Installation

Icon Tasks is a binary plasmoid, meaning that it must be compiled from source before using it on your Linux or BSD system. The source code is currently available from KDE-Look.org. Alternatively, if you are using Kubuntu 11.10, you can install it from a PPA by doing the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnumdk/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plasma-widget-icon-tasks

You can also optionally install Firefox UnityFox support with this command:

sudo apt-get install libunity6

And you can install Docky helper support with this:

sudo apt-get install python-dockmanager

To install from source on other distributions, do the following:

1. Make sure you have the necessary Qt and KDE development packages installed. You can build against KDE 4.7. Check your distribution’s documentation if you are unsure about package names.
2. Download the source package and extract the contents

From the terminal:

tar xjvf plasma-icontasks-0.9.2.tar.tar.bz2
cd plasma-icontasks-0.9.2
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix`
make
sudo make install

For full building instructions, see the Readme file included in the source archive.

Getting Started

After installation, you will need to remove your current task manager and (optionally) any launchers for single applications, since you can add those directly into Icon Tasks. Once you have removed the old task manager, place the new one on the panel wherever you want it to appear.

Any programs you start will appear as icons rather than the traditional taskbar entry (icon with text). Moreover, you can turn any task into a launcher by right clicking and then selecting “Show A Launcher When Not Running”. Alternatively, you can drag launchers from your Kickoff menu directly onto the Icon Tasks bar to instantly create new launchers.

Icon Tasks has full support for standard KDE task manager functions, such as the Highlight Windows desktop effect, task grouping, and window preview popups. To change any features, right click anywhere on the widget, and click “Icon-Only Task Manager Settings”. There, you can enable/disable features such as progress bars over the file manager launcher during copy/move/delete operations, Unity feature support, recent documents, and media player controls in the preview popups of applications like Amarok.

A Game Changer

Icon Tasks is a game changer for KDE that once again demonstrates the flexibility of KDE’s Plasma desktop, which makes it easy for developers to introduce new features. It also increases the number of options KDE users will have, as those who wish to keep the traditional task manager will have that option. This only perpetuates KDE’s reputation for being one of the most flexible and easily customizable desktop environments.

However, this does not necessarily mean that you must do without all of OS X Lion’s best features, as much of the functionality of Apple’s latest big cat can be added to Snow Leopard with the tweaking of options, third-party applications and hacks.

AirDrop

OS X has always had good networking abilities but AirDrop certainly made sharing files over two Mac’s a lot more intuitive and streamlined. However, many Mac users have found upon installing Lion that they are not compatible with AirDrop. For these users and for Snow Leopard users too, the popular and free DropCopy application for Mac and IOS makes sharing files a breeze.

Wallpaper

OS X Lion comes with an updated selection of wallpapers. If you would like to make use of these wallpapers on a Mac not running Lion, just head to this Deviant Art page.

Swipe Between Spaces

When dual-booting OS X Lion and Snow Leopard, I found that the one feature I missed in Snow Leopard the most was the ability to swipe left or right to move between Spaces. Luckily, providing your trackpad supports the multitouch gestures needed, this can be achieved in Snow Leopard with the free application, Better Touch Tool.

First set up Spaces so that it has four columns, as shown in the above screenshot. Select the drop down menu to ensure that “To Switch Between Spaces” does not correspond to a keyboard shortcut for the time being.

Install Better Touch Tool and it should appear in your Menu Bar. Navigate to Better Touch Tool’s preferences and select the “Trackpad/Magic Trackpad” pane, ensuring that “Global” is also selected on the left, as we want to make this new gesture system-wide.

Now, select “Add New Gesture” and “Four Finger Swipe Left” then in the “Custom Keyboard Shortcut” enter control and right at the same time so it looks like the above screenshot, repeating the process for the left swipe gesture.

Next bring up OS X’s System Preferences and access the Trackpad preferences and change the option for “Three Fingers” to dragging.

Navigate to the Spaces preference pane in System Preferences and click on “To switch between spaces” – select the control key option so that it looks like the screenshot below. Finally, you may need to head to your trackpad options and untick the box “Swipe Left/Right to switch applications”.

Now you should be able to move between Spaces just by swiping left or right with four fingers!

