Will Apple update the Dock in tiger?

keda · November 7, 2004 1:04PM

After a few years w/OSX, my fascination w/the dock is wearing off. despite all the potential that this has, I really only use it as a launcher. I'm working on some finance homework right now and have four excel spreadsheets in the documents section of the dock. each time I want to use one of them, I need to mouse over and read the names, since they all look the same.

I'm not sure what Apple could do to improve on this, but I wanted to see some of your ideas.

Will Apple make any updates to the Dock in Tiger? What do you think they should do?

I'd like to have a smart and easy way to group files. right now, I make a folder and place app aliases in there. This is a cluncky approach. I'd like to be able to make groups of apps that would expand (vertically?) when clicked. Maybe this could work w/files too.

denmaru · November 7, 2004 1:56PM

Hmm... I don´t expect any changes in Tiger regarding the dock - if they did not change anything in the betas so far, it is *very* unlikely they´re gonna change anything.

I have no probs with the dock, and I believe that adding some kind of menu would somehow hamper the look of the dock - I doubt the dock is supposed to be more than a appstarter anyway...

boukman · November 7, 2004 3:55PM

You do know that dragging the applications folder to the right part of the dock makes it become like the menu you described, right? And as far as switching between windows of an app (or spreadsheets), this is what Exposé is for... (you can toggle it to show only the windows of the current app, it's all a matter of setting it the way you like).

elektroblitz · November 7, 2004 4:02PM

I posted a similar comment in a previous thread... I would like to see the actual document / jpeg / etc in the dock and on mouse over make it bigger so you can quickly reference what you are looking at - this would be also nice for icon view on the desktop.

I also think that osX should do a folder preview of for example images (though there is no reason why it should only be limited to that) like winXP does; another quite handy feature. Seems like Longlord will feature something similar...

ra · November 7, 2004 4:19PM

Here are two things that I think they should implement:

1) if you put a folder in the Dock, it should be spring-loaded, i.e. when you hold a file over it the folder actually pops open

2) if you put picture files in the Dock, you should have the option of showing the icon preview instead of the generic icon, just like in the Finder

keda · November 7, 2004 4:39PM

I know the app folder (or any folder) is rt-clickable in the dock, but this put the burden on the user. Also, I have way too many apps in the app folder for this to be useful.

Exopse is only slightly useful and still requires that I mouse over every window. I have six excel files open right now. Each is full of numbers and looks almost the same in expose and the dock. There has to be a better way.

The 'Piles' concept has been floated around here quite a bit. I'd like this type of implementation in the dock. For example, I grab my six .xls files, my two .doc files, and a few pdfs and drag them to the dock at the same time (or w/a modifier key). Instead of having 10 different document icons in the dock, a 'pile' icon would appear. Maybe there could be an option to apply labels to the pile so you can distinguish between several.

ra · November 7, 2004 5:04PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Keda

Exopse is only slightly useful and still requires that I mouse over every window. I have six excel files open right now. Each is full of numbers and looks almost the same in expose and the dock. There has to be a better way.

Click the Window menu or right-click the Excel icon in the Dock.

placebo · November 7, 2004 5:06PM

You should be able to close minimized windows, regardless of which app they belong to. It doesn't make sense that only Acrobat Reader and Finder are able to be closed.

And, of course, springloaded folders.

adamrao · November 7, 2004 6:35PM

Is there not a "Window" menu in Excel itself? (Not in front of my Mac right now) Doesn't that show your six open Excel files and allow you to switch back and forth between them?

mpmoriarty · November 7, 2004 6:46PM

Maybe Apple should make it an option to show the name of the item all the time in the dock instead of only having it show up when you mouse over an item.

keda · November 7, 2004 7:23PM

Yes, the window menu is one way to do this. My point was not to find all the possible ways I could access windows. I think the Dock has unrealized potential and I wanted to read you thoughts on what it could be made in to.

I saw a screen-grab of the last iteration of NeXT (not sure if it was released). The dock in this was expandable. Sorry, I'm not a NeXT guy...maybe some one else can elaborate.

bunge · November 7, 2004 9:05PM

In Expose like fashion, when you roll over a document or application, it could temporarily be brought to the foreground of the screen so you could see what it was in full view.

vox barbara · November 8, 2004 9:55AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MPMoriarty

Maybe Apple should make it an option to show the name of the item all the time in the dock instead of only having it show up when you mouse over an item.

As someone else pointed out clearly, - the dock teaches you to memorize visually. Actually under most circumstances this works much better and faster than recalling paths and names and numbers.

Actually, you do SEE where the doc/folder goes into the dock, don't you?

Granted this is probably a hassle, if 20 or more files with similar icons are involved. But i refuse to imagine how it would look like, if names are associated with each doc too.

