How does Xcode know who the project was “created by”?

Question

Whenever a new file is added to the project, Xcode adds the following lines of comments on top.

//  Created by {my name here} on 8/4/11.
//  Copyright 2011 _         


        

Answer 1

The "Created by" name does not come from the Address Book, rather, it comes from the name in System Preferences -> User and Groups under "Current User". You can change this name and other variables in the file header by creating a property list file called IDETemplateMacros.plist. To change the name by where it says "Created by", create a new key called FULLUSERNAME and give it the value you wanted. To change the company name, create a new key called ORGANIZATIONNAME. You could also rewrite the whole header by creating a new key called FILEHEADER. To access macros like FULLUSERNAME and ORGANIZATIONNAME in the values for any of these keys, just surround the macro by two underscores on both ends. (Example: Key: FILEHEADER, Value: Made by __FULLUSERNAME__)

For where to put the plist file, refer to step 3 from Ole Begemann's blog post about macros,

Copy the file to one of the following locations. The directory specifies in which context the customized text macros should be applied:

• For a single project and user: .xcodeproj/xcuserdata/[username].xcuserdatad/IDETemplateMacros.plist

• For all team members in a single project: .xcodeproj/xcshareddata/IDETemplateMacros.plist

• For all projects in a workspace for a single user: .xcworkspace/xcuserdata/[username].xcuserdatad/IDETemplateMacros.plist

• For all projects in a workspace for all team members: .xcworkspace/xcshareddata/IDETemplateMacros.plist

• For everything you work on, regardless of project: ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/IDETemplateMacros.plist

For more information, check out this great article written by Ole Begemann, https://oleb.net/blog/2017/07/xcode-9-text-macros/