7 Helpful OS X Dock Features

7 Helpful OS X Dock Features

Posted 05/18/2011 at 10:02am | by J.R. Bookwalter

Mac OS X Dock with Preferences

Many of us don’t give the Mac OS X Dock a second thought beyond clicking icons to open our most frequently used applications or accessing the Trash to retrieve a file we decided to keep -- which is too bad, because the Dock holds a number of hidden features to make you more productive.

Love it or hate it, the Dock is a key component of Mac OS X. Useful for keeping applications, folders or even documents close at hand, the Dock had its roots in NeXTSTEP and OpenStep, where it began life as a simple application launcher that’s become so much more with each generation of Mac OS X.

Here’s a look at a few ways to take control of your Dock, make it do tricks and even tweak it to do things you never imagined it could.

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Secrets of the Mac OS X Dock

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Switch Dock Effects
Double-click on the title bar of an open window and you’ll see it shrink down and vanish into the Dock. By default this is known as the “Genie effect,” but Apple engineers built at least one other way to shrink windows called the “Scale effect.” To tap into it, open System Preferences > Dock and change the “Minimize windows using” setting accordingly. Hit up the TinkerTool secret for a third choice!
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Make Apps Open at Login
When you start up your computer, you might want to save some time by having the applications you use most often start up on their own as you prepare your coffee each morning. No need for any hackery or preference settings -- simply Control-Click on the app in the Dock, mouse over Options and click make sure “Open at Login” is checked. From now on, every time you log in or start up your computer, those apps will dutifully do the same.
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Hide Your Dock When Not In Use
By default, Apple keeps the Dock up and available at all times -- presumably for less-experienced users. The problem is, the default size eats up a decent amount of screen real estate, but it doesn’t have to. Head to System Preferences > Dock and check the “Automatically hide and show the Dock” feature. Away goes the Dock, only to return when you choose to mouse over it. Just like magic!
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Quickly Start a New Email
Apple Mail is endowed with some super-secret Dock powers -- as long as Mail is already open, a Control-Click on the icon will reveal a count of inbox items, allow you to get new email or even start a new email or note, without having to worry about bringing the application to the front when needed.
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Empty Trash Without Opening It
Sometimes you just want to dump your Trash without opening it. Sure, you can use the Finder menu for that, but why not try the Dock instead? Control-Click on the Trash icon, then switch to the Option key while selecting “Empty Trash” -- away goes the mess, without the fuss of opening a window before doing so.
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Take Control of the Downloads Folder
Perhaps more than any other Dock icon, the Downloads folder contains an assortment of options for how its contents are displayed. There are five options for sorting as well as Folder or Stack display options and even a trio of choices for viewing content in a Fan, Grid, List or even having Mac OS X automatically choose which is best. So many choices!
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TinkerTool: A Dock’s Best Friend
This last one isn’t specifically a Dock secret, but it can open up a lot of cool choices for how your Dock is displayed. The free TinkerTool application allows you to tweak the appearance of your Dock in different ways or even restrict how it can be modified, and it’s even got a cool, hidden minimize effect (“Suck In”). Don’t forget to relaunch the Dock to see your new tweaks!