Soldato
Post your dock, right now!
- Thread starter Feek
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Soldato
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Considering I Spotlight most things, I should really slim my dock down but never get round to it. I've no idea why Alfred is in there for example, it doesn't need to be. Adobe Updater popped up probably a week ago, I haven't used Transmission in about as long, I never play Chopper, etc etc.
Disgraceful.
Edit:
Much better.
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Soldato
Only running programs are in the Dock. There's no point having a mishmash of running and non-running icons if using something like LaunchBar.
I don't use any fancy launcher at all, when my Mac starts fresh (which doesn't happen often) there's hardly anything in the dock at all. You'll notice in my screenshot that everything is active, I very rarely close anything!
I use spotlight to open applications and documents 99% of the time.
I use spotlight to open applications and documents 99% of the time.
Soldato
How do you folk deal with say - opening a picture with photoshop ? I like to drag a picture onto the photoshop icon, which is the only reason I have it there. To open an app I usually use spotlight.
Soldato
Dock: http://emey87.deviantart.com/art/Elegantia-docks-for-Mac-180117588Nice
Can I get a link to the dock and the firefox icon please?
Icon: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/120915/Carbon Firefox.icns - In Candybar format. Give me a shout if you need it as another format, and I'll try and export it to that.
Soldato
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I go through patches of using PS, during those patches I keep it on the dock. During my ... probably six-monthly bouts of 'wtf is all this **** on my dock' it gets binned, then it ends up there again. Otherwise I spotlight it then drag the picture to it. Obviously after that it's open and thus sitting on my dock.
I don't see the point of having a 'clean' dock just for the sake of it. Stuff I'm using a lot currently is there. (Ideally)
I'm horrible for not closing apps as well. that screenshot I put up before has apps in it, running, that I haven't used in two or three weeks :/
Considering I've spent a lot of my 'career' showing people how to use their Macs properly, my machine is in an awful state because when I get home I just can't be arsed, everything's all over everywhere because I just spotlight everything.
My work machine's much better, but that's only because it has to be.
Soldato
The app I have set as the default for that file extension is what I want most of the time, because QuickLook often serves as a "light" alternative.
Also, With LaunchBar, you can grab whatever's selected in Finder. So if you had "foo.png" selected, you could type:
Cmd-Space (Activate LaunchBar)
Cmd-G (Get selection from Finder)
Tab (Do something with selection)
"ph" (Select Photoshop)
Return (Open the finder selection with Photoshop)
When I tried Spotlight as a launcher, the thing that bothered me was that there was a time element to it on every invocation. i.e. if you typed "foo" then a different thing might be opened depending on how many milliseconds pass before you press return.
Something like LaunchBar isn't "live searching" on every invocation so it has no time element and is truly instant.
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Soldato
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I'll tell you what grinds my gears.
Every now and then - not often, but occasionally - I'll bash CMD & Space, type (for example) "iPhoto" and hit Enter, and I'm greeted with this:
Makes me rage!
I don't tend to use a lot of third party launchers, not because I don't like them, but because I've been in the habit for quite some time of using stock Macs because of work. It's not so much an issue now but the habit's stuck, regardless. I wonder if it'll change now I spend markedly less time on the shop floor.
I suppose I've just got into the habit of making the most of a 'stock' Mac, because I spent so much time using them.
Soldato
That's the trade off I guess. If I sit at a random Mac I'll be raging because half of my shortcuts don't work and it's not set up how I like.
But it's definitely a trade off working taking IMO.
But it's definitely a trade off working taking IMO.
Soldato
simliar here -- but how can i 'spotlight it then drag' ? When i do that the spotlight menu dissappears so i can't drag it there?
yes. I wish the dock could do some kind of '20 most recently used apps' with the ability to pin. So I dont have to keep deciding what i'm using and not using. Even Windows can do this (har de har)
likewise, with 8gb of ram it's rude not to.
a plumbers house always leaks.
Soldato
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Previously especially, way over half my time was spent on the store Macs so it just wasn't worth it. I should take advantage more these days, I'm in a different role now and don't spend much time on the store ones.
It was the training really, I spent 6 hours a day sat in front of Apple Store machines so I just got used to standard. I use tons of customer machines as well still, so I've got used to finding shortcuts and good ways of doing things that I know will always work.
Don't get me wrong there's apps on my own mac, and my work one, that I use to death, it's just I use them for specific stuff. Like dropcopy and so on
It was the training really, I spent 6 hours a day sat in front of Apple Store machines so I just got used to standard. I use tons of customer machines as well still, so I've got used to finding shortcuts and good ways of doing things that I know will always work.
Don't get me wrong there's apps on my own mac, and my work one, that I use to death, it's just I use them for specific stuff. Like dropcopy and so on
Soldato
I have xee as my image viewer but sometimes i need to photoshop. I can right click and open with, but the great joy of the mac is drag and drop. It's part of the core appeal/foundation of the mac os.
mmm will check this out. I'm not a fan of non-stock things like this though, as when i use another mac or (a win system) it's not the same.
