How to use the Dock with Applications

How to use the Dock with Applications
Mac Tip #425, 24 February 2010

On its left side (or top), the Dock holds icons for Applications. Click an Application to start it up or to switch to it. Add or Remove Applications, and arrange them to give you the best access to what you need. Here’s how.

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Open applications from the Dock

If an application icon is ‘stored’ in the Dock click on the Dock icon to open that application. If the application is already open, then clicking the icon brings that application to the front.

Applications have their own portion of the Dock

Applications belong in the left-hand side of the Dock, and cannot be added to the right-hand side.

If the Dock is vertical then they ‘own’ the top portion of the Dock.

Remove Applications from the Dock by dragging

There may be applications in the Dock that you seldom or never use. Leaving their icons in the Dock just creates clutter. Take an application’s icon out of the Dock to free up space. The Application stays on your computer, so you can still use it any time you do need it.

To remove an application from the Dock point to it and then quickly drag it out. The icon is removed from the Dock in a puff of ‘smoke’.

If the application opens, then you didn’t act quickly enough. Don’t click and hold on the icon as that will just open or switch to an application.

Instead, hover over the icon in the Dock, then quickly press on it and drag it out in one easy movement.

Remove an application from the Dock by menu

If dragging an icon out of the Dock doesn’t work well for you then use the contextual menu:

1. Click and hold the application’s icon in the Dock. A contextual menu appears. The menu in Snow Leopard is a bit different from the menu in older versions of Mac OS X.
2. From the Contextual menu choose Options > Remove from Dock.
3. The icon is removed from the Dock (with a small puff of ‘smoke’) and the icons to either side move in to fill the empty space. The application itself remains on your computer.

Add an Application to the Dock by dragging

Normally, when you quit an application whose icon is not ‘stored’ in the Dock that icon disappears from the Dock.

To ‘store’ an application’s icon in the Dock:

1. Open the Applications folder in the Finder.
2. Select the application to add to the Dock.
3. Drag the application’s icon on to the Dock between other icons. The existing icons move aside to make room for the new application. When you release the mouse the icon is added to the Dock in the place where you dropped it.
4. Whether the application is running or not, the icon stays in the Dock until you remove it.

Add an open Application to the Dock

If an application is already open or running on your computer you can ‘keep’ its icon in the Dock to use again later.

The Keep in Dock contextual menu option in Snow Leopard.

1. Open an application.
2. Locate its icon in the Dock. There will be a marker beneath the application’s icon — in Snow Leopard the marker is a blue dot. If your Dock is against the left or right edge of your screen the dot will be correspondingly to the left or right of the icon.
3. Click and hold the application’s icon in the Dock. The screen dims, thumbnail-sized windows may appear, and a contextual menu appears. The menu in Snow Leopard is a bit different from the menu in older versions of Mac OS X.
4. From the Contextual menu choose Options > Keep in Dock.
5. That application’s icon now stays in the Dock, even if you quit the application.

Change the order of icons in the Dock

It’s easy to move icons around within the Dock:

1. Click and hold on an icon in the Dock to select it.
2. Drag the icon to the left or right for a horizontal Dock, or up or down for a vertical Dock. The icon switches places with the icon next to it.

The Finder icon is special. It always stays at the end of the Dock. You cannot move or remove it. When you double click it a Finder window opens.

Application Options

Click and hold on an application’s icon in the Dock to call up a menu of options. Depending on whether the application is already running or not you may see options such as ‘Keep in Dock’, ‘Quit’, ‘Open at Login’, ‘Hide’, and ‘Show in Finder’.

Do you find the Dock the best way to access your Applications? Tell us in the Comments how you use Applications in the Dock.