Tag Archives: Dock

Overcome the OS X Dock getting stuck on a second monitor

DockIconXIf you have multiple monitors and are using OS X Yosemite or later, you will have Apple’s latest multi-screen implementations available for use, where unlike classic extended desktop setups, each screen can be treated as a separate space, or “virtual desktop”, upon which you are doing work and organizing your windows. Continue reading

How to change the Dock for another user account in OS X

DockIconXThe Dock in OS X is meant to be easily configurable, where you can simply drag items to and from it, or resize and position it to organize and manage it according to your needs. However, there may be times when you need to set up a Dock for another user, which may be more significant for a Mac being used in a school, business, or other multi-user environment, and especially true for one which you are managing remotely. Continue reading

How to maximize screen real estate in OS X

DisplaysIconXIn most instances you may want to have as much desktop space on your Mac as possible to get your work done. While you can organizing windows on your screen and streamline your workflow to reduce clutter, nothing beats having a large workspace on which to open apps and view numerous windows of your files. For any Mac there are several approaches you can take to increase this and get more work done, or at least have more area on which to put your clutter. Continue reading

Options for quickly opening recent documents in OS X

FinderIconYosemiteXWhen you want to open a document in OS X that you have recently edited, you might find yourself locating it on your hard drive, or searching for it in Spotlight. Along these lines, you can also create a smart folder that only shows files that were recently edited; however, OS X contains several approaches to opening recent documents that may make this far easier to do. Continue reading

Three quick tips for managing the Dock in OS X

DockIconXIf you use OS X, then you likely make fairly decent use of the Dock for storing common applications, or switching between them. While you can somewhat adjust the Dock’s default behaviors, overall it is a fairly static element of OS X. However, there are some neat features of the Dock that might give you another level of utility for it. Continue reading

How to use the OS X Dock as a Command-Tab replacement

DockIconXWhen switching between open Apps in OS X, you might generally use Command-Tab; however, you can do similar switching, and far more, directly in the Dock. Even though the Dock is intended to be managed primarily with your mouse, Apple supports accessing it via the keyboard. The default action for this is to press Control-F3, but since some of its features are quite similar to Command-Tab, I recommend changing it to Option-Tab or something similar.

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Reset LaunchPad to fix persistent empty folder bug

LaunchPadIconXIf you install many programs on your Mac, then in a similar way to managing Apps in iOS devices, you can click and drag the various icons in LaunchPad on top of each other to create folders containing them. With such folders created, you ought to be able to undo them by simply removing items from them and when the second to last item is removed, the folder should disappear; however, a bug exists in OS X where this may not happen, leaving you with a number of empty folders that will not disappear from your system, and may progressively clutter LaunchPad. Continue reading

Mac Skills: Switch to top-most windows

DockIconXWhen you use multiple applications on your Mac, you may end up with many windows open at once in each application. This may be for work you are currently doing, but at times you might find yourself with a mountain of open windows that contain progress for various projects, and you might wish to keep them open for the sake of your workflow. Continue reading

Switch only to a specific window in a background application

MissionControlIconXIf your computing habits are anything like mine, after a few hours of work you will end up with a plethora of windows open in various applications. You may have a number of different Safari windows open, along with your workflow and notes organized in TextEdit, half-composed e-mail messages, PDFs and other images open in Preview, and various utilities open. Needless to say, after a while you might simply run out of screen real estate Continue reading