macOS advanced installation
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This document is primarily for IT administrators who may need to go beyond a simple, single end-user installation. For example, automating the installation of Balsamiq for Desktop silently or installing the application on multiple machines.
Balsamiq for Desktop is a native app available for both Windows and macOS. The guide for macOS can be found below.
Installing Balsamiq on macOS
For Mac users, we provide Balsamiq for Desktop as a familiar .dmg file.
Installing from a .dmg is simple - download and mount Balsamiq NNN.dmg from our downloads page then copy the contained file "Balsamiq.app" to your Applications folder. You're done!
Registering and unregistering Balsamiq on macOS
You can use this command in terminal to register Balsamiq:
/Applications/Balsamiq\ Wireframes.app/Contents/MacOS/Balsamiq\ Wireframes --register "LICENSEKEY"
And to unregister:
/Applications/Balsamiq\ Wireframes.app/Contents/MacOS/Balsamiq\ Wireframes --unregister
Note: The command should be run as a logged-in user using, for example: sudo -u $USER ...
Installing Balsamiq on multiple machines on macOS
We also provide Balsamiq for macOS in a .zip file.
For automated, bulk installation on macOS we suggest using the .zip file as it's a simpler option - just unzip into the appropriate folder and you're done.
Command line arguments
Balsamiq for Desktop can be run in the macOS Terminal with the following arguments:
- --license: Print the license details
- filename: Opens the file on startup
- --register "LICENSE_KEY": Registers the license and quits the application
- --unregister: Unregisters the license and quits the application
- --check-for-updates enable|disable: Enables (or disables) the “Check for Updates” feature and quits the application
The “Check for Updates” setting is stored per user, and users can still change it in the app: there's no option to hide or lock it. To turn it off for everyone, run --check-for-updates disable as each user (not once as an administrator), for example in a login script. Version 4.8.6 is the final release of Balsamiq for Desktop, so once your users are on 4.8.6 there are no newer versions to install.
You can also block update checks on your network. The app downloads one file, with a query string added: block requests to balsamiq.com whose path starts with /wireframes/desktop/release-notes/mac4.json or /product/desktop/release-notes/mac4.json (the first redirects to the second), and the prerelease channel's host, build_ondeck.s3.amazonaws.com. Blocking a path on balsamiq.com needs a proxy that inspects HTTPS traffic. Keep --check-for-updates disable as well: if automatic checks fail for a week, the app shows the user a warning.