What's up, Dock? Give your Dock a little class with Dock Library

Let's face it; the Mac OS X Dock is pretty boring. I mean, other than the little glowing blue LED underneath active applications that a lot of people can't see anyway, it's just a boring, opaque white reflective shelf. Wouldn't you like to add some excitement to it?

Well, you still can't relive the glory of your high school athletic prowess and put that dusty third-place trophy for shot-put on the shelf, but you can make the Dock look nicer with Dock Library. It's a shareware application from Dative Studios that enables quick switching of your Dock styles. TUAW covered this little application in 2008, but we have a lot of new readers who may not be aware of how Dock Library works.

Dock Library doesn't come with a bunch of built-in styles; for those, you need to go to sites such as LeopardDocks.com or LeopardDocks.net, both of which have a variety of free Dock templates ranging from the commonplace to the absurd.

After installing Dock Library, I chose the nice "Coffee Table Rounded" Dock design (see below), which looks like beautifully finished wood and has rounded corners. What's really nice is that those blue LEDs really show up under my active applications now, and that Dock Library works with Mac OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard with no issues.

I'm curious to find out what bizarre or cool Dock templates our readers would like to see -- your ideas might be just the thing to stimulate some creative designer to submit a new template to the LeopardDocks sites. Leave your comments below.

[via Download Squad and Sizlopedia]

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Source: http://www.dativestudios.com/docklibrary/

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Software Cool tools Odds and ends Snow Leopard

Let's face it; the Mac OS X Dock is pretty boring. I mean, other than the little glowing blue LED underneath active applications that a lot...

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shawn

Um, am I the only one this program isn't working for?

I downloaded, added a bunch of different docks to it, select the dock I want... hit activate, and.!!!!!! nothing.

September 15 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

agustincacciola

I've been using the leopard docks app for a while now, ever since you've talked about it before. I'm happy with it, but there's one glitch i'd like to get fixed though, whenever i change a dock, it changes it for all the users in the computer. Is there a script i can use to change this?

Thanks!

September 15 2009 at 12:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jbseymour

I would like to see a stealth dock, one that is a dull black with obtuse angles. I hate using the original doc, it shows up way to large on my radar.

September 15 2009 at 8:25 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

From the ArsTechnica 10.5 review: If you want the alternate look when the Dock is on the bottom too, type the following commands at a Terminal prompt:

% defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
% killall Dock

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5.ars/4

September 15 2009 at 2:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Starfire

The comment shareware is wrong. It's donationware.

September 15 2009 at 1:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Schell

Still waiting for something that will let me hide the dock completely - aka, not having it pop up when I move my mouse over it. Between google search and quicksilver, I don't have a single use for the dock. I wish it would go away. For the time being, I have it on the left because I like to have my apps stretch from top to bottom.

Any ideas?

September 15 2009 at 12:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Enigmafan420

It is entirely possible that my system is suffering from user error, but this program does not appear to work with sn0w leopard!

September 15 2009 at 12:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ianlive

I must admit this app works pretty well.

I have always been a bottom dock'r yet have tried repeatedly to get use to either the left or right side without success. My issue with the Dock on either side are that it gets in the way of left justifying windows when parked on the left, and interferes with my Macintosh HD and other odd folder on the right side.

Anyone else find this or have any suggestions as to how to get use to a side Dock? Is a side Dock purely aesthetic preferences or are they working advantages I'm not aware of?

September 14 2009 at 8:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tfj

What about the codesignature in Dock.app after altering some files in it? will it affect anything serious?

September 14 2009 at 5:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Yoshi1080

First thing I always do when installing Mac OS X new is googling for the Terminal command to change that distracting 3D dock to the more traditional 2D dock with the smoked glas look.

September 14 2009 at 5:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply