Duplicate Settings and Preferences items in application menu on macOS Ventura 13.1

In macOS 13 Ventura, Apple is moving system-wide from using the word "Preferences" to using the word "Settings".

This has already happpened with the "System Preferences" application, and in the forthcoming macOS 13.1 release, Apple is planning to replace the standard "Preferences" menu item in the application menu for all macOS applications with "Settings".

You can read more about this transition e.g. here.

Qt has special handling for the Preferences item in the application menu, and this is broken by the changes in the forthcoming macOS 13.1 release.

For example, in Qt Creator 9.0.0, the Qt Creator shows a disabled Settings item, and an enabled Preferences item:

Other Qt-based applications exhibit different behaviours. FontLab, for example, shows the disabled Settings item but no Preferences item, so preferences are inaccessible in that app on macOS 13.1. Dorico (our application) shows multiple disabled Settings items, with the number of menu items growing over the course of the session as other dialogs are opened.

It looks as if some adaptation of the special support for the Preferences item in the application menu will be required, not only for Qt Creator but more generally for Qt's macOS support.

cc vestbo