Launchpad options make that feature much faster to use. Click Relaunch Dock to put these into effect. 3 Under General are options to adjust the format of screenshots, and where they are saved. ‘Prefer expanded Save dialogs when using new applications’ makes apps display the expanded dialog when you choose Save As. These become active next time you log in. 4 Developers will appreciate the debug and diagnostic menus that can be enabled for various apps. Quit each app, check the box for the menu you want to enable, log out and in again, and then reopen the app. 5 You can adjust the fonts and their sizes for various parts of OS X’s interface. Click Change and choose a new font for apps. This only affects the native apps, but it’s a neat way to adjust a lot of the interface. 6 The Reset option provides two options: ‘Reset to pre-TinkerTool state’ and ‘Reset to defaults’. The latter is useful if you have adjusted things using Terminal commands and want to reset OS X to its default state.