White dot beside icons in Navigation Bar

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Level 1

4 points

White dot beside icons in Navigation Bar

What does it mean when a small white dot appears beside some of the icons within the nav bar? I assume it means that the application is running in the background. Is it prudent to "Quit" these applications or is it OK to keep it running in the background? Sometimes I don't like to Quit it, as it disappears off the nav bar and I have to retreive it. Thanks!

Intel, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 11, 2010 6:17 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,550 points

Apr 11, 2010 6:34 AM in response to MagicMan88

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

Your post is a little confusing as I'm not clear what you mean by a nav bar? If you are referring to the Dock then the white dot does mean an application is running and yes it's 100% OK for it to be running. That is the whole idea of any Windows operating system having the ability to have multiple app's running simultaneously.

Regards,

Roger

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 9

77,176 points

Apr 11, 2010 8:32 AM in response to MagicMan88

Hi MagicMan88

Welcome to Apple Discussions

Yes, the white dot indicates that the Application is open.

To retain any Application on the Dock +(Navigation Bar)+ control (right) click on it and in Options select Keep in Dock. Now then when you Quit the Application, the short cut icon should remain on the Dock for the next time you want to open it.

Also see Mac 101 The Dock > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2474

Dennis

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