The Dock is a prominent feature of macOS's graphical user interface. By default, it's on the bottom of the screen, but can be positioned on the left or right side. The Dock offers a convenient way to launch applications, switch between running ones, and access frequently used items. It is used to launch applications and to switch between running applications.
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The Dock is a prominent feature of the graphical user interface of macOS. It is used to launch applications and to switch between running applications.
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Keypress
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Action
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⌃ + fn + F3
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Show or Focus on the Dock
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⌃ + F3
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Show or Focus on the Dock when
Fn keys are locked |
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⌥ + ⌘ + D
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Show/hide the Dock
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⟵
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Select left application
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⟶
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Select right application
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Enter
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Switch to the selected application
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defaults
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Additionally to System Settings, the Dock can be adjusted using the
defaults command (from the command line, using the Terminal application or any similar). All these commands requires to relaunch the Dock. So, for practical purposes, all the commands shown here includes the {{lang-bash}}killall Dock command.If you feel your Dock configuration is getting messy at any time, you can reset it to the default configuration and start over. The section on Resetting the Dock in this cheat sheet. |
defaults command
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The
defaults command allows users to read, write, and delete macOS user defaults from a command-line shell. |
defaults actions
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Action
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Description
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read |
Prints all of the user's defaults, for every domain, to standard output.
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write |
Writes value as the value for key in domain. value must be a property list, and must be enclosed in single quotes.
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delete |
Removes all default information for domain or a key ion a domain
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A default belong to a domain, a domain name of the form com.companyname.appname, which typically correspond to individual applications.
Each domain has a dictionary of keys and values representing its defaults; for example, "Default Font" = "Helvetica". Keys are always strings, but values can be complex data structures comprising arrays, dictionaries, strings, and binary data. These data structures are stored as XML property lists. |
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Flag
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Type
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-string |
Default value type if no flag type is provided. Allows the user to specify a string as the value for the given preference key.
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-int[eger] |
Allows the user to specify an integer as the value for the given preference key.
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-float |
Allows the user to specify a floating point number as the value for the given preference key.
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-bool[ean] |
Allows the user to specify a boolean as the value for the given preference key. Value must be TRUE, FALSE, YES, or NO
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For more information on other flags, consult the online help in the command line via Terminal or similar applications, e.g. type:
$ man defaults |
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Commands are shown using a
non-proportional font. Placeholders (elements to substitute) are shown in italic. Lines too long are shown with a BASH "backslash continuation line" character. |
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Adding an space between the icons in the Dock
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defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps \ |
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Size of the Dock
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defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -float 48 |
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Magnification size
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defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 128 |
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To show all windows of an application doing an scroll action on the icon
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defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open \ |
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To keep only the active applications
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defaults write com.apple.dock static-only \ |
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To highlight hidden (⌘ + H) applications
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defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool TRUE |
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Time to show or to hide
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defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay \ |
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Animation time to show or to hide the Dock
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defaults write com.apple.dock \ |
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Reviewing the Dock settings
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defaults read setting |
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Example (reviewing the
autohide-delay setting). |
defaults read com.apple.dock autohide-delay |
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Resetting a specific setting could be done by deletion
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defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock |
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Resetting everything to the factory settings
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defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock |
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Some applications for management or enhancement of the Dock.
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1. Dockey, URL: https://dockey.publicspace.co/
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2. ActiveDock 2, URL: https://noteifyapp.com/activedock/
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1. "Dock (macOS)", Wikipedia, web. Visited: 2024.12.18. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_(macOS))
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2. "The Dock on your Mac", Apple Inc., web. Visited: 2024.12.18. URL: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/macbook-air/apd4b7fb731f/mac
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Manual pages with detailed information on the
defaults command is available from the command line with: |
man defaults |
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Additionally, a quick usage reference is provided with:
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defaults -h |
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Version
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1.1.0
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Cheatography n. The art of mapping complex subjects into clear, instantly navigable reference guides.