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Adding Applications to the Doc

N

Neotribe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 12, 2011
18
0
When I bought my iMac all the applications were in the dock along the bottom. There were also icons for Applications and Documents.
I came in today to see that my two year old had dragged and dropped all of my applications into my trash can. Or so he said. I can't find them in the trash.

I went to Finder and was able to add most of the apps back into the doc. But I can't seem to add the shortcuts for Applications and Documents. I tried doing this by going through the Macintosh HD but that doesn't work.

Any ideas?
 
Neotribe said:
When I bought my iMac all the applications were in the dock along the bottom. There were also icons for Applications and Documents.
I came in today to see that my two year old had dragged and dropped all of my applications into my trash can. Or so he said. I can't find them in the trash.

I went to Finder and was able to add most of the apps back into the doc. But I can't seem to add the shortcuts for Applications and Documents. I tried doing this by going through the Macintosh HD but that doesn't work.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
  1. Click once on your desktop so the name in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen says "Finder" right next to the  on the left side.
  2. Press Command-Shift-A to open the Applications folder
  3. You can either drag any app from that folder to the left side of the Dock, or you can double-click an app to open it, then right-click on its Dock icon and select Options > Keep In Dock.
 
I think the op is struggling with putting the folders themselves into the dock rather than single applications. Just open finder go your home folder then drag the documents folder into the dock on the right side. You can right click on the folder in the dock and display options (GGJStudio has a tutorial on this). The same goes for applications but you need to click on your hard drive first in finder and you will see the applications folder.
 
As an FYI to the OP, your 2-year-old didn't need to put them in the Trash, as the icons in the Dock are only aliases or place holders for the actual Apps, etc. and when you drag them out of the Dock and let go they disappear in a puff of smoke. :)
 
theSeb said:
I think the op is struggling with putting the folders themselves into the dock rather than single applications. Just open finder go your home folder then drag the documents folder into the dock on the right side. You can right click on the folder in the dock and display options (GGJStudio has a tutorial on this). The same goes for applications but you need to click on your hard drive first in finder and you will see the applications folder.
Click to expand...
I think you're referring to this: Restoring Folders to the Dock
 
Neotribe said:
When I bought my iMac all the applications were in the dock along the bottom. There were also icons for Applications and Documents.
I came in today to see that my two year old had dragged and dropped all of my applications into my trash can. Or so he said. I can't find them in the trash.

I went to Finder and was able to add most of the apps back into the doc. But I can't seem to add the shortcuts for Applications and Documents. I tried doing this by going through the Macintosh HD but that doesn't work.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Crikey. There is no way I'd let a 2 year old near my mac, with their inquisitiveness and sticky fingers. Perhaps you should set it to password protected screen saver after a short interval to stop the little chap causing more chaos in the future.
 
Still not working.

theSeb said:
I think the op is struggling with putting the folders themselves into the dock rather than single applications. Just open finder go your home folder then drag the documents folder into the dock on the right side. You can right click on the folder in the dock and display options (GGJStudio has a tutorial on this). The same goes for applications but you need to click on your hard drive first in finder and you will see the applications folder.
Click to expand...

I have tried all of the above and it still won't work. I was able to restore all the other applications to the dock immediately. The only two that don't work are documents folder and the applications folder.

For example, when I drag the applications folder icon from the Macintosh HD, it gives me the green "plus" sign to add it to the desktop, but as soon as I hover over the dock, that green sign disappears. I don't even have an option of adding it to the dock. (It never appears in the dock.)

Thanks to everyone trying to help me out on this.
It wasn't a question of letting my two year old use my Mac. I thought he was watching TV while I was shaving. I came back and he said he put everything in the trash. I didn't even know he was talking about my computer until about an hour later.
 
Neotribe said:
The only two that don't work are documents folder and the applications folder.
Click to expand...
Use the link I posted in post #7. My guess is you're trying to add them to the left side of the Dock, which won't work. Drag them to the right side, as illustrated in the link I posted.
 
Great

Awesome. It finally worked. I restarted the system and used Clean My Mac. Tried it again and it worked how you said it would. Thanks for all your help.
 
Neotribe said:
Awesome. It finally worked. I restarted the system and used Clean My Mac. Tried it again and it worked how you said it would. Thanks for all your help.
Click to expand...
One app that I would not recommend, based on the number of complaints that have been posted in this forum and elsewhere, is CleanMyMac. As an example: CleanMyMac cleaned too much. While you may not have experienced problems yet, enough people have that it's wise to avoid it, especially since there are free alternatives that have better reputations, such as Onyx.

You really don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Most only remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space. It will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software.
 
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