You’re Underutilizing Mac Dock (Five Amazing Tricks!)
Improve your productivity and impress your friends with these tricks
Pre-Note: To revert back any Terminal command that has TRUE in it, use the same command again by replacing TRUE with FALSE.#1. Add dock spacers
If you’ve got loads of apps on the dock, visually separating them into groups of similar apps can be useful.
To do that,
- Open Terminal,
- use
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock.
Now, a space pops up on your dock. Drag it across the dock to separate one set of apps.
Keep repeating the command to create more spaces and segregate more groups.
To remove a space: Use right-click < Remove from Dock (just as you do for an app).#2. Use Dock with keyboard
If you’re a productivity freak who hates leaving the keyboard and using mouse or trackpad, you’ll love this.
- Use fn + ⌃ + F3 to trigger dock,
- Use ← or → arrows to move across icons,
- Hit return to open an app.
#3. Tweak auto-hide and show settings
Ever tried ‘Auto hide and show Dock’? Yes? Then you’ll need these.
1) Tweak dock’s response time
The dock — by default — responds after 1 sec when you bring the pointer towards or away from it to trigger its auto-appearance.
This could be frustrating for those who, in their flow states, feel 1 sec as an eternity — like this post’s author.
I prefer the response time to be immediate, so I used defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0; killall Dock on Terminal.
To revert back: Use the command again by replacing 0 with 1.2) Tweak its speed
To tweak its speed when showing up or hiding, use defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 1; killall Dock on Terminal.
- 1 is the default macOS setting.
- 0 removes the animation entirely.
- values in (0, 1) speed up the animation.
- values above 1 slow down the animation (prank your friends!).
3) Manually show or hide dock
If you hate auto-hide but still use it once in a while, use hotkey ⌥ + ⌘ + D on Finder or Desktop to trigger it, instead of opening Settings everytime.
#4. Dock Separator Tricks
Can you see a vertical line | on the dock that separates your apps and folders? — at the right.
Place you pointer on it, and you’ll notice it changes to ↕.
1) Access quick settings
Now, right-click, and you can access some quick Dock settings.
2) Magnify dock
Or instead, simply drag it (↕️) up or down to quickly change dock’s magnification.
macOS limits dock magnification to a level. To bypass it, use defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -float 48; killall Dock on Terminal.
- 48 is the default size on most Macs.
- 16 is the smallest size you could set in Settings.
- 1 is the smallest size possible (Useless if app magnification — next point — isn’t enabled).
3) Magnify apps
I love it when the dock smoothly magnifies app icons when I hover pointer over it.
To tweak the icons’ size when it magnifies, use defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 128; killall Dock on Terminal.
- 128 is the largest size you could set in Settings.
- 512 is the largest size possible (prank your friends!).
#5. App Tricks
1) Set scroll up on an app to see all its open windows
I bet you’ll want to keep this setting on all the time. Use defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool TRUE; killall Dock on Terminal.
Now, by placing the pointer over an app’s icon on the dock, and gently scrolling up, you could see all the app’s open windows.
“Why isn’t this a native macOS feature, Tim?”
2) Activate (hidden) Suck animation
By default, macOS offers two app minimising effects — Genie and Scale, right?
But let me say there’s also a hidden effect called “Suck” — that doesn’t suck.
To activate it, use defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect suck; killall Dock on Terminal.
To revert back: Use the command again by replacing "suck" with "genie" or "scale".3) Wanna add these things to dock?
If you often use the above things on your Mac, it’d be handy if you place them on the dock. Here’s how:
- Open Finder (or Desktop),
- Head over to Go < Go to Folder… on the menu bar,
- Use
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications/, - Now, drag those icons to the dock as if they’re apps.
Done!
4) Show only active apps
If you’d like to keep dock as minimal as possible, use defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock on Terminal.
This will remove any inactive apps from the dock, and only shows up active ones. Use this only if you’re okay launching apps from Spotlight or Launchpad.
5) Enable single app mode
Use defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool TRUE; killall Dock on Terminal.
Now, anytime you click on an app’s dock icon (active or not), all the other active apps will be hidden (not closed).
Don’t worry, as you can still access other apps without losing the current app by using ⌘ + tab.
6) Dim hidden app icons
And if you want the hidden apps’ icons to be dimmed for easy identification
use defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool TRUE; killall Dock .
Bonus: To hide an app (window) by yourself, use ⌘ + H.
If you’ve messed up your dock
It’s pretty normal to get excited about nifty Terminal tricks, using them on your dock, and finally messing things up.
I did it, I admit.
If you did too, use defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock on Terminal to reset dock to its factory defaults.
For more a’macOS’zing tricks and Terminal commands, read these
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