pardon me for lack of better words i accidentally made something go "poof" from my dock i was trying to click on something and accidentally dragged an icon off the dock screen ......any ideas on how to bring it back? i dont know what it is that i accidentally dragged off
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I accidentally made something go poof in my dock!
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If you know what it is, just drag it back. Since you don't not much you can do. I guess you won't miss it then.
You didn't lose anything per say. It just went off your dock, but I suppose what you don't know can't hurt you?
You'll figure out what it was when you go to use it and it's not there. 
Trust me... I do that all the time.
Trust me... I do that all the time.
You'll figure out what it was when you go to use it and it's not there.
Not necessarily
, I dragged that "@" symbol springy thing off my dock in Tiger after I got my 12" Powerbook G4 and couldn't for the life of me remember what it was, then two years later when I reinstalled the OS there it was. I still don't know what it did but I remember realizing that I wouldn't have used it anyway.
You weren't sure how to describe this problem, but your guess was perfect. Apple calls the disappearing icon animation the "poof" effect!
Even if you don't know which icon you removed from the Dock, don't worry about it. You can pick whatever selection of applications you want, from your Applications folder, and drag their icons into the Dock. If you pick a lot of them, your Dock icons all get smaller, but that's the only downside. If you don't use a particular application very often, you probably don't need its icon in the Dock, so "poof" it.
Even if you don't know which icon you removed from the Dock, don't worry about it. You can pick whatever selection of applications you want, from your Applications folder, and drag their icons into the Dock. If you pick a lot of them, your Dock icons all get smaller, but that's the only downside. If you don't use a particular application very often, you probably don't need its icon in the Dock, so "poof" it.
Not necessarily
If he doesn't need it or use it, then-- there's nothing to worry about. The springy thingy in the dock is a link to a Safari website. In your case, the link to the Mac OSX website. To make one, drag the little avatar in the Safari URL bar into the dock on the right side of the dividing thing. You can do that for any website.
Not necessarily
It's a hyperlink or a shortcut to a website, probably apple.com
No kidding? I always wondered but never really cared to find out until now. Anyway, OP: good luck with you dock! I accidently drag stuff off all the time since I lack the fine motor skills to successfully use a trackpad.
This is one of the worst-designed things in OS X for me. I am forever having to rescue computer novices (like my parents) who have lost things from the dock. It's so easy to do by accident if you don't have great mouse control.
The more friendly way of removing icons from the dock would be to drag them to the trash. It would be just as intuitive, but much harder to do by accident.
The more friendly way of removing icons from the dock would be to drag them to the trash. It would be just as intuitive, but much harder to do by accident.
Be aware that you can also poof off items from the sidebar of any Finder window as well.
This is one of the things that has always annoyed me about OS X.
How hard would it have been to be able to either A) undo things or B) lock the dock or lock items to the dock? Windows had the locking quicklaunch over ten years ago.
Thread cross-reference
I found an old thread where I created my own custom poof animation:
I found an old thread where I created my own custom poof animation:
Wow! That's really neat! I want to make a poof ala the Aqua Teen Hunger Force explosion.