Reverse Scrolling

In OS X Lion, Apple brought in reverse scrolling to make touchpad input more iOS-like. If you’d like to try out reverse scrolling on a Mac running Snow Leopard, there’s a few choices but for this guide, I’ll stick with Better Touch Tool.

Launch Better Touch Tool’s preferences once again and click on the “Basic Settings” pane. Head over to the top right of the screen to click on the box next to “Inverse Scrolling (Lion Like)” to complete the change. If you later decide that reverse/inverse scrolling is not to your taste, just head back to Better Touch Tool’s preferences and untick the box to return to default.

Remove Application Indicators From Dock

OS X Lion allows the user to remove the Dock indicators which show whether an application is running. This is meant to encourage a more “worry free” approach so that the user just uses each application as needed without worrying about whether it is running or not.

While Snow Leopard doesn’t have a simple option to remove the indicators, it can be achieved with a little light hacking:

Navigate to “/System/Library/Core Services/” in Finder and find the icon named “Dock”.

Right click on “Dock” and select “Show Package Contents” then double click to open “Contents” and “Resources”.

Make a search in Resources via Finder for files which contain “indicator” in their filename (as shown above) and copy them somewhere safe. With your backup copy in place, now move all the original “indicator” files to the Trash.

Launch Terminal and copy/paste the following command to restart the Dock and see your changes take effect:

killall Dock

To return your Dock back to normal, simply replace the filenames which contain “indicator” and repeat the killall command in the Terminal.

Launchpad

One of the more debated additions to OS X Lion is Launchpad, which brings iOS-style launching of applications – some love it, some hate it. If you’d like to get an idea of your feelings on the matter while staying in Snow Leopard, Araelium Group’s QuickPick application brings much of the functionality and look of Launchpad to OS X Snow Leopard.

iChat

iChat now enables all your contacts lists to be merged into one window, whatever account they’re on, helping to cut down on much needed screen space. There’s no hack or workaround that I’m aware of to pull this off on Snow Leopard with iChat, but Adium can. Adium is much more flexible than iChat for messaging but be aware that it does not allow video or voice calls – just text.

Conclusion

While the above tips and tricks can’t quite offer all the benefits of OS X Lion, they should at least serve to give your Mac some interesting new features to make use of and perhaps help you decide whether to stick with Snow Leopard a little while longer.

I want to change my Pictures Folder icon to being black and blue like the logos surrounding it. It’s not even clear looking at this which one it is. Currently it’s the top one shown here and showing the contents of the folder. I’m going to both change the icon, and change this setting so that it shows the icon, and not the contents.

The first thing I need to do is select the new file that contains the new logo. Instead of opening it, though, I go to the FIle Menu and pull up “Get Info,” or press Command-I.

From the resulting pop-up, select the tiny icon in the upper left corner and go to the Edit menu and pull up on “Copy,” or press Command-C.

If I clicked on the folder in the dock, it would open it. Instead, I find the application on my hard drive and “Get Info” the same way I did to copy the new logo. This time after I select that small icon in the upper left, I go to the Edit menu and “Paste,” or press Command-P.

To get the change to be reflected in the dock, I need to drag the folder out of the dock and replace it with the changed folder. I still see the contents of the folder, though, and that’s because it’s saved as a Stack and not a Folder. To change this, right click on the folder, and change it from Stack to Folder.

It should be noted that not all dock icons can be changed in this manner. The icons that ship with the Mac OS, such as iTunes, Mail, etc., are set so that you can’t simply copy and paste it away. You will need a program such as CandyBar to do that. However, that application comes with a $29 pricetag.

As we all know, Ubuntu Natty comes with the Unity Launcher that many people love to hate. While it comes with the autohide and quicklist feature, it is unlike AWN or Cairo dock that is fully customizable or configurable. For those who have turned off Unity Launcher (by switching to Ubuntu classic) but wish to enjoy the benefit of the Unity Launcher, DockBarX is a great alternative.

We have previously mentioned DockBarX as a useful tools to customize Ubuntu Netbook Remix (no longer exist). Back then, it exists only as a panel applet. The latest version now comes as a standalone panel and plenty of other useful features.

Install DockbarX

Open a terminal and type the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dockbar-main/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dockbarx

Note: If you are not using Ubuntu, you can download the DockBarX source file from Gnome-look.org

To run DockbarX, press Alt + F2 and type “dockx” (without the quotes)

Configuring DockbarX

To configure DockbarX, you can open the Preferences window via the application menu (Applications -> Accessories -> DockBarX Preference) or right-click on the DockBarX and select “Properties”.

