[m a d r a]

OK - it's probably my fault for having so many icons in my dock, but finding the app i want to open in a crowded dock would be a lot easier if so many developers didn't seem to think that it's compulsory to make their application icon a vaguely bluey-green round thing!

[apologies for the annoying pic dimensions, but it kinda had to be like that!]

[strictlyplaid]

Prepare to be tookinated.

[xi_hyperon]

It probably started as an effort to differentiate one's app from others. Of course, if everyone tries to differentiate, using the same tactic, well, there's not much differentiation, is there.

One thing I like with respect to circle icons is that it gives the illusion of more space between them in the dock. Square icons next to each other in the dock, IMHO, look crowded together. That's always been a peeve of mine though - I wish icon spacing was adjustable in the dock.

[Dakar]

Man how can you keep so many icons in your dock, big resolution or not

edit: haha, I mispelled dock with an 'i'
think about that within the context of my actual post...

[m a d r a]

Originally Posted by xi_hyperon

It probably started as an effort to differentiate one's app from others. Of course, if everyone tries to differentiate, using the same tactic, well, there's not much differentiation, is there.

One thing I like with respect to circle icons is that it gives the illusion of more space between them in the dock. Square icons next to each other in the dock, IMHO, look crowded together. That's always been a peeve of mine though - I wish icon spacing was adjustable in the dock.

i think it's quite the opposite [of wanting to differentiate] and i reckon it started with public beta. i seem to remember that [in keeping with the aqua theme] a lot of the first OSX apps from apple had round blueish icons. then when the third party apps started appearing, the developers [in their usual unimaginative "let's copy what apple do" way] gave all their apps round, bluish icons so they'd look like they belonged in this new fancy OS. it's a habit which unfortunately seems to have stuck.

kudos to companies like panic.com for daring to be non-conformist. i can always find transmit's wee truck in the dock amongst all those anonymous discs. [even if it is blue as well!]

as regards the number of icons in the dock, that's the streamlined version! i chucked a couple of seldom used apps off a week or two ago, to try and reduce the clutter! i think it's an unfortunate by-product of being a web designer. i've got ten apps in my dock, just dedicated to web design; four browsers [for testing] an FTP prog [for uploading] dreamweaver and flash [for designing], BBedit [for coding], CSSedit [for stylesheet coding] and cocoa mySQL [for database management]. i switch back and forward between them all the time, when working on sites [not to mention photoshop and digital colo[u]r meter for producing the site graphics]

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by m a d r a

as regards the number of icons in the dock, that's the streamlined version! i chucked a couple of seldom used apps off a week or two ago, to try and reduce the clutter! i think it's an unfortunate by-product of being a web designer. i've got ten apps in my dock, just dedicated to web design; four browsers [for testing] an FTP prog [for uploading] dreamweaver and flash [for designing], BBedit [for coding], CSSedit [for stylesheet coding] and cocoa mySQL [for database management]. i switch back and forward between them all the time, when working on sites [not to mention photoshop and digital colo[u]r meter for producing the site graphics]

Oh yes, web design. I interned as a web designer, and that pretty much sealed the fact that I would not be doing that with my design degree.

All respect to you though... Its a very time consuming and exacting job when you pay attention to the important details. Personally, I just find the internet (and the people who have to use the sites) too limiting a canvas to work on.

[wdlove]

Blue is my favorite color so I don't mind at all.

[Stradlater]

Honestly, if you don't use all of those applications every day, they have no place in the dock. Use an application launcher, or use Spotlight to launch the seldom-to-occasionally-used.

[Dakar]

I love blue too, but not Aqua.
So I just make my own icons.
Aqua icons in graphite is much cooler.

[Stradlater]

3 quick unnecessary icons:

Dashboard - more quickly accessed by F12
iChat - add icon to menubar and allow yourself to be signed on without iChat being open, that way it will only take up dock space when you have an active conversation
System Preferences - see Apple Menu

I think, however, that app launchers (Spotlight, Quicksilver, LaunchBar, etc.) were made for you.

How often do you use Google Earth?
How often do you use Address Book?
iMovie?
Disk Utility?

[Dakar]

I enjoyed Fruitmenu before my PB died.

[TETENAL]

In your screenshot only 10 of 54 icons are blue and round. That's less than 20%. I don't think that qualifies as "so many". With 3 primary colours and the shape options roundish and not roundish that's only slightly more often than the expected 16.66%.

[Dakar]

I think you're generalizing too much... icon recogniztion isn't limited to '3 primary colors' and an adobe icon versus the transmit icon are both 'not roundish' yet are completely different.

[m a d r a]

Originally Posted by Stradlater

3 quick unnecessary icons:

Dashboard - more quickly accessed by F12
iChat - add icon to menubar and allow yourself to be signed on without iChat being open, that way it will only take up dock space when you have an active conversation
System Preferences - see Apple Menu........

you know what? - i never even knew you could remove dashboard and sys prefs from the dock. i thought they were hardwired in!

[zanyterp]

i did not realize that dashboard could safely be removed either.....let's see how this works and what my wife says abou it in the morning when she sees it's not in the dock....

[Cubeoid]

large elongated image.

oh..and the dashboard has no reason to be in the dock, it's accesible by mousing to the top left corner of screen.

[wdlove]

Where is tokki?