Transcription
Hi, this is Gary with macmost.com. Let's look at some simple steps you can take to clean up your dock.
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So, the dock can be one of the most useful tools on your Mac's desktop. But how useful it is depends on whether you take the time to clean it up and customize it for your use. So, the first thing to do is to maybe get rid of apps that you really don't use. Here's the default set of apps in macOS Ventura 13.1. Chances are you don't use all of these on a regular basis. Remember, just getting them out of the dock doesn't mean you can't run them. It just means that they're not listed here to be able to run them quickly. You can get rid of them by clicking and dragging up until you see the remove indicator there, then remove all of the different apps that you may not want. Your choices are going to be different than anybody else's, so do this specifically based on what you use and don't use.
Next, you're going to want to add the apps that you do actually use all the time. The easiest way to do that is go to the Finder and create a new Finder window, and then go to Applications. Now you're going to see all of your different apps. Go through this list and see if there's something that you use all the time that's not in the dock, and then drag it down and put it in a position that makes sense for you. Once you've added any applications that you want, take the time to organize the dock and move the items left and right to get them in an order you like. You can always revise this later on.
Now, for the apps that you've decided to remove, remember that you could always access them using Launchpad. Here, you don't have to actually click and launch Launchpad like that. You can click and hold or control-click, and it brings up a list of all of your apps. So anything you've removed here can easily be accessed through Launchpad. For that reason alone, you should leave Launchpad in the dock, even if you don't use it that often. If you have removed it, you can always go back to the Applications folder and find it there and drag it back in.
Now, System Settings should be in the dock by default, and you can simply click it to launch System Settings. But like with Launchpad, you can also click and hold or control-click, and it will bring up a list of all the different sections of System Settings, so you can jump right to a section. Given its similarity to Launchpad, I suggest moving it all the way to the left, putting it next to Launchpad. So now you've got the ability to launch any app by clicking Launchpad. You have the ability to get to any of your settings by clicking and holding System Settings, and then always to the left in the dock is the Finder, and you click and hold there, and you have a variety of different things you can do, like create a new Finder window, start a search, go to a folder, see recent folders, etc. In fact, you have a lot of great controls here now, and the three items here to the left kind of feels a little bit like the Windows Start menu, if that's something you like.
Now, on the right side of the dock, you may see three items here that did three recent apps that you've used that aren't normally located in the dock. The idea here is if you use an app that's not in the dock normally, it's readily available for you to go back to it again. But it does take up a lot of space, so you may want to get rid of it. So if you go to System Settings and then to Desktop & Dock, there's an option to get rid of this, to switch this off, and now those are gone. You're still going to see any apps that are currently running on the right, but they won't remain there after you quit them.
Now, you may also have items here to the right of the line next to the trash can, and these are files and folders you've added to the dock. Apps go on the left, and files and folders go on the right. So, for instance, by default, you've got a Downloads folder here. If you don't need this folder or anything else that you've placed over here on the right, you can easily get rid of it, just like any other thing in the dock. But one thing you may want to add is a link to your Documents folder. This one item gives you a lot of power. So in the Finder, go to your Documents folder, go up a level from that, and then take your Documents folder and drag it to the right side. This is where it really pays to organize all your files in your Documents folder, because if you do, then you have every file you'll ever need right there.
Now, control-click on this and set it to List View. Also have it display as a folder, and then set the sort by to what you want. I'm going to leave it as Name, but some people may want to have Date Modified as the sort order. Now, if you click on this, it gives you everything that's in your Documents folder, and you could dig down into subfolders to get to anything that you want. In fact, you can even use keyboard shortcuts to get to any file you want. For instance, you can use the Globe key and A, or Control-F3, to get to the Finder, and then left arrow over to the Trash, and then to Documents, up arrow into here, and you can dig down into any folder and get to any document.
Now, another issue with the dock is that it's always there, and it takes up a lot of screen real estate. You can change that by going to System Settings and then to Desktop & Dock, and then in there you can set it to automatically hide and show the dock, and then the dock is gone unless you move your pointer to the bottom, and then it appears. If you think about it, the only time you can use the dock is if you move your pointer to the bottom, so why not have it hidden until you actually go to use it? And note that using the keyboard shortcut like the Globe key and A will bring it up as well.
Now, if you use the minimize function, by default it will minimize to the right side of the dock. If you minimize a bunch of windows, it's going to fill up the dock pretty quickly. However, you do have a better option. Go into System Settings, Desktop & Dock, and then switch on "Minimize windows into application icon." So now, when you minimize a window, instead of going into the right side, it goes into the app. It doesn't take up any extra space in the dock, and you can click and hold on the app and then bring the window back.
Another option you've got is the dock size. If you've cleaned it up a lot and you don't have too many icons in here now, the icons will expand to fill the space available to the dock. But if you set the size to small, you can make the dock pretty small and not get in the way as much. And you also have the ability, if you want, to position the dock on the left or right side of the screen instead of at the bottom, so it can appear on the side instead. Of course, screens are much wider than they are tall, so sometimes, depending upon the apps you use and how you use windows and such, it could be more convenient to have the dock on the side of the screen than on the bottom.
So, one last tip here. If you customize the dock a lot but you decide you just want to start over again, you can restore the dock to its default settings. To do that, launch Terminal and then type `defaults delete com.apple.dock` and then, instead of a separate line, just on the same line with a semicolon, you can do `killall Dock`. This will relaunch the dock. This just deletes the preference file for the dock, so when you do it now, you'll see the dock returns to its original settings.
Taking a few minutes to customize your dock now could save you a few seconds here, a few seconds there, and stretched out over weeks and months could be a good boost to your productivity. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.
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