Themes

DockBarX allows you to style up its appearance. You can change the theme or change the color and background of each component. The default installation only comes with 4 themes that you can switch between. However, you can install the “dockbarx-themes-extra” package to get more themes.

Dock location

As a standalone dock, you can configure where it is located in your desktop. Under the Dock tab, you can change the mode to corner, panel or centered. The panel mode is a full panel that stretches across the desktop while the corner and centered mode shows only the active applications. You can also change the position to left, top, right or bottom. One thing though, DockBarX does not support autohide (at this moment), so you might want to reduce the icon size (the default is 48px, I changed it to 24px) to prevent it from taking too much of your screen estate.

Supports Unity quicklists and number shortcut

Another useful features of DockBarX is that it supports Unity quicklists and number shortcut. First of all, you need to activate the feature under the Plugins tab. Check the box beside “Use Unity quicklists” and the “use Unity style number shortcuts” under the Advanced tab.

Simply right-click on the app and the quicklist will pop up.

Window preview

DockBarX also supports preview of application windows, however I am not able to get it working in Ubuntu Natty (seems to be a conflict with Compiz). If you can’t get it working, but really love this feature, you can install compizconfig-setting-manager and enable the “Windows Preview” feature.

Locklist

If you have more than one window of the same application opened, you can enable the locklist, which will permanently pin the window group to the desktop.

Other means of using DockBarX

Other than the standalone panel, DockBarX can also be used as a Gnome applet (only Gnome 2.x) and AWN applet. if you are using the classic Gnome setting in Ubuntu Natty (Ubuntu Classic), you can add the dockbarx applet to your top panel and use it like any other applet.

Conclusion

One killer feature that DockBarX is missing now is the autohide feature. Once that feature is available, this will be the perfect dock and launcher app. What do you think?

Update: The autohide feature is now available in version 0.45 of DocBarX

Note: This article will focus on the Linux implementation. Past the installation step, the usage should be identical.

Linux Installation

The software comes in a tarball for installation. Getting everything done is a simple process from the command line

#File and directory name vary by version
tar -zxvf googsystray-(version).tar.gz  
cd googsystray-(version)
sudo python setup.py install

If you’re returned to the prompt with no errors, installation was successful. Just run

googsystray

from the command line to begin.

Configuration

At first, Googsystray is unaware of your accounts. It’s got to have at least one to do its job, and that can be added by clicking the Add button in the top right corner of the General tab.

Place a check mark for any Google services you want Googsystray to monitor. From here on out, you can set up individual options for Google Voice, GMail, Calendar, Reader, and Docs.

Once you’ve chosen your preferred services and configured to your preferences, don’t forget to check out the Popup Window section. This is what you’ll see when you go to make calls or texts through Voice, or any other feature that requires a popup.

Go ahead and save your settings. If all went well, you’ll see the icons for your selected services appear on your panel.

The Fancy Parts

There are plenty of things that can show your email count in your panel, and if that’s all Googsystray could do, we wouldn’t bother writing about it. Where things get more interesting is with Google Voice integration. By right-clicking the Voice icon, you can bring up the menu offering several useful Voice options, such as initiating new calls.

Much like calling from the Voice homepage, the applet will call the number you desire and ring the phone of your choosing.

Similarly, you can use the same menu to bring up the options for SMS messages.

If nothing else, these two features alone make Googsystray worth the install for many.

Caveats

During testing, this author encountered a few bugs that caused a complete application crash. This seemed to mostly occur when taking actions quickly, such as starting and stopping a Voice call in a short amount of time. It’s been a few months since the last release, at least according to the Sourceforge download page, so it’s possible some of these issues are being addressed.

While minor, there were some graphical issues as well. The notification numbers are rather shoddy looking, especially at larger sizes. This may be due to the software’s multi-platform nature, as it can’t reliably depend on a particular graphics library. It might also help if the popup window took its color template from the system settings, but once again the platform independence might make that difficult to implement.

Conclusion

While there’s still room for polish, Googsystray is certainly very useful as-is. While it may not integrate very well into my particular OS/desktop combination, it’s nice to know I could run it as-is across any PC in my home with identical results. For those like me who rely heavily on Google for communications, Googsystray is the way to go.

