How do I open a .plist file?

Question

What's the best application to open and edit a plist file ?

Answer 1

A PList file, like Mankoff said, is just a specially formatted XML file, so you can actually edit and create them in a program like TextEdit.

Because of the specific nature of PLists to Development, however, using a special program like Xcode or Property List Editor becomes a much more fruitful endeavor. This is because it not only automatically formats the XML code for you, but it will actually translate the key identifiers and layers into readable words, and also for some values it will provide a drop-down menu to fill in the correct responses. Especially when dealing with iPhone plists, when multiple runtime variables can be set using the Plist, easily creating new fields and knowing what to put in them makes it so much easier.

You can get bot Xcode and PList Editor from the Apple Developer website http://developer.apple.com for free by downloading the latest Xcode release.

Answer 2

plist files are just XML files, so if you have a favorite XML editor, you should use that. plist can be in a binary format, so first, make sure it is in ASCII format by running the following command at the CLI:

plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

Now you can edit with any ASCII editor.

What is the best application? Depends on who you are and how you work. I prefer emacs, which has an XML mode.

If you have Developer Tools installed, you might want to use:

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Property List Editor.app

Answer 3

A fine program like TextWrangler can edit binary .plist files without first converting them using Terminal. Simply open the file like you would any other (i.e. drag-and-drop on the program icon, or the File open dialog, or Open With in the Finder or...)