Monday, January 5, 2009

Install & Use Oracle SQL Developer 1.5.x on a Mac
To install Oracle SQL Developer on a Mac is as easy as installing any application on a Mac. Just unzip the downloaded archive (download it from here), and drag the file to your applications folder. SQL Developer is a great SQL tool for the mac, but there are quite a few things I didn't like with its default settings, so here's what I changed:

1. Line Terminator – If you work like me in a Windows dominant office, you'll be sure to change your line terminator from “Platform Default” to “Windows”. This will insure that your newline caracters you add also show up on a Windows, Linux and Mac computer so you can't go wrong with that setting.

2. Fontsize – On my Macbook pro 15” the fontsize is way too small for me. To do this go to Tools -> Preferences -> Code Editor -> Fonts. I changed mine from the default 12 to 15 on Monospaced.




3. Colors – Coming from Toad, the default SQL Developer text color's are downright ugly. I liked the Toad color scheme, so I changed mine to the same colors. To do this go to Tools -> Preferences -> Code Editor -> Syntax Colors. Change the following colors:
  • Default Keyword –> Blue. Also turn off Bold.
  • Default Comment –> Green.
  • Default String –> Red.
  • Default Number –> Dark red.
  • Selected Text – Foreground -> Black. Background –> Light Grey.
You can even save your new scheme as “Toad” ;-) Your colors will then go from this first image to the second one.. :-)


Another few changes I have made is to the accelerators.You can find them under Tools -> Preferences ->Accelerators.
1. Popup Describe – I made this F4. (The same as Toad)
2. Execute Statement – I made mine Cmd+Enter and CTRL+Enter.
Done!