The Mac way is still an intuitive visual way of managing files, - every little aspect of the current OS state is indicating that.

Granted, there is a lot of work...

masonmcd · November 8, 2004 4:03PM

Contextual menus for dock items now include "Open at Login" if anyone finds that useful.

hobbes · November 8, 2004 4:33PM

I wouldn't expect major changes to the Dock until Apple does a serious rethink of the OS... I.E., the next post-Tiger major OS release -- at earliest.

MY favorite function of the Dock, btw, is its notification abilities (Mail's badging being the apex of usefulness). Does any other OS so far even come close?

randycat99 · November 8, 2004 7:33PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ra

Click the Window menu or right-click the Excel icon in the Dock.

I think this bears emphasis that by right clicking on the application, it will show a list of your open documents for that application. Perhaps, there is room in there for a future hack where it displays a custom icon (set by the user) next to each document in that list...

vox barbara · November 9, 2004 3:49AM

If you are dragging selected text, - i.e. from mail or safari or any other app -

onto "Textedit" in the dock, there should be opening a new Textedit Doc. That would make my life much easier

Or -

- drag any media item (jpg, pdf, you name it) onto the "docked" preview.app, though preview will launch and show the content.

OR, (my favorite

)

- drag any item to the "docked" Finder icon, and the Finder will open the content with an appropriate app. (Movies with QTPlayer, JPGs and PDFs with Preview, Tunes with iTunes etc.)

That would be cool, dragging items to the dock and the Finder "knows" HOW to handle the stuff. What do you think?

Generally "docked" apps should recognize, who is talking and should answer with action (i.e. opening a new doc with inserted text). Not to mention "Spring loaded Dock", but this issue is a wee bit penetrated. We do all agree here, don't we?

best

boukman · November 9, 2004 8:29AM

I agree that we should have a spring loaded dock, and I think that dragging anything to an application icon on the dock and holding it over should make the windows of this application come to the foreground, allowing you to drop whatever you are dragging in the appropriate window, at the appropriate place. I have been using Exposé to do just that, but from time to time, I still miss this "feature" from the Windows world.

keda · November 9, 2004 9:36AM

This is a shot I found of something called "fiend' in NeXT. Having never used it, I can't explain how it works, but I'll use it to explain some functions.

Imagine the 'dock group' (ie Piles) would expand in this manner. If I created a group of 5 apps or docs that Im using for a project, they would reveal themselves vertically when I clicked on the dock icon. This behavior would be fester than making a folder, creating aliases, and rt-clicking on it. You would grab all of your items and drag them into the dock as a group.

When you clicked on the dock group, you would have a cool aqua animation. They could grow in a wave.

randycat99 · November 9, 2004 12:39PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vox Barbara

- drag any media item (jpg, pdf, you name it) onto the "docked" preview.app, though preview will launch and show the content.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful, but doesn't the dock do this already? Like if you drag a pic over the Quicktime icon, it will then open in a Quicktime window. ...or is it that you want all those things to automatically open in the Preview app, specifically?

Quote:

OR, (my favorite)

- drag any item to the "docked" Finder icon, and the Finder will open the content with an appropriate app. (Movies with QTPlayer, JPGs and PDFs with Preview, Tunes with iTunes etc.

That would be cool, dragging items to the dock and the Finder "knows" HOW to handle the stuff. What do you think?

)

That sounds neat, but if you already have access to the item you are dragging under the mouse pointer, why not just doubleclick it from where it is in the first place to open it? I'm just trying to understand the situation under which this would happen.

Quote:

Generally "docked" apps should recognize, who is talking and should answer with action (i.e. opening a new doc with inserted text). Not to mention "Spring loaded Dock", but this issue is a wee bit penetrated. We do all agree here, don't we?

I wholeheartedly agree that we need spring-loaded something to come back. I'm just unclear what is meant now by that term. Personally, it is not the spring-loading that is the key function (though it is integral), but it is the ability to drag and drop stuff into wherever you drill down into the folder heirachy (as if you had put your HD icon in the dock, for example). More specifically, I want something that duplicates the function of spring-loaded window tabs from OS9. Click it to expose access to the chosen folder, drag/drop/or access item within, then the tab springs back down when you leave the window. This could be in a separate window tab or from the dock- don't care much particularly (though the dock is getting a bit crowded now, so tabbed windows along the bottom of the screen may not be such a bad idea to expand to.

So I dunno if this is any more clear than before- it's not the spring-loading per se that we are asking for (because the Dock already does do that). It's the drag and drop access to that spring-loaded folder that is in order, no? ...or were you referring to something different?

webmail · November 9, 2004 1:30PM

in the latest builds you can drag files into folders in the dock, however they are not springloaded.

Will Apple update the Dock in tiger?

Comments