100 Tips #5: Understanding The Dock’s Split Personality

Giles Turnbull (7:16 am PDT, Mar 25 2010)

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The Dock is a weird beast. Even long-term Mac users will tell you that. Quite a lot of them don’t even like it, because it’s a bit of a mish-mash. It’s a launcher, but it’s also a switcher. It can be used for storing shortcuts to files and folders, and it can be used to store minimised windows. Sometimes it flashes up status messages from applications, too.

It can get a little busy.

So then. The Dock you get when you first start up your Mac will look broadly similar to this:

20100325-defaultdock.jpg

Each icon represents an application. If you want to use a particular application, you click on its icon.

If it’s already running, the computer will instantly switch to that app. If it’s not already running, the computer will start that app. In this case, the app’s icon will probably start bouncing in the Dock. No need to worry about this, it’s perfectly normal. It’s just so that you know the computer is working.

So how do you know which apps are running and which ones are not? Have a close look underneath each one: those that are running have a glowing bluish ball hovering just under the icon. Yeah, a lot of people don’t like it, but there you go. At least you know what it means.

The Dock is split into two unequal parts. To the left is the row of apps; to the right are some other things. The Trash can, and maybe a selection of files or folders. There’s a thin dashed strip that separates the two sections.

Here’s the thing that some new Mac users don’t realise: you can change what’s in the Dock. You don’t have to leave it as it is.

If there’s something in the Dock that you never use, just drag it out – the icon will disappear in a puff of electronic smoke.

Similarly, if there’s something missing that you want frequent access to, drag it in to the Dock from a Finder window.

Here’s a little screencast to show you what I mean:

(You’re reading the fifth post in our series, 100 Essential Mac Tips And Tricks For Windows Switchers. Find out more.)

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14 comments »

  • http://www.daedana.co.uk/ daedana

    Nice clip. I do forget many times that everyone isn’t familiar with the dock. :)

  • RyanTV

    Is there a way to “lock” your dock once you get it the way you like? I seem to end up dragging applications off my dock accidentally all the time. I must be a spastic mouser :)

  • http://gilest.org Giles Turnbull

    RyanTV: that’s an excellent question, and the honest answer is: I don’t know.

    Anyone else know if it can be done?

  • Omar Chaudhry

    Is there any way to customize the look of the dock? I saw this video tutorial and liked the shape of the dock, which doesn’t look anything like mine, is it done with some third party software?
    Here’s the tutorial… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqEf3Pyb840

  • Nico

    Giles and RyanTV:

    Try using deeper or onyx (same developer) to lock or customize your dock.

    Here’s the link:

    http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english/apps.html

  • Fearless Fred

    Another option for adding something to the dock is when you’re already running an application. Right click (or Ctrl click if you prefer) on the running application. A menu will pop up. Go to Options > Keep In Dock, and now the Dock will keep that application in the dock for you. You can also remove items from the dock the same way, choosing Remove From Dock.

    I take it you’ll be talking about the right hand end of the dock in a follow up tip?

  • http://gilest.org Giles Turnbull

    Fred: yes, there’s more to come. :)

  • Dan D’errico

    “Deeper” locks the dock. It has been a godsend for me because my twin seven year-olds delighted in dragging things out of the dock on the old family eMac. It has also worked for my mother-in-law’s iMac because she is a little trigger-happy and she is constantly messing things up. And Deeper is free!

  • DAVID K

    The best dock customization app is Candybar — it lets you completely customize the look of the dock and icons .

  • RyanTV

    Thank you Nico!

  • oomu

    hey ! I love the dock !

  • http://skitch.com/raygungirl/n57pk/fullscreen Jessica Quest

    Omar – You can change the dock to look like that video by writing some stuff into Terminal. I’m a pretty new Mac user (less than a year) and I’ve got mine set up the same as that video. I’m not great with computers on my own but I can follow directions and I’m not afraid to type code in to get a cool effect. :)

    If you don’t know what Terminal is, just type it into Spotlight and open it up. It’s a command line thingie. :)

    Paste this in exactly:

    defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
    killall Dock

    Be aware, I don’t personally know how to change the dock back to 3D, but I’d assume a quick Google search (something like “change back to 3D dock terminal command”) would probably come up with the code to change it back if you regret changing it.

    Good luck!

  • Bradley Dichter

    I use the now discontinued DockChanger 1.8.3 to change the appearance. Plenty of choices. Mostly to change the in use indicator to Blackie, the older standard black triangle which is more visible in my opinion. With OnyX and TinkerTool, I also like to turn off Snow Leopard’s Dock Exposé function and make hidden apps transparent, greyed out really. Also change the default from genie effect to scale for better speed.

  • Mystakill

    Panic’s CandyBar lets you change your icons and dock images — http://www.panic.com/candybar/

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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