Hide The Dock Icon For Any Running App [OS X Tips]

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dock dodger

As you open applications on your Mac, you may notice your Dock getting a little crowded. That’s because OS X adds an icon for each running app to your Dock as soon as you launch it, to let you know that it’s actually doing something. It’s one of the many great visual reminders built into the operating system.

Sometimes, though, your Dock might get a little too crowded. In which case, you can do a couple of different things to get rid of the Dock icon while the app in question is running, though it’s not without its downsides.

The first way requires a little text file editing. Open the Appliations folder and seek out the app you want to hide from the Dock while running. Right click on it (Control-Click for those without a double button mouse, two finger click on a trackpad) and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. In the folder that will open up, you’ll find a file called Info.plist. Double click on it to launch it in your favorite text editor, and add the following.

LSUIElement

1

You can add them to the end of the file if you like; it might even help you find the code again should you want to reverse the effect. Save your file and quit out of the text editing app. Now, when you launch the app, the icon will show up in the Dock for a second, then disappear. If you want to quit the app, you’ll need to use the Quit command from its menu. If that doesn’t work, you might need to kill the app from the Activity Monitor. To reverse the process, hopen the same text file, and remove the two lines. Save, quit, relaunch the app.

The second way is a bit more user friendly. All you need to do is head to the Dock Dodger website and download the app there. Drag your Application to the Dock Dodger application window after you launch it, and it will do the same thing as above, only you won’t have to mess with the .plist file on your own. The developers do caution you, though:

Dock Dodger alters files inside an application’s bundle. While the changes made aren’t destructive and can easily be reversed, we recommend that you only use Dock Dodger on copies of your applications, not the original.

In addition, depending on the application whose icon you’re trying Un-Dock, you may get some strange behavior or find some features inaccessible (such as the menu!). Use at your own risk.

Let us know if you give this a shot in the comments section below.

Via: Addictive Tips

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