Well today is Tuesday (MacDay) and today is going to be interesting, We’ve got a VERY beginners tutorial for the OSX dock, My reasoning is that many who don’t use OSX and Macs aren’t aware of its benefits. Anyways:

First off, lets jump into the dock. Now some who haven’t ever used OSX or Mac OS at all can be very confused and irritated by the dock. I’m here to tell you that the dock is your friend, learn it, live it, be it:

The first thing you’ll notice after logging in (which is rather new to Mac users in itself), is that thing at the bottom of the screen with those gorgeous icons: the dock. It’s the new way to launch applications, switch between them and get around on your Mac. Here are some tips to make that the dock more fun and/or useful.

The Main Preferences Window

The main preferences window lets you adjust the size, magnification, auto-hide and animation options for the doc. To open the main preferences select Apple -> System Preferences… and click the Dock icon.

What happens if I hold-click on an icon in the dock?

* Folder: presents a contextual menu that has the contents of that folder in it. This is a great way to get some functionality similar to the Classic Mac OS Apple menu or the Windows Start menu. You can store aliases to applications and folders that you use often in a folder and keep that folder in the dock for easy access.
* Minimized Window: tells you that it’s a minimized window
* Application: gives you a contextual menu that lets you do things like show the application in the Finder (where it is stored), quit the application or select open documents to have them come to the foreground. If you press the option key when this menu is in view it will change the Quit option into Force Quit

How do I make an application stay in the dock when I quit it?
Option-click on the application and select Keep In Dock from the contextual menu.

How do I remove an item from the dock?
Grab the icon and drag it to the desktop and it will disappear in a cloud of smoke.

How do I collapse a window into the dock?
There are three ways to collapse a window into the dock.

1. Click the small orange button in the top left corner of a window.
2. Double-click the title bar of a window
3. Highlight the window and select Window -> Minimize Window

How do I restore an item out of the dock with a cool slow motion effect?
Hold down shift and option and click on the item that is collapsed into the dock.

What stuff goes where in the dock?
Applications go on the left side of the dividing line with the Finder at the extreme left. Folders and minimized windows go on the right side with the Trash on the extreme right. In addition, docklings (or dock extras) are mini-applications that control displays, volume etc. They can go on either side of the dock’s dividing line. To move icons around, click and drag them where you want them. Each icon can go wherever you like as long as it’s within it’s proper area. For example, TextEdit can go anywhere between the Finder and the dividing line, but not on the right side of the line.

Misc.

* Command-click application: opens the folder that holds that application
* Option-click application: hides the current application and switches to the one that you click.
* Command-Option-click Application: hides all open applications and switches to the one that you click.
* Command-Option-D: toggles between hiding and showing the dock
* Command-Tab: cycle forward through open applications
* Command-Shift-Tab: cycle backward through open applications
* Click on verticle divider bar and drag up and down to resize dock.
* Option-click on verticle divider bar and drag up and down to resize dock to standard non-interpolated sizes.

Well that will about do it for today’s Mac tip, as always send all your email over to brasonmyguitar@gmail.com OR you can post it in the forums, peace out-

-b