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Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users
Tweaks for the Dock
Tweaking the interface of my Mac has long become part of activity. It's a lot of fun in the process of it. However, you should always remember to backup your files before starting the tweak, in case you accidentally make your Mac explode because of it (I'm exaggerating here).
Left all the worries behind and have fun with the tweaks!
Daily Trick 41. New List View (10.6)
Sorry for the long hiatus of daily trick series due to lack of internet connection. Now, we're back on the track again.
If you put the Dock on the left of the screen, you're left with two display options, which are Grid View and List View. However, folks at Mac OS X Hints found a Terminal command to bring out new list view.
defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -bool YES && killall Dock
After execution of the command above, your list view will look like the combination of Grid View and List View.
↑ new List View : After Execution of Command Line
And you can always use command line below to revert back to normal.
defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -bool NO && killall Dock
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Daily Tricks
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Dock
Daily Trick 37. Snow Leopard Stack Highlight
Reading from the title, you will know that I have successfully installed Snow Leopard on my little Black Macbook. As a kick-start, let me share with you this simple trick to enable stack highlighting.
You only need to execute these two lines of Terminal commands to make it happens :
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean YES
killall Dock
After execution of the second command line, your Dock will be restarted and when you mouse over one of your stack items, it will be highlighted.
Screenshot on the right displays how the stack highlighting looks like.
Source → MacRumors Forums
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Daily Tricks
Tags:
Dock
Daily Trick 26. Change Dock Menu Label
If you're feeling bored of the contextual menu of the Dock, you can always change the menu labeling. To change the menu labeling, these steps can guide you:
- Open your Finder, go to Mac HDD → System → Library → CoreServices
- Find your Dock.app icon, Ctrl-Click on it and choose Show Package Contents
- And then follow the path: Contents → Resources → English.lproj
- Search for the item DockMenus.strings and change its privilege so that you are able to modify the content
- Open it and you can see the command and respective labeling, e.g. QUIT = "Quit";.
If you want to change the labeling, just edit the right hand side (under the quote) - After you save the file, you can see the changes immediately from your Dock menu
There are many labels you can change apart from the given example. The part that you can change is shown in the highlighted part as shown in the screenshot below.
Just try this little trick and have fun!
Categories:
Daily Tricks
Tags:
Dock
Amusing Space-Saving Dock Stacks
With its elegance Grid View and comprehensive List View, putting things on the right side of the Dock giving much more advantages than adding more clutters to Dock organization. Some stuffs of my interest to be kept on Dock are Preferences Stack, Menu Extras Stack and Groups of Applications.
Let me share with you how to make those stacks.
Leopard Glossy Black Dock Skin
As requested by our readers, today we'd love to share a quick tip on customizing the Dock. Your Dock will become like what's shown on the screenshot…
Dock Tweaks for Mac OS X Leopard
We know that Dock is one of the most essential features on your Mac, without your Dock, I can say that you will lose roughly half of your productivity. Even folks at Windows are imitating the Dock, as can be seen here, here and here also.
As a big fan of tweaking, I love to play around with the system files of the Dock. And more importantly, I've found out several tweaks that I believe will give you an extra boost in productivity and self proud.
But before we started…
Disclaimer
We won't take any responsibilities for damages or data loss due to practicing the content of this article. Please kindly backup your files involved in the tweaking before you proceed.
Now, I've shouted it out, let's begin our tweaking!
7 Tricks for Stack You Must Know
Stack has been really useful for Leopard users in organizing and keeping their stuffs clean and well-arranged. Now, there are something in the stack that will definitely enhance your experience.
7. Slow Motion Effect
Maybe you've already heard about this before, by pressing modifier key Shift and clicking on the stacked folders, you can see your Stack opened in Slow Motion. It's worth a try.
6. Open Multiple Folders from Stack
Perhaps, when you want to open multiple files from Stack, you usually open your Stack and then open one file at a time. But with the help of Option, you can click on as many folders as you want and all enclosing folders will be opened in separate Finder windows.
5. Stack in Tiger
Folks from Creative Bits pointed out that Stack can be used in Tiger by simply dragging the folder to your Dock and holding down mouse for like 2 seconds will be needed when you want to open the list of files inside that folder.
But I personally haven't tested this neat trick. So it would be great if some Tiger users can give me useful inputs on this.