Soldato
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This is the kind of thing I've got used to I suppose. Tactics!
Spotlight it, CMD & R will bring up the folder the result is in. So Spotlight Photoshop, CMD & R it, then drag it. It'll be highlighted in the Finder window that pops up as well
Again... Tactics!
Open a Finder window, go to File > New Smart Folder
Set the rules up to your liking - for example:
"Kind" is: "Application"
"Last opened date" is within last " "3" "days"
Drag that to the dock.
Only thing is if you have apps that you open once then leave open for weeks, obviously they won't turn up.
I can't work out how to make it the last x amount, and I don't know if you can, but it wouldn't surprise me.
The thing I love about OSX is that if a feature's not there, it doesn't mean you can't necessarily make it be there.
You can bend it to your will!
Smart folders will apparently only open as Finder windows, but still - handy.
Soldato
This is the kind of thing I've got used to I suppose. Tactics!
Spotlight it, CMD & R will bring up the folder the result is in. So Spotlight Photoshop, CMD & R it, then drag it. It'll be highlighted in the Finder window that pops up as well
nice tip. no idea how i could ever have figured that out unless someone told me though. There seems no obvious way.
And smart searches appear in the bottom left of a finder 'browser' window. Nice. Never really used these before. I could set one up for downloads. I usually just sort a finder window by date and pick the file i need is usually near the top.
Soldato
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I found the CMD & R spotlight thing just by trying it.
CMD & R tends to be Refresh in some apps - but in Apple's own apps and the OS itself, it tends to be 'Reveal in Finder', so I tried it, and it works. If you ever have a shortcut you use in any Apple app, try it elsewhere and you'll be surprised how often it works. One of my favourite things about how Apple make software is how much they try and make it consistent. CMD & R is a prime example, it works in all sorts of apps
As for the 'recent apps' dock shortcut thing, I'd never considered it until you mentioned it but in a few moments had an idea that led me to a passable solution for it - the OS is quite adaptable in that way.
If you're clever at Automator (which I'm not particularly, sadly - but I'd like to be) you can bend the OS to do pretty much anything you can think of.
That's part of why it pains me to see that a lot of people have this idea that OSX is a sort of Fisher Price operating system. It's not! It's very powerful and adaptable. I like to dissect things. In my eyes, the Smart Searches that are already set up on a new instance of Mac OS are prettty much useless in themselves, but if you go to edit them and see how they work, they can fill your head with all sorts of ideas as to how you could use smart searches in your day to day.
I find out things all the time about the OS that I didn't know before. A new-ish colleague of mine navigates the Finder pretty much entirely with the keyboard. I found out from him that CMD + down will take you down a level (open a folder or open a document/app) and CMD + Up will take you, wait for it, up a level, so effectively back, or even if there's no back option on the Finder window because the arrow's greyed out, up a level. Genius! And I never knew. He's got skills, and since I met him it's been an ongoing mission of mine to teach him stuff. So far I've managed to teach him one thing :/
I sound like an insufferable, Apple-indoctrinated robot in this thread, but I suppose that's what I am
CMD & R tends to be Refresh in some apps - but in Apple's own apps and the OS itself, it tends to be 'Reveal in Finder', so I tried it, and it works. If you ever have a shortcut you use in any Apple app, try it elsewhere and you'll be surprised how often it works. One of my favourite things about how Apple make software is how much they try and make it consistent. CMD & R is a prime example, it works in all sorts of apps
As for the 'recent apps' dock shortcut thing, I'd never considered it until you mentioned it but in a few moments had an idea that led me to a passable solution for it - the OS is quite adaptable in that way.
If you're clever at Automator (which I'm not particularly, sadly - but I'd like to be) you can bend the OS to do pretty much anything you can think of.
That's part of why it pains me to see that a lot of people have this idea that OSX is a sort of Fisher Price operating system. It's not! It's very powerful and adaptable. I like to dissect things. In my eyes, the Smart Searches that are already set up on a new instance of Mac OS are prettty much useless in themselves, but if you go to edit them and see how they work, they can fill your head with all sorts of ideas as to how you could use smart searches in your day to day.
I find out things all the time about the OS that I didn't know before. A new-ish colleague of mine navigates the Finder pretty much entirely with the keyboard. I found out from him that CMD + down will take you down a level (open a folder or open a document/app) and CMD + Up will take you, wait for it, up a level, so effectively back, or even if there's no back option on the Finder window because the arrow's greyed out, up a level. Genius! And I never knew. He's got skills, and since I met him it's been an ongoing mission of mine to teach him stuff. So far I've managed to teach him one thing :/
I sound like an insufferable, Apple-indoctrinated robot in this thread, but I suppose that's what I am
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