Leopard Tricks Tips and Tools

I found this handy little trick on macosxhints.com. Most people use Exposé quite frequently, I know I do. I have one of my hot corners set to “show desktop” which I like to do if I want to make sure something has downloaded correctly. However, all of my windows get shoved off the screen and there’s that annoying black border. So when I found this terminal command, I was delighted.

Open terminal and type in:
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-olddesktop -bool false

Then, restart the dock by typingkillall DockThis way, when you “show desktop” (default F11) all of your windows combine into a little window on your desktop.

written by conorjs1224 \\ tags: dock, expose, Leopard

Check out http://www.blocksoft.net/docker.html and download “Docker.” It’s a great little app to change your leopard dock from 2D to 3D. The new version lets you add spaces between your docks, so you can have application groups. You can even change the color of the dock. Check it out.

written by conorjs1224 \\ tags: dock, Leopard

Hold the option key while selection an application in the dock, and all other windows will be hidden automatically (though I found that it doesn’t hide Finder windows all the time).

written by insane-dreamer \\ tags: dock, Leopard

Pressing Option + Command + D hides the dock. Move the mouse to the bottom of the screen to show it. It Will ide again when your mouse moves away.

written by clikoman \\ tags: dock, Leopard

Here’s another submission via email from Ethan:

Here are a few things I discovered about the Leopard dock. Hope they’re not repeats.

1. If you press an app or a file icon on the dock while holding down the Command key, the containing folder is opened, and not the app or file.

2. The same happens with Stacks. If you press the Command key in an expanded stack, it will open the containing folder of the item without launching it.

3. You can press the Alt key in an expanded stack and it will launch the item without collapsing the stack.

4. Finally, you can combine 2 and 3, to open the containing folder in an expanded stack without collapsing the stack.

Ethan
http://backpackingonlittlemoney.wordpress.com/

written by James \\ tags: dock, Leopard

I have known this for a while now, but I didn’t think of submitting it here before.

So, if you want to change the look of your Dock (eg. I think, in the default dock it isn’t very clear to see when an application is open or not) you have to change some files you can find at /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app (ctrl-click show package contents) /Contents/Resources there you can find the images that represent the indicators (indicator_… files), dock background (scurve-… files), etc. when you replaced this files you have to restart the dock by opening terminal and type ‘killall Dock’you can find a lot of premade Docks on the internet (just google for it) my favorite site is http://leoparddocks.net/ I found the tip at http://macthemes2.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16782319

* note from James. I think we’ve covered this before, however I’ll publish this anyway as a re-cap! also be warned that you could ruin your dock by playing with these files

written by Rc \\ tags: dock, Leopard

This isn’t really a “tip” or “trick,” but since it applies to numerous entries posted here, it is of valuable note: Macenstein and Macdailynews.com are reporting a rumor that will hopefully put to rest all of the complaints about Stacks since Leopard’s release.

According to those sources, the soon to be released major update of Leopard (10.5.2) will bring back hierarchical browsing to the Dock. The hierarchical view (referred to as “list” view) will be added to the view options of “fan,” “grid” and “automatic.”

In addition, there will apparently be a preference added to Stacks that will allow users to display them as simple folders instead of the rather unappealing “stack of icons” default view currently available.

Please note that these may only be rumors at the moment, so you would do well to hold off on celebrations. For more information–and screenshots–visit MacDailyNews.com.

written by rockmsockm \\ tags: dock, Stacks

Over at kuragari.com they figured out that you could make application stacks in the leopard beta, but that feature seems to have been killed in the final version. Imagine having an Office stack in the apps in your dock. Or a CS3 stack. Or a games stack. Right now, the only way to do this is with a bunch of aliases in a folder. Not quite the same as dragging a group of apps to the dock. Check out the video if you don’t get my meaning.

http://kuragari.com/2007/12/03/the-way-it-was-supposed-to-be/

Someone needs to figure out how to implement this hack on a massively distributed scale. Maybe someone here at LeopardTricks.com?

written by thatnimrod \\ tags: dock, Leopard, Stacks