Filed under: Software, Productivity
Dockables: Control your Mac from your Dock
We have a pretty wide array of choices when it comes to controlling our Mac, but Dockables adds even one more way to do things like shut down, start a screensaver or sleep the display. More of a collection of tiny apps than a full-blown utility, Dockables simply installs a folder in your Applications folder that contains 12 separate one-trick-pony apps (they're actually just packaged AppleScripts with pretty icons) that can perform the following actions: Shut Down, Start Default Screen Saver, Restart, Empty Trash, Eject Media, Sleep, Log Out, Close Applications, Hide Applications, Mute Sound, sleep display, and take a screenshot. The idea is that you drag just the Dockables that you want to your Dock, thus providing one-click access to the actions you use most. A few Dock dividers and alternately themed Dockables are even provided for yet more options for controlling your Mac with style and organizing everything just the way you need it.
Dockables is provided as donationware from COCOApps.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sal Costello said 7:40PM on 8-10-2007
SUPER SWEET!
I just added these to my brand new glass and aluminum imac. Thanks for posting this. I selected different theses to help make them even look more unique on my doc! Keep up the great news/blog work guys!
The Muckraker
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/
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jake Albert said 9:32PM on 8-10-2007
the Sleep Display one is great! I've been looking for a one-click display sleep for a while now! (now if only the apple scripts weren't compiled as run-only I'd finally know how it's being done!)
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Techslacker said 10:13PM on 8-10-2007
Screw the dock! These work great with Quicksilver. I would rename them Quickies. ;)
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Rafik said 10:50PM on 8-10-2007
Techslacker is right. These almost seem to be made for Quicksilver, as they're really more of commands rather than applications. I can't believe Quicksilver-loving TUAW didn't mention it in the post.
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drg said 12:00AM on 8-11-2007
The icons, for some odd optical illusion, seem to be too fat.
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Jon Anderson said 12:05AM on 8-11-2007
Not that I am volunteering myself, but some of these icons could really use a graphic designer's touch. Sorry for the design snob comment :-P
Overall this is a very nice group of functions, and I second the comment for QS... Having that sleep display shortcut will become second nature, I can already tell!!
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PSM said 12:55AM on 8-11-2007
Cute idea. I will definitely give some of these a try.
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Neil said 3:33AM on 8-11-2007
I don't understand why people go crazy over AppleScripts with an icon added to them...
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Steve said 6:08AM on 8-11-2007
@Neil And exactly who here is going crazy? They are a collection of basic scripts that can be added to a dock, used through quicksilver, etc. Why shouldn't TUAW make a post about something that Mac users might find useful? Why shouldn't people comment about interesting ways to use them?
It's getting tiring hearing people whine about posts simply because the news being offered isn't taylored to them. Do you really read *every* article in a newspaper and then send snide comments to the editors when you feel the article wasn't to your exacting standards?
I'm not saying every post has to be glowing with praise but, for the love of god, if you're going to sit down and take the time to write something make it constructive.
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Neil said 10:04AM on 8-11-2007
@Steve, I get what you are saying. But seriously, these are AppleScripts. They aren't bad or anything. Nothing in these dockables can't be done from Quicksilver if you just enable 1 or 2 plugins (they might be turned on by default). The only thing that is "special" in here is sleep monitor, which I'm sure is the exact thing that Sleep Display is (which uses a run only AppleScript).
As for being constructive, maybe you should check out my .tapp "Uniremote" (http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis-tapps/wiki/Uniremote) for the iPhone Remote/Telekinesis Project (http://code.google.com/p/telekinesis/). If you have an iPhone (or just want to control your mac with another computer then why don't you try it. It too, is just a bunch of AppleScripts. (I also made Now Playing which you can find there too)
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Steve said 11:08AM on 8-11-2007
That looks pretty slick. I'm living abroad for the time being and until Apple hurries up and releases a European iPhone I'll be stuck jealously admiring your "don't need to run across the house to pause the music" wizardry.
Hopefully that'll all change in a few months ;-)
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David Fischer said 10:33AM on 8-11-2007
I quite like the idea, and few would be handy on my laptop (restart, power off, eject, and screen capture).
However, stylistically they clash with the Finder style (too large, not brushed metal). I'm not going to use them for this reason.
These would be superb if they shared the current OS X style.
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Jon Anderson said 11:39AM on 8-11-2007
Ok so I just revamped the icons in my own version to blend better with Finder & Aqua.
I call the theme "Aqua Slate" :)
http://www.jonandesign.com/downloads/dockables_aquaslate_1_0.zip
Inside the zip there are ICNS files that you can use to replace the dockables icons. Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts!
Also here's my website *shameless plug* http://www.jonandesign.com/
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Andy said 1:21PM on 9-10-2007
best thing: didn't know you can place any app in the finder window bar and open files by draggin on the icon. just found out through this dockables manual. amazing! saw this nowhere before. saves a lot of draggin' across the screen.
the icons are really very ugly. someone got better ones?
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Andy said 1:22PM on 9-10-2007
good job jon!
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Adam said 6:28AM on 8-12-2007
Nice idea. Couple of observations. The sound mute is great but would be even better if it also switched the sound back on. Had a lot of problems with the reboot and shut down.....for some reason I started getting a message that Force Quit would not quit! Well go figure on that one!
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tom said 9:40AM on 8-12-2007
This looks pretty cool. A lot of times I move between watching something in bed and going to my computer. This could be pretty useful in a situation for controlling music and turning the computer off when I read in bed and want to go to sleep.
-tom
my political forum
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Liviu said 4:30PM on 8-13-2007
Can the display dockable differentiate between multiple displays? I wanna buy a new iMac, however, I'd like to disable its monitor when I run movies to my projector from it. So far I've found no way to do this. Can this thing turn off the iMac display without killing the signal going to my projector? If so, Steve Jobs will get by $2,500.
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piggy said 9:43PM on 8-13-2007
He "borrowed" the sleep display code from here.
http://linestreet.googlepages.com/sleepdisplayapplication
He should be more respectful of other programmers.
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