14 Ways to Customize Your Mac’s Dock
The Dock, an iconic Mac feature, is used to launch apps, switch between them, and act as a hub for displaying key apps and minimized windows while they’re open. By default, the Dock has a clean look and contains a few apps that your computer thinks you might want to use. However, you can get a lot of use out of customizing your Dock, such as removing icons for stock Apple apps you don’t use. You can also change its layout and appearance. Here’s what you need to know to do just that, plus a little more.
Remove apps you don’t intend to use
You should start customizing your dock by removing apps you’ll never use. To remove an app from the dock, right-click it and choose Options > Remove from Dock . You can also ensure that apps that are only in the dock temporarily (the ones that appear on the right side of the dock, next to the divider) stay there by right-clicking them and choosing Options > Keep in Dock .
Move apps around to make them easier to access
The next step is to rearrange the apps in the Dock, which is as simple as dragging their icons where you want them. However, keep in mind that if you accidentally move an icon outside the Dock, it will be removed from the Dock and you will have to add it again.
Resize the dock
You can also adjust the size of the dock. Hover your mouse over any of the dock dividers (those vertical dividing lines). The cursor will change to an up-and-down arrow. Drag it toward the top of the screen to make the dock larger, or drag it down to make it smaller.
Additionally, you can adjust the size of the Dock by clicking the Apple logo in the upper-left corner of your Mac’s screen, going to System Preferences > Desktop & Dock , and moving the Size slider.
Change the position of the dock
The dock can be moved to any side of the screen, saving you valuable space. To change this, right-click on any empty area of the dock and select “Position on Screen.” Select “Left” or “Right” to vertically align the dock to the selected position. “Center” will return it to its default location.
This option is also available under System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Screen Position .
Automatically hide and show the dock
Some of us prefer to have a clean workspace, and if that’s the case, you can automatically hide the dock when it’s not in use. It won’t disappear completely, but it will only become visible when you move your cursor to its location. This is also a good feature for those with limited screen space. Enable this feature by going to System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Automatically hide and show the dock . Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command-Option-D to toggle this setting on and off.
Remove recently opened applications from the dock
The right side of your dock will show your most recently opened apps. If you find this annoying, you can turn this setting off by going to System Settings > Desktop & Dock and disabling Show suggested and recent apps in the dock . I prefer this feature on so it helps me navigate frequently used apps, but if you’re short on screen space, it can be useful.
Move minimized windows to application icon
Whenever you minimize apps on your Mac, each window appears as a separate icon in the Dock. This can quickly fill up the Dock, automatically reducing its size. If you’d rather avoid this, macOS lets you minimize windows directly to their corresponding app icon. Just go to System Preferences > Desktop & Dock and select Minimize windows to app icon . To access a window minimized to an app icon, right-click it.
Hide open app indicators
Whenever an app is open on your Mac, a small dot will appear next to its icon in the Dock. If you want, you can remove these indicators for open apps. Go to System Preferences > Desktop & Dock and turn off Show indicators for open apps .
Adjust the magnification of icons
When you move your cursor near any app icon in your Mac’s Dock, it automatically zooms in. You can change the level of this zoom effect or turn it off completely by going to System Preferences > Desktop & Dock .
To enable or disable icon magnification, use the slider under Magnification . Moving the slider all the way to the left disables magnification, while moving it anywhere else adjusts the magnification size. Fun tip: If you have this feature disabled, you can temporarily enable it on command by holding Shift + Control.
Add folders to dock
You can add watched folders to your Mac’s Dock if the folder is in the Favorites bar in Finder. Open Finder and locate the folder you want to add and drag it to the Favorites bar in the left pane. Right-click any folder in the Favorites bar and select Add to Dock .
Here’s the fun part: You can use this trick to group a bunch of apps into a single Dock icon, which is great when you have a few apps you want to keep in the Dock but don’t need them every day. The trick is to go to the Applications folder in Finder and move the apps into a new folder. Just give the folder a name, move it to the Favorites bar, and add it to the Dock. You’re done!
Add spacers to the dock
You can go a little beyond what macOS gives you and add some dividers or empty spaces to your Dock to help organize it. You can use these empty spaces for aesthetics or to group similar apps. To do this, you’ll need your Mac’s Terminal. Press Command-Space , search for Terminal , and open the app. Then paste and run the following command to add a full-size divider to your Dock.
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}' && killall Dock
If you need a smaller spacer, use this command.
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="small-spacer-tile";}' && killall Dock
For more than one spacer, simply re-run the command you chose. The good news is that this is the only time you’ll need Terminal. Once you have a spacer, simply drag it to reposition it in the dock, or drop it off the dock to remove it.
Change app icons to make your dock more visually appealing.
You can also customize your Dock by simply changing the various app icons. This can make it look nicer or help it fit a certain theme. The best way to do this is to open your favorite apps and see if they allow you to change their app icons. If not, check out my guide to changing macOS app icons , which covers both the built-in method and a third-party app that makes it easy to change app icons. For alternative icons, macOSicons.com is a good resource .
Use third-party apps to access hidden dock settings
Your Mac doesn’t always make it easy to find everything you can do with it. Sometimes you need to run a few Terminal commands to access hidden features (like the dividers I just highlighted), and even then, some features aren’t user-accessible at all. For more control, try Mac apps that reveal these hidden features for you, like TinkerTool (free) or Supercharge ($11). I ’ve written about TinkerTool before, and my colleague Khamosh Pathak has covered Supercharge . Both apps have some useful options for customizing your Dock, like the ability to remove the delay before macOS reveals your hidden Dock, or to dim the icons of hidden apps.
TinkerTool also makes it easy to add dividers to the dock, and even lets you lock the dock so that the position of icons and dividers can’t be changed. Supercharge, meanwhile, has a feature that directly opens dock folders in Finder, rather than showing their contents directly in the dock.
Use a dedicated app to configure your dock
If your goal is to customize your dock and nothing more, you may be better off with a dedicated dock customization app. This type of app will let you make cosmetic and functional changes to your dock, but won’t be useful if you want to make other system changes. Two good examples are DockFlow ($5.60) and uBar ($30). DockFlow lets you create presets for your dock. You can think of it as creating different profiles, such as work, gaming, education, social media, etc. For each of these presets, you can put multiple apps in them and quickly switch between them as needed. uBar, meanwhile, focuses on making the dock look like the Windows taskbar, which can be useful if you move operating systems.