
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!













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-30-2007 @ 8:07AM
Electroboy said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 8:30AM
tuaw said...
I agree.
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10-30-2007 @ 8:30AM
Eric said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 8:33AM
PFar said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 8:40AM
Rhywun said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 8:47AM
Andrew said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 8:55AM
Ralph Daily said...
The glowing lights are great, it's nice to have a change. - ralph
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10-30-2007 @ 9:01AM
Matteo said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 9:15AM
matthew said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 9:27AM
jason said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 9:51AM
Buckingham said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:05AM
Tom said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:23AM
TH said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:34AM
Magnus said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:36AM
brian said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:40AM
Lerxst said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 10:49AM
Lee Patterson said...
I like the lights:)
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10-30-2007 @ 11:02AM
Rhywun said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 11:03AM
Daniel D said...
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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10-30-2007 @ 11:17AM
Simon Arch said...
I've got to say I prefer the appearance of Leopard's new 2-D dock with the lights. But in the glass shelf it's just another bit of visual noise. It's amazing how something becomes more or less useful by changing the context in which it appears.
If I could find some way to backport the new 2-D dock to Tiger without having to use ShapeShifter I'd be a happy camper. I was never a fan of the triangles.
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