To access the preferences panel, and more, just click the newly added icon in your menu bar, here:

The preferences panel will look like this:

The default settings are recommended by the developers, at least to start out with, and I’ve found no reason to change them. They provide you with simple pop up boxes that will pop up as soon as you mouse over a dock icon. Once you do that, you can move on to the next app in your dock, or simply click a window to maximize it, or bring it to the front if it was already up. This is super handy for applications like photoshop or web browsers, where you tend to get a bunch of different windows open pretty easily. The pop up are elegant and non-intrusive. By default they appear like the example below, but can be tweaked pretty extensively as far as size and appearance.

DockView is free to try with rare pop-ups asking you to register, but a license is a great deal at $7.99. While you’re over at Kapeli’s site, they’ve got a few other inexpensive apps for Snow Leopard that are worth checking out as well.

Is this a feature that you like in Windows 7, and are glad to have on your Mac? Should it be included anyway? Know of any other cool programs to bring extra features to OS X? Tell us in the comments!

Download DockView here! (DockView requires OS X Snow Leopard, the most recent version of Mac OS)

Installation

Glx-Dock (Cairo Dock) is available in the Ubuntu repository and you can easily install it via the Ubuntu Software Center (or Synaptic Package Manager). However, unless you are using Ubuntu Maverick, you will need to update your repository with the Cairo’s weekly PPA to enjoy the latest features. Here’s how you can do so:

Open a terminal and type the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/weekly

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

Once you have installed the application, you can launch it via Applications -> System Tools -> Cairo Dock.

What’s new in Glx-Dock?

If you have used Glx-Dock before, or are still using it now, the user interface is pretty much the same. What’s changed is the functionality.

Panel mode

Glx-Dock now comes with a panel mode that allows you to replace your gnome-panel (or any other panels in your desktop manager) completely. Go to the Glx-Dock configuration panel and click on the Appearance tab. In the Views section, change the option to “Panel”.

When you click Apply, you will see your dock transform into a panel.

For those who long wanted to get rid of their panel in favor of a more customizable dock, this is what you have been waiting for.

More applets and improved functionality

You can’t replace a panel based on the design itself, you still need the functionality of the applets. The latest version of Glx-Dock comes with several useful new applets, including the Me-Menu and Messaging Menu indicator applets. What is even better is that these applets come with more functionality and user interaction. For example, it is now possible to manage tasks in the Clock’s calendar, left click to lock the screen in the Logout applet, use tiny URLs in the Drop-and-Share applet, the Dustbin applet handles all the drives etc.

Intellihide

One of the major complaint of any dock application is the overlapping of the dock and the active window, making it unusable at times. In Glx-dock, there are two new display mode “hide whenever the dock overlaps the active window” and “hide whenever the dock overlaps any window” to ensure that it will not interrupt your workflow.

Multiple instances of Glx-dock

The beauty of Glx-dock lies in the ability to create multiple instances of dock. Each dock functions independently. You can use only one dock to dump all the application launchers together, or two docks where one is used as the top panel replacement and another as the application launcher. Whatever it is, you are free to add as many docks as you want and customize it to your liking.

Support for old graphics card

This is what I like about Glx-dock – the ability to work even without a compositing manager. If you have a old graphics card, you can still be sure that glx-dock will work in your system. (You will have to select the Cairo-Dock (no OpenGL) from the Application menu).

Have you tried out Glx-dock (Cairo dock) yet?

wmsmpmon

CPU monitor focusing on multi-core processors. It will show you graphs indicating the workload of each core. The example screenshot here is demonstrating that one core of a 2-core chip is very busy while the other is mostly idle.

Notes: Clicking on the main graph will toggle different graph mode options. If you have a preferred mode, you can specify it at the command line with

wmsmpmon -g # 1, 2, or 3

mixer.app

A simple and clean volume adjustment dockapp. The controls can be set to handle different sound sources, so it’s simple to customize. Details on specifying a sound source can be found in mixer.app’s man page.

Notes: While the package is mixer.app, the executable is capitalized as Mixer.app, and that’s what you’ll need to launch it.

wmauda

A remote control dockapp for Audacious. Can be used to launch the program and control playback. Includes things like start, stop, and next, but no volume control. Because of that, it combines well with mixer.app.

