I recently stumbled over a Property List Editor on the Mac AppStore that I had not seen before.
My favorite graphical property list editor so far is PlistEdit Pro from FatCat Software. True to its name, PlistEdit Pro has a few nice “pro” features that PLIST Editor lacks: Preference Browsing, Browser windows, AppleScript, Plist Structure definitions
However, PLIST Editor comes in at a much lower price point (US$3.99 on the Mac AppStore). Its feature set covers all the necessities. It can open property list files with file extensions other than .plist (for those pkginfo or recipe files you want to edit) and supports drag and drop and undo and even the macOS versioning system.
PLIST Editor can open and save XML and binary property lists and can open legacy ASCII/Openstep property lists. To convert from binary to XML or vice versa you have to duplicate a file.
It does not have a command line tool to quickly open a property list file from Terminal. This is a limitation imposed by being on the AppStore. However, you can use the open command:
$ open -a 'PLIST Editor' sample.plistYou can add an alias to your shell profile to simplify this:
alias plistedit='open -a "PLIST Editor"'Overall it seems like a useful tool that serves its purpose well. It is being actively updated. So, go and check it out!
How to use this app to open plists files and edit them without having to duplicate them first. I took you advice and purchased it from the AppStore but it makes you want to duplicate the file before editing.
This makes the file cause twice as much work to have to save it to the HD somewhere and then switch it out to the original files, Is there a sudo command that will by-pass this dup request?
Dave, I cannot reproduce your problems with this app, I can open and edit plist files without needing to duplicate them. I would check if you have read and write access to the plist files in question.