Apple Dock

January 22, 2016 by cryan.com

You can learn a lot about a Macintosh user by checkout what applications they have in the Dock. So here are the applications that I use all the time, my work MacBook Pro looks just about the same.

imacdock

A little more details about the icons in the doc. Simply click on the row to visit the website of that particular application.

FireFox - Usually my default browser. I have a bare minimum extensions installed so it loads quickly and takes less memory. Chrome - Works better for any Google apps; such as gmail and Google Drive. Safari - I don't use this all that much on the computer, I find that Chrome and Firefox development tools are a bit better than Safari. BBEdit - My favorite text editor. If I am doing any web work, chances are that BBEdit is being used. BBEdit is the only Application that I have installed on every Macintosh computer since my Centris 660av. Transmit - This is how I get files to and from my server. I have used many similar applications over the years and find the Transmit is the best of the best. EverNote - I use this to store my ideas and resources. If I want to know what printer cartridge, train schedule or anything that I would write down at my desk, I can store it in one place and have access to it anywhere Skitch - Great tool to do screen captures. I can add annotation and sketches. All the screen captures get stored in Evernote where I can easily search previous screen captures. iTunes - My music library. Photos - Since the summer of 2015, this is where I keep all my photo and videos. Due to disk space, I only store about two months worth of data. OmniGraffle - I was using this as an image layout tool. I have found a lot of the core functionality is available in Pixelmator. I should rethink having this in the dock. Pixelmator - This is my primary graphic editing tool. Whenever I have to edit/create/modify a graphic I am using Pixelmator. Adrium - I use to use this a lot for chat at work. The company has recently switch to Slack. I will be removing this from the dock. iTerm - A great Terminal replacement. I use this anytime that I need to SSH or run some unix commands. iMovie - All my YouTube movies are created using iMovie. I am looking to replace it, since I feel that I have moved on from the core fundaments that iMovie offers. Pages - I use this to write letters or documents. I have looked into Nisus Writer and other apps as a suitable replacement. TextExpander - My timesaver tool. I use this to save time whenever I type the same thing over and over again. I only have this in my Dock because I like to constantly make changes to snippets. Its just easier when its in the dock.

Dock Technical Tips

The dock works much better when you have spacers. That is blank space in the dock, so that you can group similar icons together and the dock doesn't look bloated. Here's and example of a spacer in my dock:

Dock Spacer

To get spacer in your Doc, simply open up Terminal or iTerm and type the following in:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock

In your Dock you will see an empty space, simply move that to where ever you want. Run the above command to add more dock spacer.

So what's in your Dock?

Macintosh Permalink

Wednesday	Affinity
Thursday	BBEdit
Friday	Macintosh
Saturday	Internet Tools
Sunday	Open Topic
Monday	Media Monday
Tuesday	QA

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