Notes: Inactive icon and launch command can be set from the command line when starting wmauda.

wmdiskmon

With this dockapp, you can monitor multiple drives and partitions for use. Each drive can be specified from the command line. For example, the command used to launch the instance shown in the screen shot was

wmdiskmon -p /dev/sdb1 -p /dev/sdb2 -p /dev/sda1

wmforkplop

This uses pulses of glowing light in the background to show forking activity, and more detailed text information showing the top processes in the foreground. It’s a clever way to add a piece of useful eye candy on top of already valuable information.

Notes: You can pass the --no-top or --no-fork options at the command line to show only forking or process information.

wmhdplop

Similar to wmforkplop, this dockapp shows you bright spots during times of high activity. If you’re looking for something with a lot of precision, wmhdplop may not be for you. The bursts of light just give a general idea of activity as opposed to a specific percentage.

Notes: During times of high disk activity, wmhdplop can show an indicator at the top of the box indicating the current data rate.

wmmemload

A memory and swap notification app. Backlight can be toggled by clicking pretty much anywhere inside the box.

Notes: Some find this app more useful if you pass it the -b and -c options on startup to avoid counting buffers and cache.

wmmisc

A very multifunctional litle dockapp, wmmisc shows you the current user count, total process count, running process count, uptime and load average. In other words, some of the most useful information not provided by the previously mentioned apps.

Notes: Unfortunately, there are essentially no config options for wmmisc and you can’t change the information it displays.

If you’ve got any other favorite dockapps, make sure to drop a comment below.

1. Control + F3

Press Control + F3 (If you are on a laptop you’ll need to hold the Fn key as well) to highlight the Dock. You can then use the arrow keys to navigate to the Window you want to un-minimize and press Enter. This is the best free and native solution, but it is a little clumsy (especially on laptops) and potentially involves a lot of keystrokes if you have a large Dock.

2. Spotlight

Press Command + Space to bring up Spotlight. Type the name of the Application you want to bring back from the dock and highlight the name of the app under the “Applications” header and press Enter (often it will also be the “Top Hit”). Note that this only seems to work consistently with Apple Apps (iTunes, Mail, etc.). Third-party app support for this method is inconsistent- for example with Firefox it will only un-minimize the last window you minimized.

3.Command + Tab

Press Command + Tab to bring up the application-switch box. Command-Tab to the application you want, and before you release the Command button, hold Option. Release both keys. This method will only open the last window you minimized, and support for third-party apps is inconsistent.

4. Quicksilver

Download Quicksilver (free) from Blacktree Software.

The default for entering a command is Control + Space, after which you type in the name of the Application you want to un-minimize. Again this has its limitations- there is no option to choose which window you want to open and it only un-minimizes the last window you minimized.

5. Witch

The best solution is unfortunately not freeware, but if you really want to put this issue to rest, Witch from ManyTricks (the same developers that brought you Name Mangler) is by far the best solution. Witch is like Command-Tab but for windows instead of applications, and can cycle between all the windows you might have minimized at a given time regardless of what Application they belong to. While we don’t usually recommend non-freeware programs, the $16 cost is well worth it if you use a lot of windows and don’t like to leave your keyboard.

Do you have any other ways of un-minimizing a window once it’s trapped in the Dock? Leave a comment!

One thing is different though, Gnome-Do Docky is intuitive and can automatically add items to your dock based on your search pattern.

To install (or upgrade to) the latest version of Gnome-Do, you need to add the repository to your sources.list.

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following lines to the end of the file. Save and close the file.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Update the repository

sudo apt-get update

If you have already installed Gnome-Do, type

sudo apt-get upgrade

to upgrade to the latest version.

For a new install, type

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

To make sure that the Docky works properly, you will need to have a compositing manager in your Desktop. If your computer supports Compiz, you can proceed on to launch Gnome-Do. If not, you will have to turn on the metacity compositing manager.

Turn on metacity compositing manager (only if Compiz does not work in your computer)

In the terminal, type

gconf-editor

Navigate to Apps->Metacity->General. On the right, scroll down till you see the compositing manager option. Put a check in the box beside it.

Close the window.

Activate Gnome Do (Applications->Accessories->Gnome Do)

On the window that shows up on the centre of the screen, click on the arrow button on the top right corner and select Preferences. Click on the Appearance tab. Under the theme dropdown bar, select Docky.

