Set the Keyboard Shortcut to Expand the Dock in OS X
Enlarging icons in the Dock on hover is great, but you might not want this feature to be on all the time. The How-To Geek indicates that you can set it up so that the magnification is triggered only by a key press.
After you tweak this setting, your dock will not have any magnification at all unless you press the keyboard shortcut when you hover your mouse over the dock. This is great if you want the dock to be packed to capacity, but you don’t have to constantly zoom in on the image. Here’s how to set it up:
- Go to System Preferences and select “Dock”.
- Set to enlarge to any desired size
- Uncheck the box next to magnification
Now, just press CTRL + Shift on your keyboard, hover your mouse over the dock and you will see your icons are enlarged. Without a label, they remain the same size.
How to Temporarily Enable Dock Zoom in OS X | How-To Geek