We already noted the controversy over the side-positioned Dock in Leopard and Apple's apparent response. This leaves untouched, however, the fact that many folks just don't like the new Dock glass shelf effect even when the Dock is at the bottom of the screen. And that brings us to the first TUAW Tip of the Leopard era; you can turn off the shelf with a simple terminal command as revealed above (full size picture -- the site that first revealed this trick has since gone down).
Not having Leopard yet myself, I can't confirm this, but this does appear to be a legitimate way of getting rid of the shelf. Now if somebody can discover a similar preference to make the menubar fully opaque everything will be set back to rights!
[via Daring Fireball]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-25-2007 @ 4:33PM
ryan said...
I'm fairly certain the menubar is already fully opaque.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:44PM
Matthias Gansrigler said...
I've created a little utility called 2DOrNot2D which will let you switch between the 3D and 2D appearance of the Dock in Leopard with the click of a button.
www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/2dornot2d
Take care,
Matthias
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10-25-2007 @ 4:46PM
ErneX said...
I did this yesterday, it certainly works and I prefer my dock on the bottom with this style more than the default.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:50PM
da4 said...
this command works as advertised, confirmed on 9A581.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:51PM
Klink258 said...
I'm fairly certain the menubar is not fully opaque.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:58PM
nxiv said...
I actually want to make the dock transparent, e.g. unsanity cleardock.
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10-25-2007 @ 4:59PM
Richard said...
I'm finding it really hard to see the lights under running application icons on the new dock. I'll definitely be running this command when I get home tonight.
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10-25-2007 @ 5:00PM
ryan said...
Klink258,
Gizmodo says that the menubar transparency is gone (and they actually have Leopard)
"Jason [Chen]: The new OS X theme seems nice. The transparency for the menubar is gone, but still reflects a little of what wallpaper you choose."
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10-25-2007 @ 5:01PM
Meatleg said...
Im glad to see this, but look at that ICAL ICON! it doesnt say JUL 17th! and it doesnt look like it is running. does that mean that ical will finally display the current date as its icon?!? a minor little thing, but a cool one...
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10-25-2007 @ 5:04PM
Yvo said...
Now only if they can fix the shared computers in Finder. I truly hate that new feature. I have an iBook running 10.4.10 and a Linux box running netatalk (afpd) yet the Shared "feature" under Finder uses Samba over AFP. So when I manually mount it as a AFP it no longer shows up in Finder but rather only on the desktop....
Oh and logging on to afp enabled machines takes 5-6x longer then it did under Tiger. I know, I know... it truly is a .0 product.
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10-25-2007 @ 5:09PM
noza said...
@Yvo - "yet the Shared "feature" under Finder uses Samba over AFP. "
That just doesn't make any sense. Samba over AFP? Those aren't layerable. That's like saying "HTTP over FTP".
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10-25-2007 @ 5:13PM
uros said...
Now that every Leopard user (who cares about their eye health) switched to the 2D Leopard dock, what's the point of drop shadows for icons, when the dock is darker than the shadow?
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10-25-2007 @ 5:27PM
kory said...
@ Meatleg
Yes, the iCal icon FINALLY displays the current date! Hooray!
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10-25-2007 @ 5:29PM
Brandon said...
What is the Terminal command for making the Dock 3-d again? Is it "defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO"?
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10-25-2007 @ 5:31PM
Lex said...
Hopefully the Onyx team add this to a new Leopard release of their product!
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10-25-2007 @ 6:04PM
Johnny said...
Just to see what it looked like (having never seen a developer release or pictures), I wonder if you can turn the 3D on the side. IMHO, I think the 3D looks cool (on the bottom), but I'll have to see tomorrow.
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10-25-2007 @ 6:09PM
Josh Helfferich said...
That new glass dock is absolutely stunning, in my opinion!
It's good that there's a way to switch it, though, for those that don't feel the same way. Great post, TUAW!
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10-25-2007 @ 6:09PM
john russell said...
Too bad the corners are rounded and there is still that crosswalk. Maybe it's only me and my OCD, but I really liked that crisp, pixel-perfect edge.
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10-25-2007 @ 6:15PM
Quine said...
THANK YOU!!!
This tip alone will keep me reading TUAW for at least another 6 months.
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10-25-2007 @ 7:49PM
Yvo said...
@noza
How so... they are both protocols used to exchange files between computer A and computer B. I prefer to see AFP used over SMB. Instead of SMB being used before AFP.
In Leopard it even lumps them under the same category in System Preferences under Sharing called "File Sharing".
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