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CubeWannaB · Nov 7, 2001, 03:55 PM

I've recently switched to putting my drives on the dock and taken them off the desktop. I can do things much faster now (no closing/moving windows to see the desktop, etc).

Does anyone else work like this? I'm wondering if there is a way to make removable media and such appear on the dock as well.

FunandBlindness · Nov 7, 2001, 04:10 PM

I actually am just trying this out also. I really like the contextual menus you get off a right click. It does seem to speed file access to the drives.

malvolio · Nov 7, 2001, 05:07 PM

I have my desktop set up to show removable media, but not drives. The drives go in the Dock, for convenience and speed as mentioned.
AFAIK, the only way you can put removable media in the dock is to drag them there one by one from a Finder window. For the limited period of time that I usually need to access them, I find that moounting them on the desktop works fine for me.

seb2 · Nov 7, 2001, 05:23 PM

sounds like an invitation to writing a dockling...

can't be very hard, though.

Zadian · Nov 7, 2001, 06:03 PM

You can put the folder "Volumes" in the dock. Every removable Volume will mount inside that folder. With the dock menu there is a easy and fast way to access these volumes.

To open the "Volumes" folder just go to the "Go" menu in the finder and select "Go to folder..." and type "/Volumes" and click OK. A Finder window of the folder Volumes will open. Just click in the icon in the window title and drag it into the dock.

But i think it would be cooler if there is an option to have volumes mount in the dock.

Boondoggle · Nov 7, 2001, 08:05 PM

You can put the folder "Volumes" in the dock. Every removable Volume will mount inside that folder. With the dock menu there is a easy and fast way to access these volumes.

I tried this but the volumes did not open menus through the dock. Also a few volumes were missing?

Strange.

CubeWannaB · Nov 7, 2001, 10:09 PM

Originally posted by seb2:
[QB]sounds like an invitation to writing a dockling...

/QB]

Sounds like a great idea! I'll look into the DOckling SDK (I assume there is one). I am a developer (web stuff tho). Good C practice.

seb2 · Nov 8, 2001, 04:27 AM

Originally posted by CubeWannaB:
<STRONG>Sounds like a great idea! I'll look into the DOckling SDK (I assume there is one). I am a developer (web stuff tho). Good C practice.</STRONG>

...no, unfortunately there isn't. there is an article on docklings on stepwise (http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/Technical/2001-03-30.01.html) which unfortunately only reflects how it was done in version pior to 10.1. there also is an article on dock menus in general on cocoadevcentral (http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/tutorials/showpage.php?show=00000029.php) which helped me a lot in writing a small app i just released (http://www.sebastian-krauss.de/locator)

the cocoa apis are really great and dealing with volumes and dock menus is a piece of cake.

you see, i *was* serious. doesn't happen too often...

OverclockedHomoSapien · Nov 8, 2001, 04:40 AM

Yeah, I do something like that.

I have one folder composed of aliases to applications, organized by type into subfolders. This folder is in the dock, and has an application icon.

I have another folder in the dock that is simply the directory to the partition containing all of my documents. This folder has a document icon.

Finally, I have a third folder with aliases to file utilities in it, like stuffit, disk copy, ect.

So each of these folders acts like an Apple menu when I right click. It's like having THREE Apple menus, all a click away! At first I missed the Apple menu, but now I see it as being somewhat archaic. The dock is so much better....to think that I used to dislike it...

The extra functionality I would like is to be able to drag an item onto a folder in the dock, have the hierarchical menus open, and then place the folder within the hierarchy. Sort of a spring-loaded folder idea. This would really bring the dock to a new level of refinement.

All volumes go on the desktop. If I want to get to them, I just open a finder window, collumn view. The "apple menus" in the dock fullfill most needs, but sometimes I need to explore the volumes. It would be cool if removable volumes appeared in the dock, however.

But I have my icons set really, really big, so I can click on the volumes no problem!