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Nergol · May 12, 2008, 06:18 PM

Hi all;

Well, I just managed to, while grabbing for something else on my desktop, accidentally drag the Downloads icon off of my dock, after which it disappeared from the Dock in a puff of smoke.

How do I bring it back? Thanks.

Big Mac · May 12, 2008, 06:28 PM

It's in your user's home folder. Find it and drag it back on to the Dock.

Nergol · May 12, 2008, 07:13 PM

Epic Win for Big Mac.

ibook_steve · May 12, 2008, 07:36 PM

You have no idea how many times my mother-in-law emails me about this exact same problem. It is a true failing of the dock that people 8 years into the life of OS X still don't get that icons in the dock are just aliases and that the puff of smoke when removing one does not delete the item.

Steve

turtle777 · May 12, 2008, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

It is a true failing of the dock that people 8 years into the life of OS X still don't get that icons in the dock are just aliases and that the puff of smoke when removing one does not delete the item.

How is it the dock's fault ?

I'd say the people FAIL.

-t

ibook_steve · May 12, 2008, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

How is it the dock's fault ?

I'd say the people FAIL.

-t

It's simply not intuitive. Perhaps there should be a "Lock Dock" command like the "Lock Taskbar" command in Windows. The command would let you add items by dragging and dropping, but to remove them, you'd have to access a dialog box or have a warning appear when you try to drag something off the dock with a checkbox ("Do not show this warning again").

Steve

naphtali · May 12, 2008, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

It's simply not intuitive. Perhaps there should be a "Lock Dock" command like the "Lock Taskbar" command in Windows. The command would let you add items by dragging and dropping, but to remove them, you'd have to access a dialog box or have a warning appear when you try to drag something off the dock with a checkbox ("Do not show this warning again").

Steve

You are trying to remove the folder Downloads from the dock. Confirm/Deny

You are trying to click Confirm. Confirm/Deny

You are getting A Little Annoyed. Confirm/Deny

Dock explodes

Chuckit · May 12, 2008, 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

Perhaps there should be a "Lock Dock" command like the "Lock Taskbar" command in Windows.

It's under Parental Controls.

Gamoe · May 12, 2008, 08:40 PM

The dock is not indeed, all that user friendly, and though it works "well enough" in the way that Windows as a whole works "well enough", it is by no means a superb or intuitive design and my thoughts on the dock's fundamental flaws coming from the first time I ever saw the dock, and coming from other, well-known Mac authors like John Siracusa, remain true to this day.

Big Mac · May 12, 2008, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by Nergol

Epic Win for Big Mac.

Score!

peeb · May 12, 2008, 10:27 PM

The epic fail here is that when you remove something from a finder sidebar or the dock, there is no undo.

jmiddel · May 12, 2008, 11:22 PM

Not sure how the dock is not user friendly. I mean, you have to drag things from their folder to it, and they clearly also remain in the folder. You simply cannot delete anything from the dock, only the alias. Seems intuitive to me, a great way of having everything you need to access right there on the desktop. It sure saves me a lot of time and aggravation with no downside I have experienced

peeb · May 12, 2008, 11:42 PM

What's unintuitive about it is that when you drag something from one place to another, typically it is a copy. When you do the same from the dock, it explodes in a puff. You can't undo this, and it's not clear where it went. That it was only an alias, not the thing itself, is not intuitive, you have to know that, and there's no way you can from the interface.

Hal Itosis · May 13, 2008, 02:25 AM

Hmm, yeah... maybe Dock and Sidebar should work like Menu Extras and Toolbar: need ⌘-drag to remove.

Nergol · May 13, 2008, 03:11 AM

Yeah, I may do that "Lock Dock" thing. I once was dragging about 30 picture files somewhere and accidentally let them go over the Dock. It took a while to remove them all.

My biggest problems with the Dock are the changes to it in Leopard. The mirrored appearance is too clever by half, and made things worse, not better. And the little blue fuzzball for an active application is nearly invisible against the mirrored Dock, and a big step in the wrong direction from Tiger's clear black arrows. I wish there was a "Classic Dock" option somewhere.

TETENAL · May 13, 2008, 03:36 AM

Originally Posted by Nergol

I wish there was a "Classic Dock" option somewhere.

There is a "Classic Dock" option. It's called

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES; killall Dock

and you copy it into Terminal. To revert to the mirrored Dock you do the same with

defaults remove com.apple.dock no-glass; killall Dock

Nergol · May 13, 2008, 04:31 AM

Tetenal;

So I just paste that at the terminal prompt? Simple as that?

If so, it will be an Epic Win for you as well.

analogika · May 13, 2008, 05:07 AM

Yeah, just paste it in the Terminal and hit return.

Originally Posted by Nergol

And the little blue fuzzball for an active application is nearly invisible against the mirrored Dock, and a big step in the wrong direction from Tiger's clear black arrows.

I have no problem with this, and find it comfortably subtle.

It underscores that fact that it's pretty much completely irrelevant to the system or the user whether an application he's not currently interfacing with is actually running and dormant or not running at all.

Chuckit · May 13, 2008, 08:40 AM

Except it is relevant. If Photoshop isn't running, I'm going to be starring at an annoying splash screen for the next seven years of my life and a lot of the time I'd much rather just open my photo in Preview than wait for that to complete.

edified · 12:27 PM

Originally Posted by ibook_steve

It's simply not intuitive. Perhaps there should be a "Lock Dock" command like the "Lock Taskbar" command in Windows.....

Steve

I've always thought CMD-Drag would be better for add/removing Dock icons (a-la toolbars). It would also fix the problem with dragging files onto Docked app icons.

Gamoe · May 14, 2008, 03:15 AM

Major Problems with the Dock:

- Disappearing puff-of-smoke icons. provides confusing, unclear feedback on what has happened to the item.

- It is centered, providing a constantly changing target when apps run, quit and are added and removed from the dock. This makes makes it impossible to select an item quickly from memory, as its position is always changing.

- Unlike other conventions, like a menu, it is finite. I tend to store a lot of items in the dock. Add a few minimized windows and the icons become very small on my MacBook's screen. The difference from my 20" external and 13" built-in display is very obvious in this particular respect.

- It combines too many functions, which is why it tends to accumulate icons. It is a repository for app aliases, as well as a process menu, a "shelf" for minimized windows, a place for folder aliases as well, and an inexplicable holder of the Trash, which was more at home on the Desktop, in my view.

- It takes up another side of the screen, in addition to the universal menu bar. The process menu of old, from the days before Mac OS X, while not necessarily the epitome of design, lived in the menu bar and took up no more space than the application's name and icon.

This has all been hashed and rehashed since the dock first came out. It's just not good design, like it or not. And Apple's new fancy dock in Leopard is even more alerting, as it seems Cupertino has continued to put visual aesthetics in front of true usability. I prefer my Dock on the side, so i don't get to see the over-fancy graphics anyway, but it's just not a good default.