Where are gedit's preferences?

Question

This is incredibly weird. I don't see "preferences" in any of my gedit menus. I'm running Version 3.8.3. All I want to do is show line numbers, but I can't do that without preferences.

Where the heck are they hiding?

note: I did remove indicator-appmenus because I dislike having the menus detached from the window.

2015 Update: somehow this is being flagged as a dupe of Enable line numbers in gedit which is a little confusing. The solution is the same but the questions are different.

Does your gEdit have a gear icon in the main window toolbar area? — dobey, Nov 10 '13 at 17:14
iwould ck here as the issue was no preference menu option http://askubuntu.com/questions/364117/enable-line-numbers-in-gedit/364763#364763 — doug, Nov 10 '13 at 18:22
@doug running `gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides '@a{sv} {"Gtk/ShellShowsAppMenu": }'` as described there doesn't do anything for me. — Amanda, Nov 10 '13 at 22:40
What did work was explicitly setting line numbers w/ ` gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor display-line-numbers true ` — Amanda, Nov 10 '13 at 23:28
@user5950 I accepted an answer to this two years ago. I am not even running the same version of gedit anymore. — Amanda, Sep 11 '15 at 22:21

score 51 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 25 '14 at 21:30

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if you are using GNOME 3, you can access the preferences via the top menu.

you should have "activities" on the top left corner of your screen. on the right side of activities, you will have gedit. click on it, and you should see the preferences.

answered Jan 25 '14 at 21:30

Buğra Koç

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I do see preferences, but clicking it doesn't bring up anything. – Irfan Jan 29 '14 at 12:14
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@Power-Inside if you've got a top menu but the "preferences" menu item isn't doing anything, you probably want to start a new question. – Amanda Jan 29 '14 at 13:57
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ew! yet another reason for me not to return to gnome. why move *preferences* to a mac style location?? absurd – jozxyqk Feb 28 '15 at 06:22
It helps me. Thank you! I found a lot of tips for accessing through "edit" menu, however I couldn't find on my Ubuntu GNOME 16.04. I couldn't imagine that it moved onto a global menu. – hata Aug 05 '16 at 15:17
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launching it with sudo the preferences are in the standard three-bar, and not the top bar, and preferences are locked (gedit 3.30 under Arch) – user1708042 Sep 27 '18 at 21:08
@user1708042 You can have `sudo -H gedit` inherit user preferences though: https://askubuntu.com/questions/270006/why-should-users-never-use-normal-sudo-to-start-graphical-applications/1047413#1047413 – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 29 '18 at 16:59
"top menu" is the bit on the gnome desktop top bar that says "Text Editor" or "gedit" wnen gedit is focussed – Jasen Jul 28 '20 at 02:32
I don't get this mad dash by designers to remove the menu. *Leave the menu alone. Its useful* – Olumide Dec 21 '20 at 12:17

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

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I'm not sure how to get preferences back in your menus, but you can use gsettings to display line numbers. Enter this command into the terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor display-line-numbers true

In case you need to change other settings for gedit, you can use this command to find quite a few that are available: (thanks to this answer)

gsettings list-recursively | grep -i gedit

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

Community

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answered Nov 10 '13 at 23:39

OSE

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cannot believe why gedit became so hard to use these days.... – BufBills May 16 '14 at 03:28
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+1 because this answer is valid for Gedit in GNOME 3.12 and probably for newer releases also. Gedit in newer releases doesn't seem to have the preferences dialog [as described here](https://blogs.gnome.org/nacho/2014/01/15/gedit-has-a-new-face/). – Jan 12 '16 at 18:03

score 19 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 10 '15 at 12:31

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To get the preferences entry back to the edit menu perform the following command in a terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides '@a{sv} {"Gtk/ShellShowsAppMenu": <int32 0>}'

The problem results from Gnome3 putting the preferences menu entry to the top menu.

edited Sep 10 '15 at 12:31

Naomi Yoshida

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answered Sep 07 '15 at 16:39

user5950

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Thank you, this was the only solution that worked for me (using CentOS but solution is the same). Can't believe this is hidden by default!! – crobicha May 25 '16 at 15:10

Radu Rădeanu · Answer 4 · 2013-11-10T17:37:35.887

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Just type Alt+E, then again E when you are in gedit. A new window called "gedit Preferences" should appear.

