How do you use the Dock?
This came up in one of the forums I moderate and I thought it was interesting. You are free to disagree :)
Inquiring minds want to know how you use the
Dock in OS X.
This is hardly scientific, but here goes:
1. Where is your dock located on the screen (Bottom, Left, Right, etc)?
2. Hidden (Y/N)?
3. How do you organize what is in your dock and what order are they in (ex: iapps, internet, general, or just random
chaos)?
4. What is the one program in your dock that you never use and should get rid of but haven’t for some reason?
5. Do you use the “genie effect?”
6. What magnification settings do you currently use?
I’ll start!
1. Bottom center
2. Not hidden
3. Random chaos (altho sort of organized with the left half being “droppers” or apps that launch at login and are
always open in the background and the right half being stuff i open and close a lot.)
4. N/A
5. Never. hate it.
6. None. hate it.
I use the dock infrequently overall due to my use of LaunchBar.
Bonus points if you can name each app currently in my dock by the icon.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom Left
2. Hidden
3. First launched, first served
4. I only keep one program in my dock, Finder, the rest are only there if they've been launched.
5. No
6. No
I use Quicksilver so the Dock is pretty superfluous for me now. Also, I have a 12.1 iBook so screen estate is at a premium. I imagine if I had a big honkin display that I would use the dock more.
Reply
Fazal Majid said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom
2. Not Hidden
3. In rough order of frequency of use left->right
4. None, I took out Microsoft Word last week.
5. Y
6. No magnification
Reply
Izzy said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom
2. Hidden
3. It's organized based on what I use the most. The apps I use the most frequently are in the middle of the dock and the edges have the less used apps.
4. I don't have such an app in my dock. That's what my Fruit-Menu-enhanced Apple menu is for.
5. Nope
6. No magnification, but I keep the icons as big as possible by default.
Other tidbits about my dock: The background is transparent and I have my downloads folder located in it.
I still don't understand why some people keep their docks visible at all times. So much screen space goes to waste...
Reply
dave said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. bottom center
2. sometimes, cmd + opt + d is a handy shortcut
3. My dock is 100% empty, (save for Finder) unless I have a new app I want to remind myself to use. LaunchBar has revolutionized the way I use a Mac, my apps and files.
4. N/A
5. Yes
6. I usually don't have one. It's fun sometimes as a gimmick
Reply
Photo Tim said 3:06PM on 8-18-2005
1. Top
2. Not Hidden
3. By launch order
4. N/A
5. No
6. None
Reply
Thomas Chai said 11:39AM on 6-28-2005
Mine is BOTTOM LEFT
No SPECIAL EFFECTS
Almost never use them because of I find typing application name in QuickSilver is faster than moving my mouse.
Reply
Thomas Chai said 11:39AM on 6-28-2005
Mine is BOTTOM LEFT
No SPECIAL EFFECTS
Almost never use them because of I find typing application name in QuickSilver is faster than moving my mouse.
Reply
Thomas Chai said 11:39AM on 6-28-2005
BOTTOM LEFT
NO SPECIAL EFFECTS
Almost never use dock coz' I find typing what I want in QuickSilver faster than I can move the moouse and click
Reply
Andy said 8:39PM on 9-01-2005
1. bottom center
2. it's hidden
I don't have any apps at all in the dock. I use Quicksilver (as has already been said), and as I'm much more of a keyboard person than a mouse person, I have no need for the dock. I do, however, use the trash can, thus my need for it to actually exist. As I don't have any icons in the dock as per se, it's more of an indication of what programs are open at the moment
Reply
Quentin Smith said 12:25PM on 8-21-2005
1. Left center
2. Not hidden
3. Roughly organized by function: utilities, games, web browsers, multimedia apps, programming, chat, office.
4. A quick glance reveals that I never use SideCar anymore, but it's still sitting in my dock.
5. For the once-a-month occasion that I minimize a window, yes I use Genie.
6. Magnification to full on mouseover. I have my dock packed with dozens of icons, so they're about 8x8 icons right now.
Reply
chet said 7:03AM on 7-24-2005
1. Bottom
2. No
3. First the main ones like Safari, Mail, and Sherlock, then the iLife apps, then any other programs.
4. I take out any apps I don't use.
5. Yes
6. Pretty large, probably 3/4s down the slider. Previously being a windows user, I think the magnification is so cool.
Reply
Tom Edwards said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom.
