Filed under: Freeware, Open Source
AppMenuBoy: all your apps in your Dock
Over on the Office Google Mac Blog they're calling attention to simple little application from Google Mac Team member David Phillip Oster called AppMenuBoy. Basically, it will allow you to get one click access to all your applications by clicking on its Dock icon. David designed it to function like folders on the Dock did back in the good old Tiger days, when you could simply drag your Applications folder to the Dock to get a basic launcher. Though the 10.5.2 update improved things to some degree from the original Stacks behavior in Leopard, AppMenuBoy "shows only applications, follows aliases, and if a folder contains only an application, it silently 'hoists' that application in the menu so you don't have hierarchical menus that contain only a single icon."
AppMenuBoy is a free download from Google Code.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Colin R. Campbell said 11:15AM on 5-02-2008
You can do this anyway, by placing aliases of applications you want in a separate folder, drag to the dock, and you get a much nicer looking quick launch.
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YoJIMbo said 11:29AM on 5-02-2008
Exactly, I do that on all my Macs
Allan said 12:03PM on 5-02-2008
While that seems like a perfectly acceptable idea... why bother creating aliases for all of the apps you want to use... this one just appears to put them ALL there without having to create anything from every one.
Colin R. Campbell said 12:12PM on 5-02-2008
Why do I want to see ALL my applications? In text form no less.
I only want to see the ones I use. Totally customized, and icon based not text based. Remember this isn't windows, we like nice looking interfaces, and graphics.
Nicholas Post said 12:57PM on 5-04-2008
Me too. I have been doing this simple home-made folder for the past 2 years. You can add or delete anything from it.
It is very your own personal mini-dock apps.
adisor19 said 11:18AM on 5-02-2008
Bah. HimmelBar FTW !
Adi
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Chad Zeluff said 11:50AM on 5-02-2008
Thanks, but I just prefer to open everything using Spotlight. ;)
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mingistech said 12:27PM on 5-02-2008
Same here. Spotlight is lighting fast as an App Launcher.
psxp said 12:15PM on 5-02-2008
How do you create an alias??
Right click and Application (I cant try now as I am on a windows machine)
Then do you drag to a new folder?
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Dave said 2:30PM on 5-02-2008
Click on the app, and start dragging it towards the new folder. As you drag, hold down the command (apple) and option keys - see the cursor change from a regular arrow to a curved alias arrow.
When the app icon's over the new folder, let go of the mouse button THEN let go of the command and option keys. The original app stays where it was, and you've got a shiny new alias in the new folder.
Mike said 12:18PM on 5-02-2008
Quicksilver?
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Dave said 12:44PM on 5-02-2008
What does this do that Leopard's Dock doesn't already allow?
I already had this with stacks, just changed the display method to List.
I just dragged my Utilities folder to the dock and dropped it to the right of the little seperator line. Then right click on the icon and Sort by Name, View As Stack, Display as List.
Now when I click on that icon, I get a nice little list of all the items in the folder.
I guess the google thing doesn't make you drill down a folder, that might be worth something if you have a lot of embedded applications in subfolders.
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Object-X said 12:54PM on 5-02-2008
Like previous commenters, I use Stacks for this.
As to the alias issue, I use aliases with the arrows turned off for my Stack folders (I don't like the arrows and only use aliases for this purpose). The reason for this is that I don't want folder icons in my Stacks folders, it ruins the visual effect. You can't move the Utilities folder out of the Application directory for example. If you do, some installations will put it back. I also use Drawers to pretty them up, as mentions here on TUAW 2007/11/16.
Stacks has become one of my favorite Leopard features.
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Gilla said 1:35PM on 5-02-2008
All my programs are in that folder when I open it up in list form except Quicken 2006, the one I use the most. Why?
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brian said 3:08PM on 5-02-2008
Dear Apple, You make good stuff in general, but even after almost a year, this new Dock still sucks.
The old way (10.0-10.4): drag a folder to the Dock, click on it folder to pop it open, right-click to get a hierarchical menu. Work for apps AND DOCUMENTS and anything else. (Hard disks, servers, you name it.)
The new way: Drag a folder to the Dock. Right-click, choose an option to make it show the folder icon instead of its contents, then right-click again and choose another option to make it show a menu. Now that we've done all that, LEFT-clicking gives a menu of contents (oh, how I love this at work, where I've got both 10.4 and 10.5 machines) and right-clicking... does nothing useful at all. THANKS!!!!!11
Dear God/Steve, couldn't you have at least given us a 'defaults write' option to change it all back?
As for this little app, it's kinda neat in some ways, but one little snag--I've got a lot more folders in my Dock than just /Applications.
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Big John said 8:16PM on 5-02-2008
Man, toggling those two options is excruciating. I mean that takes what, 10 seconds?
I feel your pain, man. I really do.
brian said 10:15AM on 5-06-2008
I wouldn't mind toggling the two settings if the result was that it worked as well as it used to. It was perfect for seven years: a left-click pops it open, right-click shows a hierarchical menu. Now a left click shows a menu and a right-click does nothing. THAT'S my problem.
Luigi193 said 3:17PM on 5-02-2008
Launchbar/quicksilver FTW!!!
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babyfett said 3:32PM on 5-02-2008
I tried doing the stacks way and when I put the folder to the right of the separator the icon automatically looks like the trash icon. Any thoughts on that and how do I turn off the alias arrows?
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Big John said 8:15PM on 5-02-2008
Someone explain to me why a stack in list mode doesn't do the same job?
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