Filed under: Software, Hacks, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, Leopard
Triangles back on the Leopard Dock
Turns out it's not super hard to do-- inside the Dock app folder, there's just three .png files that serve as "Dock indicators," so all you have to do is change those (definitely back up what's there, however), and you should be in business. The Dock now scales those indicators based on size, so there's three files to replace-- at your own risk, natch-- and you're all set.
Thanks, Mike!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Electroboy said 8:07AM on 10-30-2007
I actually like the new dock. The little lights under active applications look cool. Much nicer than the utilitarian black triangle.
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tuaw said 8:30AM on 10-30-2007
I agree.
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Eric said 8:30AM on 10-30-2007
I really like the Leopard indicators. I wasn't happy with a lot of Leopards visual elements at first, but I think it just takes a little getting used too. The little lights have really grown on me.
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PFar said 9:42PM on 7-30-2008
I also like the new dock and its "flashy" ways. I really get a kick out of all these Luddites who are desperately trying to set things back to the way things were.
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Rhywun said 8:40AM on 10-30-2007
The lights don't bother me either. In fact, I think the whole point of the dock is to emphasize the fact that with the Mac, most of the time you don't have to constantly launch and quit programs or even pay attention to what's running and what isn't. I found this striking after switching from Windows last year, which takes the opposite approach where only running applications appear in the task bar. So... I like the subtle lights. What confuses me is the curving light reflection that stretches all the way across the dock. What's that?
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Andrew said 8:47AM on 10-30-2007
I hated those black triangles. They just annoyed me when the application was still alive even after I had finished using it. Closing the window should close the application. I just have to remember to Apple+Q it :)
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Ralph Daily said 8:55AM on 10-30-2007
The glowing lights are great, it's nice to have a change. - ralph
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Matteo said 9:01AM on 10-30-2007
That is interesting... Early reviewers complained about the "dots" whereas many users (me included) actually quite like them. I think that, in many aspects, each OS (or OS revision) needs some time to get used to it. Power users usually tend to take more time for the graphics to settle in, whereas occasional users struggle a bit more with the new features (power users for instance may have welcomed "spaces" much more than the occasional user).
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Tom said 10:05AM on 10-30-2007
I'm somewhere in the middle really...
I'd like to put these back in, but somewhere inside me I just have to enjoy the new defaults. I'm a bit regimented it seems.
That, and as simple as it is to change 3 images, I can't shake the feeling it'll all go wrong somewhere down the line...
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matthew said 9:15AM on 10-30-2007
I'm another vote for the new dots being an improvement over the triangles. It took less than three days for me to get used to them. I have Leopard running on my three Macs at home, but I'm still running Tiger in my office. I'm actually finding myself already missing Leopard when I get in to work, including the visual changes. The new features may all be evolutionary, but subtle improvements go a long way when there are so many.
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jason said 9:27AM on 10-30-2007
I agree with PFar - I don't understand why so many people are trying to make Leopard look like Tiger - get OVER IT and MOVE ON
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Buckingham said 9:51AM on 10-30-2007
And people complain if their OS gets broken during upgrades and stuff. I know, I know this is just a harmless hack, but you know what I mean when it snowballs into other things.
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TH said 10:23AM on 10-30-2007
The faux-3D effect is the really annoying part. In the 2D Dock they are much less distracting - just simple glowing dots.
Bonus Tip: The "scurve" files in the same folder are the dock shelf itself.
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Thomas said 2:56PM on 10-30-2007
I just don't like the perspective of the dock, which becomes really obviously bad when you look at the little dashed divider.
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Magnus said 10:34AM on 10-30-2007
The 2d dock and Tiger dock looks so much better. Even the glowing dots looks better in the 2 dock!
The new dock really takes up a lot of space. Look at all those pixels underneth the icons! Unbelivable. Luckily you can hide the freakin thing!
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brian said 10:36AM on 10-30-2007
And as soon as there's a hack to kill Stacks, I'm buying. But not a moment before. Yes, Stacks really did REMOVE functionality. See here:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/13
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Lerxst said 10:40AM on 10-30-2007
Now we just need someone to hack the stacks and get the old folder behavior back (at least as a 3rd option besides "Fan" and "Grid")....
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Lee Patterson said 10:49AM on 10-30-2007
I like the lights:)
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Rhywun said 11:02AM on 10-30-2007
Yeah, it looks like Stacks isn't going to replace any of the 3rd party stuff out there. Too bad. I never used the Tiger functionality of putting folders in the dock because I found myself always dragging the things around and/or off the dock by mistake. Instead I use Butler to create menus in the menu bar.
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Daniel D said 11:03AM on 10-30-2007
Blinded by fanboyism much?
The new lights make it harder to tell what is going on with a program, black triangles against a white background is much clearer this was another "style over functionality" move by apple imo
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