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OSX Dock questions - from a switcher

L

ls1dreams

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2009
705
316
A question/frustration about OSX - maybe someone can give me ideas on how best to handle it.

I love a lot about OSX so far, but can't stand the dock. Here are a few use cases - maybe you power users can suggest better ways to handle things.

I miss having my windows available with a single click on the Windows toolbar on the bottom. In OSX, I only have the -application- (not each individual window) open.

Windows = fast because it's one click to that specific window of an app
OSX = 2 actions (either expose -> click on window, or alt-tab then alt-~)

The other problem is that with Windows, I would easily see alerts. For example, if a google chat popped up, the title of the window would change/flash in my toolbar. I find myself with 2 browser windows open a LOT in chrome (one regular, one incognito), and am constantly missing IM's from people because I'll be working in one browser and never see the alert.

Ideas/suggestions?
 
I used Active Screen Corners and have the bottom right set to show "All Windows" with I move the cursor there.

Have you thought about using a full IM client like Adium? Its dock icon notification system keeps a little bubble count of unread messages.
 
How is "all windows" any different than 4-finger gesture down / expose?

Also, I do use Adium, but I am often logged into Facebook/Gmail while on my laptop, which causes login conflicts.
 
ls1dreams said:
How is "all windows" any different than 4-finger gesture down / expose?
Click to expand...
It's the same thing. I prefer a mouse over a trackpad, and it's extremely simple to move the pointer to a corner for Exposé or Dashboard or the Desktop.
 
Ya, I'd really like to avoid the 2-step process if possible. It's not awful, but I do find it annoying.

The alert thing is driving me more crazy than anything, though.
 
Simple: go to System Preferences, then Dock, uncheck "Minimize windows into application icon"; then any minimized window will have its own icon on the right side of the dock à la 10.5.
 
Accessible Windows is NOT 1 click under windows 7. If you multi-task (with various programs and windows open), windows in xp or vista are no longer 1 click accessible either, as they get grouped together and requires 2 clicks.

On the Mac, just click on the app to go back to your top window.

If you want alerts, install Growl. Most Mac users think it's ANNOYING.
 
Consultant said:
Accessible Windows is NOT 1 click under windows 7. If you multi-task (with various programs and windows open), windows in xp or vista are no longer 1 click accessible either, as they get grouped together and requires 2 clicks.
Click to expand...

This is incorrect. While the default behavior is to group similar windows into one button, you can disable this in the start menu options and force them all to appear. Please do not comment on Windows functionality if you are not familiar with it.
 
colourfastt said:
Simple: go to System Preferences, then Dock, uncheck "Minimize windows into application icon"; then any minimized window will have its own icon on the right side of the dock à la 10.5.
Click to expand...

I have already done this, but it does not solve my alert situation.

In the OSX doc, I will see a screen shot of the window. In Windows, I will see the title bar of the window, and it will be flashing if I have a Gchat alert.

Also, finder windows seem to minimize back to the finder icon, not the dock itself.

ARGH. While I appreciate Apple trying to keep the clutter down, I'd much rather have everything right out in front of me for quick access.
 
I use spaces to immediately select a program I want and then cmd + ~ to switch between windows.

If there are ever too many windows to quickly sift through I'll just use expose and I can easily see whatever I am looking for (having used spaces enough I normally only have one or two applications per space open at at time).

I do not even use my dock much unless I am working with one hand.

I also use a laptop w/o a mouse for most of the time.
 
May be you are better off going back to windows since you have trouble adapting to OS X workflow. OS X is great if you like or can adapt it's way of doing things. If not it is incredibly annoying. I don't know if you are using all application windows in full screen. Mac users dont do that usually.
 
Unfortunately it will always remain a two step process in OS X.

And OS X is migrating to full screen apps (in Lion), so forget it! I use the 4 finger gesture (down for expose, right for all open apps) and then mouse click.

As far as notifications, growl is the way to go, and it is annoying, as are bouncing icons in the dock which I now keep hidden.
 
That would be Windows 98, maybe even 2000 because Windows XP and later will group the windows on the taskbar. Windows 7 even has a dock-like taskbar. You can access the windows by hoovering over them, like dock expose (click and hold on the dock icon; use the arrow keys when using the app switcher (=cmd-tab); hit F10; you can tab through the apps). Someone has ported that functionality to the dock in OS X and it's called HyperDock. However, like ls1dreams already said you can still tell Windows 7 to use a button for every little window and dialog. Using a lot of windows/dialogs will cause usability problems because the buttons will be to small to differentiate or click easily. Window management in OS X will be better in this area and so will the new Windows 7 dock-style window management.
 
dyn said:
That would be Windows 98, maybe even 2000 because Windows XP and later will group the windows on the taskbar. Windows 7 even has a dock-like taskbar. You can access the windows by hoovering over them, like dock expose (click and hold on the dock icon; use the arrow keys when using the app switcher (=cmd-tab); hit F10; you can tab through the apps). Someone has ported that functionality to the dock in OS X and it's called HyperDock. However, like ls1dreams already said you can still tell Windows 7 to use a button for every little window and dialog. Using a lot of windows/dialogs will cause usability problems because the buttons will be to small to differentiate or click easily. Window management in OS X will be better in this area and so will the new Windows 7 dock-style window management.
Click to expand...

Windows XP and 7 can definitely "ungroup" icons, it's just not the default. I agree that if you have a LOT of windows open, then the title bars become less useful. However, because of the way that gchat/facebook kind of animates the text, it makes it very easy to notice that a message is coming through.

First, thanks everyone for chiming in. I'm going to stick to OSX for a while here and see if I can get used to the workflow. I think the best thing I can do is try to get all IM conversations into adium (including facebook and gchat), and then stick to command-~ for quick switching.

I just find it very odd that an OS that is designed to be so user friendly actually adds extra steps to the workflow.
 
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