Modding your Leopard Dock
Any number of TUAW readers have tipped us off to dozens of Leopard Dock mods. Apparently nearly everyone using Leopard hates the default dock and the easy-to-mod docks make it simple to upgrade to something you like better. For example, here's one suggestion for a glass style dock, a dock color modder, a forum thread all about updating your dock and an entire site fully dedicated to Dock mods. If you'd like to read more, just google for Leopard Dock. Trust me, you'll find lots of hits.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in. You can stop now! But thank you all the same.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greg G said 3:48PM on 11-05-2007
=( I like the new dock.
Then again, I haven't used Leopard yet
Reply
Microdot said 3:57PM on 11-05-2007
yeah.... i guess im in the minority as well. i love the new dock.
Reply
required said 4:00PM on 11-05-2007
I don't like the dock at all
Reply
Wissig said 4:04PM on 11-05-2007
I like the new dock, but the glass one looks cool. Guess I'm a freak... who woulda thunk it?!
Reply
Jacques Lema said 4:09PM on 11-05-2007
Getting a beautiful laptop designed with care by some of the best designers out there? About 2000 $.
Getting a Emmental looking Dock running on it? Priceless.
Reply
Chris said 4:12PM on 11-05-2007
Seriously don't mind the new Dock at all.
I keep reading these types of posts and figure Leopard is such a huge step forward most people are left trying to find something to complain about.
My efficiency has improved a lot since upgrading and neither the Dock nor the new menu bar get in my way.
Reply
Simon said 4:14PM on 11-05-2007
I'm really baffled by the number of people who are so horribly offended by such a non-feature of what is possibly the best OS upgrade Apple has released.
Here's a thought: auto-hide the offensive motherfucker so it's not sitting there taunting you all day long; and use QuickSilver so you rarely even have to use it. Better still: do the sensible thing, and put the Dock on either the left or right side of your screen (where, unless your display is on its side, you have the real-estate to spare), and your problems are solved.
Reply
Gordon Werner said 4:21PM on 11-05-2007
I like the new dock.
Reply
kabura said 4:23PM on 11-05-2007
The new dock is pretty nice, but getting to customize it to your liking is much nicer. I actually think the reflect feature is a nice touch, however, I have mines set up with a smoked glass appearance since it makes the indicators more visible. Besides black is sexy =)
Reply
Big John said 4:36PM on 11-05-2007
I'll toss my hat in the "the new dock is fine" ring. I just don't see the issue.
Reply
mark said 4:42PM on 11-05-2007
Has anyone ever thought that Apple made the dock easily mod-able because they don't care if people customize it? In the WWDC Keynote, I do believe Steve talked a lot about user customization of stuff on the desktop, hence the transparent menubar (which everyone hates apparently). I mean if Apple had released the Dock as one of these other modded versions, we would all probably hate it even more, but this is a simple solution that allows people to do what they want to either add or subtract visual flair to their dock/desktop.
Reply
brian said 5:09PM on 11-05-2007
I'm OK with the new appearance of the Dock itself but I hate Stacks with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns. They're horrible in every way. (For me, that is. You love'em? Great. Personally, I don't like LOSING functionality from one OS version to the next. So don't bother to reply to me, telling me that they're great and I'm missing out.)
- I hate that the folder icon changes, depending on what its contents are.
- I hate that I can't see any deeper than the first level--no hierarchical menus for YOU!
- And not only is the fan curved for no good reason, negatively impacting legibility...
- ... the type is right-justified, making it VERY hard to read a list. WTF?!?
As soon as those problems get fixed (by Apple, by 'defaults write', or by a haxie company; I really don't care) every Tiger Mac I have will advance to 10.5. I've already got a Family Pack and have installed it on the G5 I use as a server to take advantage of the built-in Time Machine backup goodness. But I've got too many folders in too many docks to give up all that functionality without a fight on any machine I use every day. (FYI, that's two at my day job, one at my night job, a Mini and a G5 at home, my own MacBook, and a MacBook Pro from work.)
Reply
Ben said 5:11PM on 11-05-2007
"Apparently nearly everyone using Leopard hates the default dock...If you'd like to read more, just google for Leopard Dock. Trust me, you'll find lots of hits."
WTF?
If you google for breast augmentation you get a lot of hits as well. So apparently nearly all women want bigger breasts, right?
Thought not.
Reply
philgilder said 5:20PM on 11-05-2007
i had a mac for 2 months before leopard came out
like everything, including 3d dock design
but i hate the s bend on the dock, that, combined with the reflection from an app such as safari, and all the shadows, looks very confusing and messy!
the hacked dock (i have the one pictured above) is MUCH nicer...
Reply
Chris McCorkle said 5:27PM on 11-05-2007
I just don't understand what's up with the blue gems...
Reply
required said 5:27PM on 11-05-2007
"Here's a thought: auto-hide the offensive motherfucker"
My dislike of the dock is more than skin deep. For example its auto-hide feature has never worked, it's always getting in the way (aka erratic transmission).
Reply
El in AZ said 5:42PM on 11-05-2007
Just like the iPhone post haters... If you think the Dock is just fine and don't get anybody who wants to change it, simply skip these posts. It really is that simple.
For the record, I think the new Dock is fine AND I'm experimenting around with the looks on the site Erica pointed us towards.
The Jet Black look is a winner. Most of 'em are too busy.
And note to the webmaster at LeopardDocks.com, showing your downloadable mods off on a PLAIN background would make the docks stand out more. A busy Dock on a busy desktop wallpaper is just a mess.
Reply
Supersteve said 6:03PM on 11-05-2007
Neutral about the Dock, but the translucent menubar is much more of a problem for me.
I was finding the menu names difficult to read so I had to open up the Desktop Background image in Photoshop, resize to my screen dimensions (1920x1200) and white out the top 22 pixels.
It was even worse for a relative: they had their own picture which they'd been successfully using since the Mac OS 8 days (1997 or so). It was like a tradition that each new Mac would carryover this desktop background.
It was completely unusable with Leopard's menubar - black text on shadowed areas, almost the worst that can be imagined. I had to modify this one to even read the text, let alone finding it unpleasant to look at.
I'm surprised more people don't complain about the menubar as it substantially lowers usability on many (or most) images.
At least the glass Dock is somewhat artistic. The menubar is just a poorly thought out attempt at making the traditional Mac menubar look different.
Reply
Halopend@gmail.com said 6:15PM on 11-05-2007
The "Black Gradient" dock on the LeopardDocks.com website definitely is a step up from the default. Truth be told I liked the original but the wavy line was just too "WTF?" and the top of it blended with everything (in a bad way).
Reply
Welly said 6:27PM on 11-05-2007
I love the dock. I think it looks brilliant. I also love Stacks, although the stack icon set sucks. I hope this is fixed soon! Not sure how they'll do it but we'll see.
As for the dock, people have modded the background. How about modding the separator bar to make the perspective correct?!
Reply