TransparentDock Options:

Custom Dock:

• Dock Background:

- Choose from 10 transparency levels for the main dock background (from fully transparent to fully opaque)

- Choose from 16 different colors

• Outer Border:

- Choose from 7 transparency levels

- Choose from 18 different colors

• Inner Border:

- Show or hide the white dock inner border

• Open App Triangle Color:

- Controls the color of the triangles under open (running) applications

  • Choose from 20 colors or transparent!

 Dock poof:

- Customize the dock poof (puff of smoke (default effect) for dragging items out of the dock)

  (* Any additions to the custom poofs folder would be welcomed :))

- To apply your own custom poof, just add a folder with your poof (named "poof.png") to the "Custom poofs" folder (created by the application when "Custom poofs" is first selected). 

Dock Effects:

- Customize some effects... turn on or off:

  • Semi-transparent Icons for hidden apps

  • Magnification of minimized window thumbnails 

    (shows just upper left corner of minimized docked window, rather than whole window)

  • Subtle dock drop shadow (very subtle :))

- Also customize:

  • Icon name font size for docked items (9.5 pt to 96 pt!)

     ** Please note: there is a glitch with dock icon font size in TransparentDock 2.2 under Mac OS X Panther (10.3) and Tiger (10.4) that will cause the text in Exposé Show Windows mode & the application switcher to appear distorted... changing the font size back to the default value (15 pt) will correct the distorted text in Exposé & the application switcher. This issue is still being investigated...

  • Minimize effect

  • Dock Placement

  • Dock Pinning

Dock Setup:

- Customize some general features of the dock, the dock menus or included apps... 

 • Control floating state of the dock

     If the dock is sent behind other applications:

     •the dock will still respond normally to mouse over & mouse click events

     •adjust the position of an individual icon to bring it to the front (restart the dock to send it back)

 • Allow moving or removal of the Finder icon in the dock...

     If this setting is enabled:

     •the Finder icon can be moved to any position on the left side of the dock

     •the Finder icon can be removed from the dock

          • in pre-Tiger systems this only persists until the next dock restart

          • in Tiger systems this setting persists across dock restarts

     •in pre-Tiger systems, restart the dock to replace the Finder icon to its default position

     •see note below to remove the Finder icon from the dock while launched in Tiger

 • Show or Hide Background-Only Apps ("loginwindow","SystemUIServer", etc...)

     •see important note below about background applications in the dock

 • Lock or unlock icons in the dock (disables icon dragging or removal; also disables new icon addition in Mac OS X 10.3-10.4 and disables Keep in Dock & Remove from Dock menu items in Mac OS X 10.4)

 • Enable single application mode when switching applications from the dock

 • Show or hide background-only applications

 • Show or hide Exposé hot corners & activation button (Mac OS X 10.3-10.4 only)

 • Enable or disable dock icon bouncing for attention (Mac OS X 10.3-10.4 only) 

 • Show or hide package contents in the docked directory popup menus

 • Show or hide invisible & system files in the docked directory popup menus

 • Control the depth of hierarchical menus from the docked directory popup menus (Mac OS X 10.2 only; unlimited depth is default for Mac OS X 10.3-10.4)

 • Place a Quit menu item in the Finder popup dock menu

 • Place Quit & Pinning options in the dock's popup menu (available on control-click (right-click, click & hold) near the dock divider)

 • Place Hide Commands (Hide & Hide Others) for Running Applications in the dock (hold down the option key for "Hide Others" command) (Mac OS X 10.2 only; these menu items are included by default in Mac OS X 10.3-10.4)

Please Note: Quitting some background only applications from the dock (such as “loginwindow”) will cause a system crash/forced logout without saving current data. Quitting other applications may have unpredictable results.

Note: in Tiger systems, to remove the Finder icon from the dock even when launched, enter the following defaults command in the terminal before running TransparentDock:

defaults write com.freerangemac.transparentdock showfinder -bool no

To show the running Finder icon again, enter the following defaults command:

defaults write com.freerangemac.transparentdock showfinder -bool yes

Then, run TransparentDock, select "Make Finder Icon (Re)movable" from the "DockSetup" tab, & apply changes.

Reset Dock:

- Reset the dock to its original state. Choose from 2 reset methods:

  • Reset current dock: reverse all changes made to the current dock

  • Reset from backup...: Replace the entire Dock package with a backup copy. You will be prompted to locate your backup copy of the "Dock.app" application package, & the contents of the current "Dock.app" in "/System/Library/CoreServices/" will be replaced with the contents of a copy of the backup, leaving the original backup in place.

If the backup isn't available, check the "Resources" folder within the TransparentDock application package for a "Backup" folder... a backup of the original dock & the most recent dock are saved here before any changes are applied & before each new run, respectively.

- Refresh: Refresh the settings of TransparentDock to match the current state of the dock (in the event that the settings are not updated after applying changes).

Before any changes are made, the option will be presented to save a backup of "Dock.app" (the entire package) to a folder called "DockBackup" in a directory of your choosing for safe keeping.   Since by default the Dock application is owned by the system, applying any changes to the dock requires an administrator password. The password will not be stored by the application when not running, and will have to be reentered the next time the application is run.

Applying Changes & Restarting the Dock:

Apply Changes Button: After any option is selected, the "Apply Changes" button becomes available. Pressing this button will apply all selected changes for all tabs except "Reset Dock" to the current dock. After applying changes, the dock will be automatically restarted to view the selected changes.

Reset Button (Reset Dock tab only): Pressing this button will reset the dock to its original state using the selected reset method (currently installed dock or backup dock) and reset source (the path for the reset source is printed in the accompanying field). See "Reset Dock" above for details. If "Reset from backup..." is selected, the Reset button will only become available after a valid backup dock file is selected. After resetting the dock, the dock must be restarted to view the default dock.  

Restart Dock: Just relaunches the dock... this button is always available except while changes are being applied or the dock is in the process of restarting.

TD Themes:

The TD Themes Palette, or TransparentDock dock icon in version 2.3.6 or later, allows saving dock configurations ("themes") and switching between saved dock themes. Each dock theme can include the general dock preferences (included applications, documents & folders, on screen position, pinning, magnification, size...), & "custom themes" can include a custom appearance configured with TransparentDock.

Custom Themes: A customized "Dock" application file can be applied to a dock theme (for example, one dock can have full transparency, white triangles and no icon names while another dock can have a semi-transparent background, black triangles and show background apps). Switching to a saved theme with custom features requires authentication.

**If authentication is not in effect (the password has timed out), or "Include Dock Background When Switching Themes" is not selected in Preferences, only the general dock preferences (size, magnification, docked folders & applications...) will be switched.