You should now see the dock appear at the bottom of your desktop.

There are several features found in the Docky that are worthy mentioning:

• Drag and Drop items onto or remove from the Dock (files, folders, and applications from the menu)
• Drag and Drop items into folders on the dock, as well as the trash can.
• Image previews of items which support it
• True parabolic zoom (can be disabled)
• Click animations
• Intuitive resizing by dragging on the dock separator
• Adding and removing “Statistical Items” (items which Do considers relevant to you) from the dock by dragging the left and right edges
• Window indicators (supports advanced window indicators)
• Advanced window management features via the Window Manager plugin for GNOME Do
• The ability to make Docky Automatically Hide when not being hovered.
• A full frontend to GNOME Do
• Add items to docky from GNOME Do searches

Using Gnome-Do within the Docky is no different from its past version. You just need to press Win + Space (some call it Super + Space) button to activate the Gnome-Do, follow by typing your command/search phrase. However, instead of Gnome-Do appearing at the centre of screen, the search bar now appears at the bottom of the screen, where the Docky is situated.

Adding/removing items to the docky is as simple as dragging and dropping your application to the dock. There is another way though. When you perform a search on Gnome-Do, you can add the search result to the dock by clicking on the + button at the left corner.

If you have activated the Window manager plugin within the Plugins section, you will be able to perform actions on your Docky via the context menu (mouse right-click).  The context menu interaction with the application is intuitive and changes according to the app. This is somewhat similar to the AeroPeek feature in Windows 7, but in a different form.

Other changes to Gnome-Do

Other than the dock, this latest version of Gnome-Do also comes with more plugins and fixed a large number of bugs. New plugins include create tinyurl from Gnome-Do, accessing various Google services, such as Docs, Gmail contact, Calendar, search, Gcalculate etc, and many more.

All in all, there is a great improvement over the previous version. If you have not download/install/use it, then you better grab it now.

You can read more about the Docky at its wiki page. What is the best features that you like about the latest version of Gnome-Do? Will the Docky replace your default dock?

Image credit: Docky wiki

Cairo dock is a Mac OSX dock-like application that you can install in your Linux machine. One of the advantage that it has over other docks is that it does not require any compositing window manager to work. Even on a low-end PC, it will still work fine. This is not possible for docks like Avant Window Navigator which depends on compositing manager (such as Compiz) to function.

If you are using a PC that does not support any compositing manager, or you wanted to try out alternative dock for your Ubuntu machine, follow this tutorial to install and configure Cairo Dock on your Ubuntu Intrepid.

Installing Cairo dock

Adding the repository

In your terminal,

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the end of the file. Save and close.

deb http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu intrepid cairo-dock

Add the signed GPG key:

wget -q http://repository.cairo-dock.org/ubuntu/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Install the application:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plugins

Loading the Cairo dock

Go to Applications-> System Tools -> Cairo-Dock.

Before the Cairo dock loads up, it will first prompt you to select the theme of the dock. Choose your favorite theme from the dropdown bar. There is a preview panel at the side so you can see the design before finalizing your theme. Each theme comes with its own set of icons and configuration. If you want to use the new theme’s behavior and launcher everytime you change a theme, check the two boxes below the preview pane. This might overwrite all configuration that you have previously made (if you have make any).

You should see the dock appearing at the bottom of the screen and a few desklets lying around in the desktop. The good thing about Cairo dock is that any icons/applications on the dock can be detached and used as a desklets.

Adding/removing applications to the Cairo dock

As I mentioned earlier, each theme comes with its own set of icons and launchers. There might be some applications that you have no use for, or missing applications that you want them to be on the dock. To remove any application on the dock, simply right-click at the particular icon and select Remove this launcher. To add applications to the dock, on the main menu at the top panel, navigate to your favorite app. Drag to the dock and release it. That’s it. You should see your favorite application on the dock now.

Adding a Sub-dock

Cairo dock also allows you to add sub-dock. This is a good feature for you to arrange similar application into a single category so that the dock won’t be too messy.

Right-click on the dock and select Add a sub-dock.

Enter a name for the new sub-dock.

Your sub-dock does not have to display the same way as the main dock. Under the Extra Parameters field, pick the view that you want your sub-dock to display. Click OK to create the sub-dock.

