Hide the Dock

I'd like to know myself. I'd really prefer that it would just go away and stay there. I just "upgraded" to 10.5 from 10.4, and my favorite command doesn't work anymore. I can still find the process id with ...

$ ps axww | grep -i dock

And I can still kill it with ...

$ kill -9 <pid>

... but in Leopard, another one starts right up to take its place.

It appears that the best you can do in System Preferences is make it as small as you can and check show / hide. It still seems to rob me of a few pixels across the bottom of the screen.

Am I missing what you mean? Does Apple : Dock : Turn Hiding On (option-Apple-D) not work for you?

Turn Hiding On (option-Apple-D) not work for you?

The OP mentions it is possible to show/hide the Dock.

I think what he's looking for is a way to keep it out of the way. Something I also wish Apple would do. It has bugged me from day one that you can't keep the Dock hidden. Can't tell you how many times I've launched an app unintentionally because the stupid Dock keeps popping up in front of a palette I'm going for near the bottom of the screen in Photoshop; or anything else that happens to be close to the Dock.

I really wish Apple would add an option to the Dock that you also have to hold down the Ctrl key or something to get the Dock to pop up if it's hidden. I keep it hidden because I want the dumb thing out of my way unless I need to use it.

With Microsoft Windows, if I hide the Start bar, I only need to hit the Windows key to show it temporarily. After I click on something, the Start bar goes away automatically. Does Leopard have an equivalent procedure for the dock?

In Leopard, I hide the dock. I discover that I can use Option-Command-D to show it again. However, after I am done clicking, the dock does not go away automatically again as in MS Windows. I know I can use the mouse to do that but I prefer keyboard shortcuts.

Thank you for your help.

If you use CMDOPTD to hide it, why doesn't that solve your issue?

Try this to permanently hide the Dock. CMDOPTD and then lock the com.apple.dock.plist file in /Users/username/Library/Preferences/ using the CMD+I command on it.

Hi baltwo,

That may be a great trick to keep it down, but that's not quite what I want it to do. I want it to stay down no matter how close the mouse is to it, but come up if the mouse is within its normal range plus holding down the Ctrl, or other key.

In short, requiring a modifier key before it can come out of hiding no matter how close the mouse is. Or I should say, the option to require a modifier key, or to perform the way it does by default so users have a choice.

Okey, dokey. I seldom if ever hide it, so I have no idea why you'd want to do it. File an enhancement report via Apple's reporter system.

...so I have no idea why you'd want to do it.

As I noted above:

Can't tell you how many times I've launched an app unintentionally because the stupid Dock keeps popping up in front of a palette I'm going for near the bottom of the screen in Photoshop; or anything else that happens to be close to the Dock.

I know of course that I could just leave the Dock open all the time and have the palettes stop at the top of the Dock. But darn it, it's my screen! I should be able to use the space I have how I want to. To me, that's having palettes open as far as possible, among other things.

Need to play stupid. What reporter system?:-)

Can't tell you how many times I've launched an app unintentionally because the stupid Dock keeps popping up in front of a palette I'm going for near the bottom of the screen in Photoshop; or anything else that happens to be close to the Dock.

In regard to screen real estate, and how you use your computer I suspect "Position on the screen" Left/Right makes no difference?

;~)

I suspect "Position on the screen" Left/Right makes no difference?

Correct. Right, left or bottom is always next to some kind of palette (Photoshop, Quark, FontLab, etc.).

Sorry, I missed the Photoshop palette entry. If you want to report this to Apple, send bug reports and enhancement requests via its Bug Reporter system. To do this, join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Since you already have an Apple username/ID, use that. Once a member, go to Apple BugReporter and file your bug report/enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure over submitting Feedback is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.