4. Drag Stack Out of Dock
By pressing Command while dragging your Stack folder out of Dock, you will make a duplicate of that folder instead of making that particular folder vanish.
Stack Drawer - Cleaning Desktop
Not restricted to decorating your Dock, customizing stack drawer can also improve your productivity. Let's see how it can be done.
After reading article on LifeClever by Chanpory Rith entitled "How to Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity", which talk about creating specific folder to organize your cluttered Desktop, I realize one thing : I am still too lazy to organize those cluttered files. Fortunately, I've several fancy drawer icons which could be used to attract my attention so that I can gladly place my files into those folders.
Leopard - Invisible Dock and Black Dock
Are you getting bored already with your monotonous looking Dock?
Invisible Dock
When I browse throughout my Leopard, I've found out that there are several image files in PNG format that control the appearance of the Dock. I tried to delete those files ( I made backup before that ) and I got invisible glass for my Dock. Let's see what are those files.
The glass where your icons sit is controlled by image files named scurve. It's separated into four files, scurve-sm, scurve-m, scurve-l and scurve-xl. I think scurve stands from super curve. I hope I'm not wrong. The one white line at the bottom of the Dock is controlled by an image file named frontline. A line that divide Dock into two parts is controlled by an image file named separator.
And all of them are located inside :
Macintosh HD ▸ System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices ▸ Dock ▸ Contents ▸ Resources
Leopard Take A Look - Applications Folder
Why does Leopard display Address Book as an icon for Applications Folder? Why is one of Application icon broken?
Automatically Arranged By Name
The Application Folder automatically stacks up all Applications inside by their alphabetical order. Since our (my) Address Book ranks highest by its alphabetical order compare to others, it's displayed as Application icon followed by others' with no opacity, i.e. we can only see a little portion of others'.
The very same rule also applies for those folders located at the right part (launching part is the left part) of Dock.
Leopard Take A Look - Dock
I'm glad to see that our Leopard Dock got a new look.
The Old and The New
Let's recall what our old Tiger Dock looks like..
Digging into Files with Dock
Using Dock will substitute Finder function to go to specified address.
There are a separating line on your Dock. This line separate Dock into two parts. the left part (or top part) is for launching Applications while the other part is for opening items. Now, we will make use of this second part, i.e. the right part (or bottom part).
Dock - Genie Effect
I think you already know about Genie Effect of the Dock in your Mac.
If you want your Genie to act slower, animate longer, and you can enjoy more the effect, you can do these
- Activate your Dock Genie Effect
Dock - Magnification and Position
There is times when your mouse will do something great for you. This is one of that rare times. Your mouse can control your Dock easily.
- Click and Hold on the grid border of your dock
- Move your mouse up will increase your dock size. Move your mouse down will decrease your dock size
- Still holding your dock grid border, and pressing Option will do similar to number 2, except the increasing and decreasing ratio is fixed.
- Release your Option key and replace with holding Shift key and move your mouse to left-most, bottom or right-most of your screen will change the position of your dock
- Those actions come in handy, right?
Categories:
Tips and Tricks,
Utilities
Tags:
Dock
Give Me Back My Docktail
Have favorite apps that buried under the pile of folders. I have many of them. Then, when I open them, their icons appear in my dock, that makes me feel happier.
However, when I quit those apps, they disappeared from my dock. Oh no, so much times needed to bring them to surface end in vain.. Feel depressed.. Maybe you can feel my feelings that time..
But now, I am happy, I know how to make my apps icon remain at my dock. And you will be happy too because I will share it to you.
Can you read those highlighted words?
Control Your Naughty Dock
There are times (always happen) when I wrongly click one of apps icon on my dock. Suddenly, our dock launch that apps without warning. For you also, be careful.. Then, how to bring your dock to its place?
I suggest you to force it, force it with your full force. Talk is easier than act, how? You can use this..
Therefore, you do not have to be shocked on misfire – I mean, mis-click. Enjoy it..
Categories:
Tips and Tricks,
Utilities
Tags:
Dock
Who Let the Dock Out
Let see what we get from Mac, an animated Dock. Dock which can be scaled up or down, can be positioned, and many other special abilities.
Magnification
You can trigger this on to make smooth magnification on the icon when your mouse move over the icon. This is very special. You must try it.
