Global Settings

This panel, which may be popped up with the Global Settings menu item in the Edit menu or the keyboard accelerator Meta-G, allows the user to change various settings in xfig.

Track mouse in rulers

This option will cause xfig to show triangular pointers in the rulers which indicate where the mouse is pointing on the canvas.
The initial setting can be set by -track / -notrack option or trackCursor resource.

Show depth manager

Display or hide the depth manager panel on the right-side of the xfig window. See Depth Panel for details.

Show page borders

Xfig will draw a border on the canvas showing the size of the current page setting (see Export or Print) if this option is checked.
The initial setting can be set by -showpageborder / -dontshowpageborder option or showpageborder resource.

Show info balloons. delay(ms)

If this option is checked, xfig pops up a "balloon" with information as the mouse passes over buttons or other areas of xfig. E.g.:

The delay tells xfig how long to wait (in milliseconds) after the mouse is positioned on an area before popping up the balloon. The default is 500 ms.
The initial setting of Show info balloon can be set by showballoons resource, and initial setting of Delay (ms) can be set by -balloons_delay option or balloon_delay resource.

Show lengths on lines

If this is checked, xfig will show the lengths of lines as they are being drawn, thus:

This option may also be turned on or off with the -showlength/-dontshowlength command-line option or showlength resource.

Show vertex numbers

If this is checked, xfig will show the number of each vertex of objects on the canvas thus:

For arcs, it also shows the center point. This is probably only useful for debugging of Fig files. This option may also be turned on or off with the -shownums/-dontshownums command-line option or shownums resource.

Allow negative coords

If checked (the default), xfig will allow panning to negative x and y coordinates. This also turns off the query about shifting a figure with negative coordinates when loading a figure.
The initial setting can be set by -allownegcoords / -dontallownegcoords option or allownegcoords resouce.

Draw axis lines

If checked (the default), xfig will draw X and Y axis lines through 0,0 on the canvas
The initial setting can be set by -showaxislines / -dontshowaxislines option or showaxislines resource.

Freehand drawing resolution

When drawing either a polygon or polyline in freehand mode (middle mouse button), xfig uses this resolution to decide when the mouse has moved enough to be considered a new point in the polygon/line. The units are Fig units (1/1200 inch) and the default is 25 (roughly 0.02 inches or 0.53 mm).

Recently used files

This spinner entry lets the user set the number of recently used files that are kept in the File menu. This is also updated in the user's .xfigrc file in the user's home directory, as are the file names themselves.

Max image colors

This sets the maximum number of colors xfig will attempt to use for imported images.
The default is 64 and may also be set with the -max_image_colors command-line option or max_image_colors resource.

Image editor

This is the external program used when the Edit Image button is pressed in the import picture editor. The default is xv . You may use this program to crop/rotate/change colors in etc. your imported image. When you exit from this program xfig will re-import the image.
The initial setting can be set by -image_editor option or image_editor resource.

Spelling checker

This is the external spelling check program which will be called when you use the spell check feature in xfig (Spell Check... in the Edit menu, or Meta-K accelerator).
The default is "spell %f", but it can be changed with -spellcheckcommand option or spellcheckcommand resource. The %f is necessary to tell xfig to insert the filename into the spell command.

HTML Browser

This is the external web (HTML) browser that xfig will call to view help files.
The default is "netscape -remote 'openFile(%f)' || netscape %f", it says to look for a running Netscape and open the pages in that. If none is running, a new one will start. The %f is necessary to tell xfig to insert the filename into the browser command. This can be set by browser resource.

PDF Viewer

This is the external PDF (Portable Document Format) viewer that xfig will call to view the xfig tutorial.
The default is "acroread %f", which will invoke Acrobat Reader. The %f is necessary to tell xfig to insert the filename into the viewer command. This can be set by pdfviewer resource.