"I'm Not Dead Yet"

I'll sheepishly, but freely, admit that I watch "Friends," and have for quite some time now. So I didn't have to reach too far back into my vast library of mostly worthless television and movie quotes to assign Chandler's "can open, worms everywhere" line to describe the e-stack o' feedback stuffed into my Inbox about my recent predecessor to this tutorial, entitled "Killing the Undead."

Once I was able to filter out the usual messages assailing my maternal lineage and the sincere, urgent, plentiful, and I'm sure quite legitimate offers of free money from a very polite Nigerian gentleman, the ones that were left could be boiled down into a variation of the following theme:

"Golly gee-willikers, Kevin, I'm not crazy about the Dock, but I don't want to get rid of it completely because..."

It's the "because" part of that statement I'm going to address today. It's understandable that many of you would like some sort of middle ground with respect to Jaguar's Dock, a solution that falls neatly between the Dock's unfettered, Big Brother-like natural state and the swift death that I am on record as believing it so richly deserves. So, as a service to you, dear reader, I'm going to offer assistance for some of the most requested scenarios I received, with the ultimate goal of helping you take back some control from the Dock without having to resort to killing it (for the most part, anyway).

"...because I just can't live without the Minimize Window feature."

My token "kill the Dock anyway" recommendation goes here, because the geniuses at Unsanity offer WindowShade X ($10), which re-introduces the pre-OS X Windowshade function to OS X. For many, myself included, WsX presents a more than acceptable solution to the problem of losing the Minimize feature that disabling the Dock introduces. WsX lets you assign different shading behaviors to various minimizing features (fig. 1), which in the case of not having a Dock, gives you the option of the Classic Windowshade feature or introducing levels of transparency to "minimized" windows (fig. 2). That's my lone "leave the Dock dead" tip, I promise.

Figure 1: WindowShade X's many shading features.

Figure 2: The classic WindowShade effect (top), plus the newfangled transparent "minimized" window (bottom).

Let's say that you want to keep the Dock for the Minimize feature only, but that you don't want it just sitting there, taking space away from your other apps, and that you really, really hate when you move your mouse too close to whatever side it's anchored at and it pops up from its preferred hidden state and gets in the way of whatever you were just planning on doing. How's that for a run-on sentence? While that sounds like a pretty specific scenario, I actually got a lot of mail from people who were looking for a solution to just that problem. Here's what you can do:

1) Either in the Dock System Preferences panel or by right-clicking in the Dock (fig. 3), turn on Dock hiding.

Figure 3: Control-click in the Dock's "DMZ" area to invoke options directly from the Dock.

2) Use a utility such as Cocktail (free) to place the Dock at the top of the screen, and pin it where you like (fig. 4).

Figure 4: Programs like Cocktail let you place and pin the Dock on any side of the screen.

3) Optionally, you can use a program like ASM ($15) to hide or show the Dock on an application-by-application basis (as an added bonus, it also gives you back the Application menu on the right side of the menu bar).

So what does all that do? First of all, by turning hiding on, you can toggle the visibility of the Dock through OS X's native Command+Option+D keyboard shortcut so it only appears when you specifically need it. Then, by attaching the Dock to the top of the screen (right underneath the menu bar), it becomes extremely difficult to accidentally make the hidden Dock pop into view unintentionally. Try it and you'll see. Lastly, a program like ASM lets you assign hidden or visible Dock states to specific applications, so you'll have the Dock automatically hide or show itself based on the best-case scenario for each application you use. This combination of steps effectively gets the Dock out of the way, while still providing relatively handy access to any minimized windows you've genie-d on down to the Dock.

"...because all that really bugs me is that I can't use third-party programs for program switching."

Two answers here, my friends. The first answer is to select a program switcher that wrestles the Command+Tab shortcut away from Jaguar's Dock. Perhaps "select" is a misleading word here, since to my knowledge, there is only one: LiteSwitch X ($15). Once it's activated, you can actually see the Dock go away for a second, and then re-spawn itself. Presumably, LiteSwitch X has smacked the Dock around a little behind the scenes, because by the time the Dock comes back, the Command-Tab combination invokes the LiteSwitch X program switcher (fig. 5) instead of the native Dock switching behavior.

Figure 5: LiteSwitch X's Command+Tab-friendly application switcher.

For those seeking a solution that works with other third-party program switchers, check out PullTab (free), which effectively blinds the Dock to the Command+Tab sequence and leaves that combination free for any other program that wants to step up to the plate. However, there is one problem of note: any keystrokes normally reserved for the Dock, such as the previously mentioned hide/show combo, are also disabled under PullTab, but that's the price you pay for the flexibility it offers.

"...because I won't have a visible trash can anymore."

Well, if you're planning on using DragThing ($25), somewhere in your setup, you can set DT's process menu to have a trash can at the end of it, which behaves exactly the same as it's counterpart on the Dock (albeit without all the task-specific icons that pop up when you eject or burn by dragging to the trash can). If placing a trash can directly on the desktop floats your boat, DT can do that too (fig. 6), along with a couple of other candidates: TrashX ($10) and iCan ($10).

Figure 6: DragThing allows you to place a trash can in the process menu (left) or directly on the Desktop (right).

Of course, a method I recommend is to go "commando style," if you will, and opt to use Jaguar's native keystrokes and contextual menus that perform all of the draggable functions of the Dock-based trash can. Command+Delete sends objects to the trash can, Command+Shift+Delete empties the trash, Command+E ejects removable drives and server shares, right-clicking on a prepped blank CD will reveal the Burn option, and so on. I realize this solution isn't for everyone, as many folks prefer to have visual contact with the various trash can functions, but for keyboard junkies like myself, this is a perfect opportunity to wean yourself from the trash can.

"...because I depend on Dock feedback for Mail.app (or some other program that offers live data through the Dock)."

I do believe that the technical term that applies to those in this situation is that you're SOL. I'd also suggest using ASM in this case to invoke a set of specified rules to automatically hide and show the Dock when you're working in programs that require Dock feedback. I also recommend that you complain to Apple to provide more documentation to developers looking to enable Dock feedback in their respective Dock replacement/enhancement utilities.

Hopefully I've answered most of your questions on this topic which has, apparently, piqued many an interest out there. Of course, I'm still all for getting rid of the Dock, but as I realize that not everyone has the same feelings as I do in this matter, rest assured that you do have a healthy set of options available to you if you're looking to get back some control over your Dock setup.

Filed under: Tutorial on March 20th, 2003

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