Mac OS X Power Hound, Second Edition

Working with the Dock

Sure, anyone can work with the Dock by dragging stuff to and fro, Control-clicking various icons to use shortcut menus, and so on. However, much more power lurks in the heart of the Dock. (Use it only for the forces of good.)

Keyboard Combos

Most of the fun of the Dock comes from pressing modifier keys (Shift, Option, and so on) as you click. Here are the most winning combinations:

• If you Option-click a program’s Dock icon, that program opens, but the Dock instantly hides the one you were using previously, along with all of its windows.

• If you Option-

  

  -click a program’s Dock icon, that program opens, and the Dock hides the windows of all other running applications. This trick is a fantastic way to leap into one program—the Finder is a frequent candidate—and instantly get everything else out of your hair.

  When you use this method, already-minimized windows vanish from the Dock altogether. (When you unhide a program, its minimized window icons reappear.) It’s ideal when, say, you’re surfing the Web and you’ve minimized 20 windows to the Dock; now if you hide the browser, you don’t have to look at all that screen clutter until you want it back.

• If you

  

  -click any icon on the Dock, you jump to the Finder, where a folder window opens highlighting whatever you clicked on. You ...