I'd like the Dock to show an apps windows graphically.
Here's an idea that seems like it would be very easy to use. I'd like it if when you right clicked on an application in the Dock, it wouldn't show you just a list of names, but pictures of the actual windows. For example, let's say every 5 minutes I want to check on the Downloads window in Safari. I can pop up the text menu of the Safari icon in the Dock and look for Downloads on it but it takes mental effort since there might be three other listings there. If little pictures of the windows popped up I could get to it much quicker. In my mind mentally I have memorized what the Download window looks like, I don't car about the text "Download" which I have to think about conceptually and then convert it to what the window looks like.
The pictures could be nice and big since they would just disappear once you chose one.
The pictures could be nice and big since they would just disappear once you chose one.
Comments
Originally posted by spindler
But Expose doesn't show Windows that are in the Dock, and it is a habit to put stuff I'm not currently using into the Dock. It would be nice just to get big pictures of all windows associated with an application.
Here's what I would love to see to fix the dock window problem in Expose. When you click on all windows (or all app windows) and there is something in the dock, the area around the dock would darken (a few shades more than the desktop) and display smaller thumbnails of the windows in the dock. In theory you wouldn't need as large of a preview since windows in the dock have been parked for later use, and are usually not used in the current workflow.
Originally posted by dacloo
what the dock needs is a more consistent "close window" implementation. Try to open a browser window (Safari), minimize it, so that you can see it in the dock. You cannot close it it by right-clicking the icon in the dock! You have to maximise the window first and THEN close it. Seems very un-Apple to me...
Apple keeps putting this feature in the OS Alphas, but it always disappears before the GM is released. The dock is in desperate need of a major overhaul in Leopard (as is the Finder and Spotlight).
Originally posted by spindler
But Expose doesn't show Windows that are in the Dock, and it is a habit to put stuff I'm not currently using into the Dock. It would be nice just to get big pictures of all windows associated with an application.
I think the dock is rather illsuited for storing minimized windows. As a launcher it's great. But even windows beats it for minimized window ease of use. Constantly changing positions make it much less useful for that kind of thing. Take a window out of the dock and put it back... it'll be in a different place.
I too think that a pop up list of windows (with graphical preview) would be an excellent addition to docked application icons.
Originally posted by dfiler
I think the dock is rather illsuited for storing minimized windows. As a launcher it's great. But even windows beats it for minimized window ease of use. Constantly changing positions make it much less useful for that kind of thing. Take a window out of the dock and put it back... it'll be in a different place.
That is a good point. I think what Apple needs to do in this area is to not show the window off to the side (like they currenty do), but to have the window get "sucked" back into the original application. You want the window back, go to that application in the dock, Control-Click or Right-Click it to bring up all of the windows that are minimized (and whatever other functions that app has for itself).