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Mac OS X Leopard 9A581's Dock Visual Tweaks

i dont really care

i have always used dock on the side, but i want to use the fan feature so will be using it on the bottom with leopard.

i dont care that much as i hide the dock anyway

id like to learn quicksilver to cut down on time

;)
 
zioxide said:
would it be that hard for them to add a radiobox in system prefs to allow people to use that at the bottom too?

stupid ass apple
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To this guy and all you other idiots whining over a dock:

crybaby.png
 
LoganT said:
It's called a dock, it just seems to make sense that it would be on the bottom.
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Actually the dock originated on the right side of the screen. That's where it was in NeXtStep, which is where the concept came from.

The top left of the screen was for the menu, which went DOWN the screen (probably to avoid getting sued by Apple!) and you could drag it around.

Instead of the arrow (now the blue bulb in Leopard) there was an ellipsis to indicate a running app.

There's actually no precedent that I am aware of for Dock on the bottom EXCEPT the Windows taskbar (which has many many flaws.) Oh, I suppose the thing at the bottom of the page on the CDE in X-11, and of course the many window managers on X-11 which basically copy the Windows view of the world.

From an HCI perspective, I believe top right is the easiest place for a right handed person to "throw" the mouse to. Try it. Try to move the mouse rapidly to the four corners of the screen and see which one is easiest. :)

I personally dock left, and would like to have the 3D dock there as I happen to prefer it. Who knows, it might be an option. :) I will go back to docking bottom in the mean time, as I happen to really like the 3D dock.

Each to his own I guess. :)

be well

t
 
milo said:
Sure, it cuts out the work of having to move the mouse to the dock, but adds the work of moving your hand to the F13 key. That's not instantaneous either. Maybe if you assigned a keyboard shortcut that was closer to reach. I'd almost say using spotlight would be quicker depending how fast you type.
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My hands are constantly on the keyboard so (for me) it is instantaneous. There are obviously two types of users: Point & Clickers and Key Commanders.

Eradicating the dock completely is not a good move, but introducing Quicksilver as a built-in feature would be as it is so much more than an application launcher.
 
There was a great freeware app for tiger called cleardock that allowed you to get rid of the dock color and frame so that the apps just floated there without the background and frame. You could also change the color of the carrot of launched apps so that they showed up better against your desktop. I changed mine to dark red to see them better.
 
Frozentoast said:
Eradicating the dock completely is not a good move, but introducing Quicksilver as a built-in feature would be as it is so much more than an application launcher.
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And hopefully it will be much better once it goes open source...if you want QS to feel more built in, check out this guide on replacing the Finder with it.

I really hope the dock looks good on the side, from this one picture, it seems worse than the Tiger one...
 
Stridder44 said:
To this guy and all you other idiots whining over a dock:
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oh screw you.

The dock is ugly. The transparency and reflections are just wasting your computers resources. If you like it, fine. But Apple should at least add an option for people to customize some parts of the damn OS.
 
Is it really necessary to count keystrokes?

Frozentoast said:
Your cursor is not always hovering over icons in the dock is it? I assume you do some work. QS cuts out having to navigate with the mouse to a location to click - it's instantaneous wherever you are.
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I work on my computer all day, doing everything people do on computers.

I defy anyone to prove that they are so intensely productive and efficient that they are keyboarding nonstop, with no pauses to...umm, move a mouse. ********.

NOBODY works like that, even under a deadline (been there many times). For several minutes at a time, maybe.

Maybe Quicksilver is great, but don't give us this crap that saving a half second (if true) makes you more efficient or represents some quantum leap over other methods of task performance.
 
atari1356 said:
I prefer the 3D look (although I've never seen how that would look on the side). This flat 2D look seems poorly designed... what's with the thick white border around it? I like the Tiger 2D dock better.
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Its not a thick white border, its thin, and Tiger has it too. You just can't see it as much because the rest of the dock is white as well not shaded like this new one. I think it looks nice, and I like the rounded corners. But, I LOVE the 3D dock and can't wait to have it and the new sleek sexy look. I like it on auto-hide on the bottum, I wouldn't ever wanna use my dock on the side. There is so much more width and space on the bottum for icons. Is the whole side thing just a Linux users thing or what?
 
God^Cent said:
If apple makes this dock a option for the bottom it would be really nice to see the silver border as a reflective border!:apple:



The scroll bars are fine... its iTunes thats the problem.
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The scroll bars are certainly fine, for Tiger that is. It's not that they need iTunes/iLife scroll bars.. It's that they need scroll bars and buttons that match the dock and menu bar. Aqua is really dated now, especially with the drastically changed menu bar and dock.
 
roland.g said:
There was a great freeware app for tiger called cleardock that allowed you to get rid of the dock color and frame so that the apps just floated there without the background and frame. You could also change the color of the carrot of launched apps so that they showed up better against your desktop. I changed mine to dark red to see them better.
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that sounds cool :D
 
Dock: whatever, it's all improper perspective tomfoolery.

