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.

Basic Shortcut

Though this one here can't be considered a tweak, but I believe it's good to know some of the shortcuts to faster up basic adjustment for your Dock.

  • Drag → Resize the Dock
  • Opt-Drag → Proportionally Resize the Dock
  • Shift-Drag → Move the Dock to Other Screen Edge

Note that when performing the Drag, you should click on the Dock separator and drag it.

Hidden Preferences

Have you heard about Secrets before? Secrets is a preference pane that reveals many of secret preferences. Example for Dock, it allows you to:

  • Change the pinning position
  • Use the Suck Effect for window minimization
  • Enable New List View for Stack
  • and many other interesting hidden preferences…

Secrets can be downloaded from http://secrets.blacktree.com/

Terminal Commands

In case you don't want to install additional preference pane (Secrets) for revealing secret preferences, you can still use the command line provided below and execute it with your Terminal for the effect.

New List View

defaults write com.apple.dock use-new-list-stack -bool YES && killall Dock

Stack Highlight

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean YES
killall Dock

2D Dock

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

Transparent Hidden Icon

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
killall Dock

Add "Recent Applications" Stack

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'
killall Dock

Dock Pinning (Left)

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start
killall Dock

Dock Pinning (Right)

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end
killall Dock

Restyle Dock Background

Restyle Dock Background

In order to get your Dock background changed like what is shown in the screenshot above, you can follow these steps:

  1. Download the sprites from PlateauDock ↓
  2. Open Finder, hit Cmd-Shift-G and enter this address:
    /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources
  3. And then copy in all 5 items inside the unzipped PlateauDock folder
  4. Restart your Dock with Terminal command killall Dock for the change to take effect

Interestingly, if you delete these 5 files: scurve-l.png, scurve-m.png, scurve-sm.png, scurve-xl.png, and separator.png, you will get an Invisible Dock.

Rename Dock Menu

Feeling bored with default contextual menu naming for your Dock? If so, you can try to change the naming with these simple steps:

Rename Dock Menu

  1. Open your Dock, hit Cmd-Shift-G, and then enter this address
    /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj
  2. Search for the file DockMenus.strings and open it, you will see lines of words, eg:
    OPEN_FILENAME = "Open "%@"";
    OPEN = "Open";
  3. Left hand side is the command to OS, don't change it. Instead, you can change the naming on the right hand side. Example:
    OPEN_FILENAME = "Launch "%@"";
    OPEN = "Launch";
  4. Restart your Dock for the change to take effect (Terminal → killall Dock)
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