2. Hidden (12" screen!)
3. Internet apps, entertainment apps, web/design apps, note/office aps, instant messenger
4. Preview, for no reason at all
5. Yes, it's cool.
6. About half-way, but at 1024x768 with quite a few icons, it just sets it to max. size.
Reply
Steve said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom
2. Not hidden
3. Browsers, iapps, microsoft apps, misc, osx server apps.
4. Virtual PC. Tried it, hate it.
5. Yup. And I'm still amused by holding down shift when you minimize something.
6. About 75%. I keep my dock ridiculously small so it never gets in the way, and then have magnification pretty high to avoid accidently clicking on the wrong app.
Reply
Jimmy said 4:13PM on 11-07-2005
1. Bottom
2. Not hidden
3. Most frequent (browsers, Office, iTunes) on left, drop programs in middle, system utilities and games on right.
4. I'm pretty anal about keeping my dock clean but I use Limewire the least of anything.
5. Yes, I hate the scale effect.
6. No.
Reply
Zach Everson said 3:02PM on 6-23-2005
1. Bottom center
2. No.
3. Organized in categories - writing aps (Dreamweaver, Word), photo aps (Photoshop, iPhoto), music aps, reference (Sherlock, Britannica) web abs, personal mgmt/productivity/communication (Quicken, iChat, Address Book, Mail, Palm Desktop).4
4. None - it's tough to make it to my dock.
5. Nope - killed it to free up memory.
6. Middle.
Reply
Eric said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
I'm different!
1. Right, top
2. Not hidden.
3. Finder, then IM and email, browser, apps I use frequently and towards the bottom is general chaos of things that might become regulars or things I'm using right now. I also keep an Applications folder in the documents to use like a Start button.
4. None. I regulary swap apps around in the dock according to how I use them.
5. None.
6. None. I keep my dock modestly sized. On the side it doesn't use much screen space because you have more width than height.
Reply
Jeremy said 1:56PM on 7-25-2005
1. Top, behind the menu bar so it's out of the way and doesn't pop up when it's not wanted terribly often.
2. Hidden. Unfortunately, not permanently.
3. I don't use it for anything, at all, ever, so, no organization necessary.
4. I don't use it for anything, at all, ever, so there are no programs in it other than the ones that are currently running, and I don't pay attention to those either.
5. No, since I don't use the Dock. WindowshadeX provides minimization and the like far better.
6. None. I keep it set at the smallest possible size so that when it does pop up uninvited, which unfortunately it still does, it doesn't get in the way very much.
The Dock was invented by Satan to make people hate OS X. It has no redeeming value whatsoever.
Reply
Kevin Ballard said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1) Right side pinned to bottom. I do this because I have a nice widescreen powerbook :)
2) Not hidden
3) Fairly random chaos. I tend to put newer things down lower (things only go permanent if I either have them open most of the time or want to remind myself to use them), although I also tend to try to group related apps, like BBEdit and SubEthaEdit are together, as well as NetNewsWire and NewsFire
4) I almost never fire up REALbasic anymore (ever since really getting into Cocoa), but it still lives in my dock
5) It's enabled, but I almost never minimize anything. Yay for Desktop Manager!
6) I hate it, it's disabled
Why do you use LaunchBar? Quicksilver is so much better
Reply
Colleen said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1.) Right (on the G5); bottom (on the P-Book)
2.) Not hidden.
3.) Organized in categories: e-stuff (browsers, Entourage, Flickr uploader, RSS, etc); design apps; media apps; office-y stuff and miscellaneous crap.
4.) N/A.
5.) Hell, no.
6.) Tiny. Too many apps... (but that's a good problem, right?)
Reply
Matthom said 4:15PM on 6-16-2005
1. Bottom
2. N
3. LEFT is browsers, and image editors; CENTER is email software, and text editors; RIGHT CENTER to RIGHT is miscellaneous, iTunes, GarageBand, iChat, etc.
4. I don't seem to use FontBook very much.
5. Yes, I use the genie effect. Since the dock "shrinks" items, the more you add - the genie effect helps to "enlarge" each item. So, it extends the life of my Dock.
6. 45% magnification settings.
Reply