====== Preferences ======

You can open the "Preferences" dialog using the "//Edit//->//Preferences//" menu item.
There are several tabs within the preferences dialog.

==== General ====

**Date format** is the format which is used when you insert the current date using ''<ctrl>D'' or the //Insert//->//Date and Time// menu item. The format used is documented in the [[man:3:strftime|strftime(3)]] man page.

The **Browser** is the command used to open external links like ''http://'' and ''mailto:'' urls; the **File browser** is the command used to open files on the local system. Both commands can contain a "''%s''" variable which is replaced with the url or file name.

==== Editing ====

The **Follow new link** setting means that when you create a new link using ''<ctrl>L'' the page you link to is immediately opened. If this is turned off ''<ctrl>L'' only turns the selected word into a link but does not open the page, you need to click or press ''<Enter>'' on the link to follow it.

**Use CamelCase** and **Use utf8 entities** are settings to toggle the [[autoformat]] behavior.

==== Plugins ====

The plugins tab allows you to turn plugins on or off. You need to restart zim for these settings to take effect.

For a description of the standard plugins have a look [[plugins|here]].


===== Config file =====
//Warning: this is probably subject to change in future releases//

You can also edit the config file manually. There are some settings that are not shown in the preferences dialog. You need to close **zim** before you can edit the config file. The config file can be found under ''~/.config/zim/''.

Keys that one might change include:

=== default_root (undefined) ===
This option can set a directory to use as repository root when none was given at the command line. If set you can call ''zim'' without arguments.

=== default_home (Home) ===
Default home page. This is used for the "home" button and keybinding.

=== hist_max (20) ===
Maximum number of items on any of the history stacks.

=== undo_max (50) ===
Maximum number of steps in the undo stack.

