You can set the following preferences in the Interface category of the Preferences window.
Interface
- Menu set
-
This determines which menu set displays in the main menu bar on start up. The default is Polygons. See also Menus and menu sets.
- Show menu bar
-
Hides or displays the main menu bar (Windows). Hides or displays the Panels menu bar (all platforms).
- Show panel toolbar
-
Sets whether the Panel toolbar displays, for all panels.
- Show title bar
-
Hides or displays the title bars in the main window and the Script Editor (Windows). The title bar includes window control buttons for expanding and collapsing the application.
- Windows
-
Turn on Remember Size and Position so that Maya restores the size and position of all windows when closed and re-opened. If turned off, the Maya windows always display in the center of the screen upon opening.
- Command Line
-
Turn on Hold focus if you want the cursor to stay in the Command Line after you press
or 
. Otherwise, the cursor returns to the view window.
Highlight What's New
- Highlight what's new in this release
- Toggles highlighting in the interface.
- Show
- Sets whether the What's New Display Settings window displays on start up.
- Highlight Color
- Lets you set a color for the highlighted text and brackets. By default, the highlight color is green. Tip: Click the color swatch to edit it or drag the slider next to the swatch to change the selected color's brightness.
Devices
- Mouse Scroll Wheel
-
Lets you set whether or not Maya’s scroll bars can be moved by your mouse’s scroll wheel. When on, you can scroll through various lists and windows in Maya using your mouse’s scroll wheel (for example, you can use your mouse’s scroll wheel to scroll through a long list of attributes).
- Multi-Touch Gestures
-
Enables and disables multi-touch gestural input. When on, you can operate Maya using intuitive gestures on your multi-touch device or Trackpad. See also Multi-Touch devices and Multi-Touch input gestures.
- Use Trackpad
-
(Mac OS X only)
Enables and disables multi-touch gestural input using a Trackpad. See also Enable multi-touch input from the trackpad.
When set to use multi-touch gestures, you can operate Maya using your trackpad. Select from the following options.
- Cursor Control Only
- (Default.) Disables multi-touch interaction with the trackpad. The trackpad behaves as it normally does, controlling only the cursor.
- Cursor and Multi-touch
- Enables the trackpad to control your cursor (with one finger) and enables multi-touch gestures (with 2 or more fingers).
- Multi-touch Gestures Only
- Enables the trackpad exclusively for multi-touch interaction. You can use this setting if you have a separate tablet without multi-touch capability, or a separate pointing device such as a mouse. In this mode, you can still use one finger swipe to control the cursor.