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Create a 'superdock' replacement for Apple's Dock Desktop
I think the Dock is a brilliant concept, but Apple's version is far from perfect. The incredible shrinking icon syndrome is a major GUI flaw, but what do I know, Im just a user. Anyway, I have combined a couple of pieces of shareware and a contextual menu to create a stable and legible 'superdock.' For those that know Drop Drawers X and Dock-it, the quick hot tip is to create an Open Apps drawer and position it so that the drawer's tab coincides with the customizable image on the Dock-it dock. Sweep your mouse over the drawer tab and be amazed!

Superdock is probably stretching it, but with one flick of the mouse, my dock unhides and automatically displays the icons of all open apps. Open apps are shown either horizontal or vertical, in alphabetical order -- and the icons display at a constant but customisable size, regardless of how many apps are open. If you can't identify an app by its icon, you can mouse over for text.

From the dock, I can also open my favourite apps from custom folders (as per usual), but open them without the dock getting clogged up. Rather sneakily, the open apps are hived off to the Apple dock which is hiding out the way! Clicking an icon brings the app to the front, but you are only assured of bringing the app's window to the front if it is already open somewhere on the desktop.

I have an alias to the Applications folder in every custom folder, so if I can't see the app I want in my list of favourites, the last item will link me to every app on my hard drive. A slicker way would be to have the option of a system-wide contextual menu item at the bottom of each folder's listing, but the best I can do at the moment is drill across from the CM item Browser Volumes, which shows at the bottom of every folder menu.

If I want to check for new Mail or do any force quitting from a dock -- two useful functions that my all-in-one custom dock set up can't do -- I just unhide the Apple dock for a minute.

Setting up the superdock

Move the Apple dock to a different side and hide it. This is done from Apple Menu -> Dock -> Position sub-menu.

Next, set up your custom folders for your new dock -- i.e. create a new folder, call it Browsers for instance, and fill it with aliases of related browser/internet apps, utilities or URLs. Customise the folder icon (the slickest way I know is using FinderIconCM, but your mileage may vary), then repeat for the other categories of folders you require.

Install Dock-it from the above linked page.

In Dock-it's Preferences, go to Favourites and create a new dock by clicking the + at the bottom of the pop-out drawer. Next go to the Choose icon in the window's menubar. When you have selected all the folders you require for your dock, drag the folders into the order you require. Then go to Settings, and drag in an image -- for maximum aesthetic effect, it should be very very faint or, ideally, translucent (.png?). For best effect, set the dock to hide. In Location, place the dock where you like, i.e. probably where you had your Apple Dock! Fiddle with other preferences as you wish. Fire up Dock it.

You will see that the image you included in the Preferences is either at the top of the dock (if you located the dock on the left or right side of your desktop) or it will be on the left side of your dock (if the dock is located at the bottom of your desktop). Hopefully you can see the desktop through it. BTW, control-clicking on the image will bring up access to editing DockIt's settings.

Next, install Drop Drawers X and select a default drawer for open apps. In the preferences, call it "Superdock" or whatever you like, and locate it on the same side that you have placed your new Dock-it dock. Arrange icons By Name. Thereafter, customise the drawer how you like. Close preferences. The hot tip is to drag the Superdock tab so that it coincides with the image on your Dock-it dock, as seen in this image. There you have it. Sweep your mouse over the Superdock tab and launch almost the mother of all docks.
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Create a 'superdock' replacement for Apple's Dock | 1 comments | Create New Account
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Shareware Fees are $30
Authored by: alexmathew on Aug 24, '04 03:19:57PM

DropDrawers is $20
Dock-it is $10
just FYI
AM



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