Quicksilver vs. Dock: These are fundamentally different things, almost incomparable. One is a browser and one is a search tool. These are different mindsets and thus completely different tools. One requires you to *recognize* what you want and the other requires that you *recall* what you want.

Then there's the keyboard vs. mouse aspect. A coder will like the keyboard more, somebody working in design (photoshop, etc.) will probably like mouse-actions more. Again, neither is inherently better.

As far as efficiency, it will depend on what you're doing and what you are going to try and do next. You can dream up instances where either is more efficient than the other. Even then, it's on the order of fractions of a second either way.

At the end of the day a browser (the dock) is more intuitive, and thus more satisfying to Joe and Jane Anybody. Have we all forgotten why we moved to the GUI approach in the first place?

That said, between the Dock and improved Spotlight, I think Apple doesn't see much compelling reason to add yet another layer that is even less likely to be used than what's already there.
 
it seems that in usenet there's something for who's waiting for his leopard shipping.... :D
 
That's awesome Apple gives you the 2-D dock option, it was the one thing about Leopard I wasn't crazy about. Woo hoo!

heh...secret feature. Sounds like it. I'm sure we are in for a few more surprises once it is in everyones hands.
 
metallicaisgood said:
The scroll bars are certainly fine, for Tiger that is. It's not that they need iTunes/iLife scroll bars.. It's that they need scroll bars and buttons that match the dock and menu bar.
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I love Leopard and Aqua, but I will admit with the scroll bars and buttons it is all kind of mixed together now. I don't like the iTunes scroll bars, but they need to make it all consistent. iLife '08 has different scroll bars now too. And all this after Apple goes off about a consistent look in all programs etc.

And while we are talking about interfaces. APPLE FIX SHAKE AND COLOR.... Dear GOD I have never seen uglier non-apple like interfaces that are confusing and PC like. Make them like the rest of Final Cut Studio for crying out loud.
 
Padriac said:
Quicksilver vs. Dock: These are fundamentally different things, almost incomparable. One is a browser and one is a search tool. These are different mindsets and thus completely different tools. One requires you to *recognize* what you want and the other requires that you *recall* what you want.
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The point being made is that many QS users never use the dock: including me, quite a few have only Finder and Trash on the dock. I can look through my Apps folder in QS if I want t recognize and not recall :)
 
speed increases for the Apple Pro

:apple: Does anyone know if the Leopard software will provide for more efficient use of the new duo-core intel processors that are in the Apple Pro and going into other Macs??? I would like to see a speed increase and more efficient use of the two duo-core processors in my computer.:D
 
notjustjay said:
... but is it supposed to let you slide your apps underneath the dock like that?

I can't do that when the dock is at the bottom of the screen...
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I vaguely remember not being able to slide apps under the dock, but I think that might have been Jaguar or earlier. I can do it now. But I also tend to have dock hiding turned on. I also have it reduced as small as it will go, and then I turn on magnification, because the only time I have to see it clearly is when I'm clicking on it.

DrAtheist said:
Quicksilver, press 4 or 5 keys, application is launching. Time taken, about 0.5 seconds.

Dock, take hand off keyboard, move to mouse, locate item in dock, click it, move hand back to keyboard. Time taken 2 seconds.
That's 4 times faster. :D
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Any time I have both hands on the keyboard, I'm typing, therefore not switching apps, but if I do have to switch apps, I use command+tab.
My non-typing position is one hand on the keys, one on the mouse or tablet pen. So that dock is pretty darn convenient.
 
64bit Intel Macs (especially the Mac Pro) will see speed increases due to better efficiency and optimization :)
 
TPALTony said:
From an HCI perspective, I believe top right is the easiest place for a right handed person to "throw" the mouse to. Try it. Try to move the mouse rapidly to the four corners of the screen and see which one is easiest. :)
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But it's not just about where you can get your mouse to the quickest- your brain has to actually interpret the icons on the dock and confirm the one you're looking for. It's kind of like reading a line of text... I can 'read' my dock much easier horizontally at the bottom of the screen than I can vertically on the side.
 
Wirelessly posted (Motorola-V3m Obigo/Q04C1 MMP/2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Is it possible to turn off the 3d dock altogether? because it annoys the hell out of me
 
unfortunately you cant please everyone. There will always be people who prefer the older design and others prefering the new design.
 
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