How do I pin an app to the dock?

Question

Level 7

29,298 points

How do I pin an app to the dock?

Dear folk,

As a life-time PC user I'm struggling a bit with my new Macbook Air. Most things I can figure out, but even a web search has yet to reveal something that is probably so obvious I feel embarassed to ask - but ask I will.

I installed a program I will be using most of the time and if this were a Windows machine I'd just pin it to my taskbar so I could one-click start it after boot. I see there is a "dock" which resembles the taskbar and looks to be a place I could send apps to... except I can't figure out how to do it. Again, in Windows I'd just right-click and "Send to Taskbar" but right-clicking here, while bringing up a lot of options, doesn't seem to offer that or anything like it.

It also ends up on the second page and unlike my iPhone and iPad, where I can just drag apps over after getting them to jiggle, I find I can't even drag this thing anywhere (again, most likely user ignorance). If I could I'd try dragging it to the dock as I do with both of those other Apple devices.

Is this possible and, if so, how the heck do I do it? (And be gentle -- if I actually end up keeping this thing I'll be the oldest and longest PC user ever to make the switch).

MacBook Air

Posted on Nov 29, 2011 5:50 PM

Reply

Answer 1

slyguy_28

Level 2

188 points

Nov 29, 2011 6:44 PM in response to Mike Kelley

I came from PC myself, and it does take quite a bit of "re-thinking" and learning new habits. When I bought my Mac, I also purchased a year subscription to OneToOne-a professional and personalized walkthru of the basics of Mac. Click HERE to learn more. I also found quite a bit of help from this site HERE and HERE.

Hope this helps, and WELCOME to Mac!!

Sly

Reply

Answer 2

Asatoran

Level 4

2,532 points

Nov 29, 2011 5:53 PM in response to Mike Kelley

Open the app. Two-finger tap on the app in the Dock. Hover over Options. Tap on Keep In Dock.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 29, 2011 5:55 PM in response to Mike Kelley

On your dock, click the "Finder" icon(the little half-blue half-white face), and then click "Applications" on the left. Find the Application you want, and like you said, simply drag it down to the dock, and bam. It will stay there.

You were talking about trying to do that from the program called "Launchpad", which is different. As far as rearranging the icons in Launchpad goes, just click and hold your mouse on the App for a few seconds until it jiggles, just like on iOS. Then drag it where you want.

Reply

Answer 4

Mike Kelley Author

Level 7

29,298 points

Nov 29, 2011 6:00 PM in response to Mike Kelley

Looks like these are both the right answers -- so I'll try and mark them that way (but if one "wins" it's not my intention. I can see these are two different ways of accomplishing the same task and both are useful to know).

Thanks, guys -- I appreciate it (I did suspect it would be easy, but I have SO many preconceived notions to try and get rid of it's going to be a little tough sledding at first).

Reply