gedit preferences

edited Nov 10 '13 at 17:37

answered Nov 10 '13 at 17:17

Radu Rădeanu

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No dice, I'm afraid. – Amanda Nov 10 '13 at 17:21
@Amanda I am using gedit 3.8.3 in Ubuntu 13.10 and this is how I open preferences in gedit. I made you also a picture to prove you. – Radu Rădeanu Nov 10 '13 at 17:31
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I believe you, but my edit menu ends at "Insert Date and Time" – Amanda Nov 10 '13 at 22:42
@Amanda You can also use `gsettings` to change `gedit`'s settings. – OSE Nov 10 '13 at 23:18
This works for me: `gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.editor display-line-numbers true` – OSE Nov 10 '13 at 23:20
Boom. @OSE ... you should make that an answer. – Amanda Nov 10 '13 at 23:28
@Amanda + it can be that gedit has different outfit in menu, whether you use Gnome, or Unity or simply xfce4 (to save memory). – dschinn1001 Jan 18 '16 at 01:15
The best excellent solution without the command line!! – 蔡宗容 Apr 09 '20 at 02:35

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 19 '19 at 14:31

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Faced similar problem...got the preference option in the activities bar in the left hand corner..I am using gedit v3.22.1

gedit preference setting

edited Sep 19 '19 at 14:31

MatsK

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answered Sep 18 '19 at 14:31

Yogesh Jain

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 16 '19 at 06:14

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In my desktop, I found it here:

answered Jul 16 '19 at 06:14

Mostafa

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That is the best answer for me! No need to use cli or disable ui extensions. Just right-click gedit icon in panel - and you got it! You just saved my day, thanks a lot! – thybzi May 20 '20 at 09:45

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 12:32

You may need to use tweak tool to turn off temporarily some of the common extensions normal people now use to make gnome 3 usable on a desktop. For me, I had to turn off the taskbar and applications menu extensions. Then one can use the method described by Buğra Koç above.

This means the easy switching on and off of line numbers and word wrap in gedit is gone.

If you don't need text highlighting Leafpad is a good replacement for gedit. It looks like the old gedit:

sudo apt-get install leafpad

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 29 '18 at 06:58

You can access the preference settings of any app by installing dconf-editor:

Debian derivatives:

sudo apt install dconf-editor

Redhat derivatives:

sudo yum install dconf-editor # for Fedora replace yum with dnf

Then open dconf-editor

dconf-editor &>/dev/null &

Click the search icon and type gedit or follow this path: org/gnome/gedit/preference/editor/display-line-number

Turn off the default value and make the custom value true

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 04 '21 at 07:27

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Some preferences, such as display line numbers can be activated from the options in the gedit bottom bar(right side).

answered Aug 04 '21 at 07:27

Adrian F

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Se Bo · Answer 10 · 2023-04-06T14:12:59.987

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1 Click the hamburger icon (three bold horizontal lines) in the upper right part of the window)

2 Select preferences

edited Apr 06 '23 at 14:12

answered Apr 05 '23 at 14:05

Se Bo

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Your answer does not add anymore or different info then is already in the question. – David Apr 05 '23 at 14:43
Thank you for helpful comment. Regretfully neither the question nor answers mention hamburger menu. @David there a snapshot by Mostafa which includes the hamburger icon, yet it suggests a different solution which might not work for some users – Se Bo Apr 05 '23 at 19:34

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 18 '16 at 11:14

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The preferences are under edit at the bottom of the list.

Try to get the menu-bar back, or if that fails remove it entirely and install a fresh new instance of gedit, mine is 3.10.4, so yours is a bit old!

answered Jan 18 '16 at 11:14

Ken Mollerup

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 02 '16 at 23:31

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I know this is an old thread, but I just ran into the same problem. In the end, I figured out that it was because I was still logged in as the superuser. Once I logged out of the terminal and reopened the terminal, everything went back to normal.

Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone else hits the same problem.

If you're seeing a # instead of a $ at your command line, this is likely why you can't see your defaults.

answered Jul 02 '16 at 23:31

DocGil

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Although this is true, it doesn't explain how to access preferences when using `gedit` with super user `sudo` powers. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Mar 26 '17 at 19:15

Where are gedit's preferences?

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