To add applications into the sub-dock, first add the application to the main dock. Right-click the application icon and select Modify this launcher. Under the name of the container it belongs to, select the name of the sub-dock that you want to add to. Click OK.

Configuring the Cairo dock

To access the configuration menu, simply right-click the mouse at the dock and select Cario-Dock –> Configure. The default menu is the simple mode and have only few configuration options. On the left bottom of the menu, click on the Advanced button to go into Advanced mode. You should now see more options/tabs appear on the sidebar.

I will leave it to you to explore the configuration options and customize the dock to your own liking. However here are some tweaks that you might want to use if your dock is running very slowly.

• In the System tab, under the Label section, make sure that the “Show label of the currently pointed icon only” is checked.
• Reduce the number of icons into your dock. If you really want to have so many icons on your dock, then make sure you:
  - arrange them in sub-docks.
  - configure the dock to show only on current desktop (configurable in the Taskbar tab).
• If you are using applets that required to be refreshed regularly (such as the clock, RAM meter etc), reduce the refreshing rate of the app.
• Use a 2D view rather than a 3D view.
• Turn off all animations. In the System tab, untick the option to drawn reflects in real time, and decrease the refresh frequency (don’t go under 20Hz, it might have the opposite effect).

Autostart Cairo dock when logged in

To autostart Cairo dock everytime you logged in to your computer, go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions.

Click Add. Enter the information as shown in the image below.

That’s it. Enjoy the dock and all the customization.

Reference: Cairo dock

Without a doubt, the dock is the most used application in Mac. It is the first thing you see when you login to your Mac, and also the first place you head to when you want to launch an application. Despite that, there are very few options for you to customize the dock to your liking in the System Preferences. If you are looking for ways to enhance and customize your dock, here are 8 great applications that you can use.

1) Docker

Docker provides you with an array of configuration options for your dock. From styles, colors, stack settings to dock icons, there are plenty of options you can choose to customize the dock to your liking.

2) Dock Library

So you don’t like the default design of the dock? Well, now you can easily change it with Dock Library. This is an application that changes the theme of Leopard’s dock with a simple click. Download your favorite themes from leoparddocks.com and leoparddocks.net and use the Dock Library to import and activate the theme. Your new dock theme will be up and running in less than a minute.

3) SuperDocker

SuperDocker is one great tool that actually go beyond tweaking your dock. Some other settings that you can configure include Finder, Dashboard, Safari and System. For more detail, read the review here.

4) Dock Spaces

What if you don’t like your dock and want to change it completely? With Dock Spaces, you can configure up to 5 different docks and swap it anytime you want. There is also an option to integrate with Spaces such that you can change the dock whenever you change work space.

5) Dock Dodger

Whenever you launch an application, its icon will be placed in the dock until you quit the application completely. If you open too many applications at one time, you will find that your dock is filled with plenty of icons that you don’t want and it can easily become a messy sight. Dock Dodger helps you to fix up this problem. For any applications that you don’t want the icon to appear on the dock, drag it into Dock Dodger and let it disable the dock setting. When you relaunch the application, you will find that the dock icon is no longer there.

To reactivate the application dock icon, simply drag the same application to Dock Dodger again. This will enable its dock setting.

6) DockDrop

For those who always share files with your friends, Dockdrop is just the app for you. When you installed Dockdrop, it will place an icon in the dock. Drag any file or folder you want to share onto the Dockdrop dock icon and then choose how you want to upload/send it. There are various ways to upload your files: FTP, WebDAV, Flickr and so on. Once configured, Dockdrop will handle the upload automatically and put the URL of the file on the clipboard, ready for pasting into an Email, chat program or website.

Dockdrop also integrates with the Finder, iPhoto or iTunes so you can assign a hotkey to trigger an upload of the selected item.

7) Dockables

Dockables makes it easy for you to manage your Mac. Once you have installed Dockables, you will find a collection of system events such as Sleep, Screen capture, Log out, Close Apps, Shut down etc. Simply drag the icons to the dock and you will able to perform your regular task with a single mouse click.

8) xMod

xMod uncovers some of the hidden features in Mac and allows you to tweak stuffs that you can’t do it with the default interface. In the Dock option, you can configure whether to show 2D or 3D dock and whether to enable translucent hidden application icons.