ok, so i've edited the plist for the dock to allow the orient and pin menus. i notice that when you change the values in the menus, it changes your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist file. now even though the values for orientation and pinning stay to what you set them, somehow they get overridden but not changed. so what i want to know is where the REAL default settings of center and bottom are kept, or at least how to make the dock stay when you log out.
dock orientation
- Thread starter aychseven
- Start date
From what I've read, it seems Apple just wasn't secure in this feature yet, so they welded the application shut prior to release in an attempt to avoid problems with interaction with other programs. There are still a number of apps that put their resize widgets right under the dock so you have to move the window to shrink it, then move it back. Grrrr.
In my opinion the dock should be on the side by default. Vertical space is too precious to waste.
In my opinion the dock should be on the side by default. Vertical space is too precious to waste.
TommyWillB
Registered
Unfortunately this did not do what I was hoping. I have a 2 monitor setup and I was thinking that I'd be able to get the dock to be on the bottom of the secondary (left) monitor while the menubar remained on the first.
Unfortunately placing the Dock on the left puts the dock on the left of the primar monitor. Similarly pinning it to the start while on the bottom, does not work.
Is this a limitation of Docking Maneuvers or the underlying settings it is changing?
I highly recommend the dual monitor experience. This includes X and X beta. The release cleaned up some issues, but the OS has been multiple monitor aware for some time.
The issue seems to be that the arrangement panel in the monitors preferences only allows you to change which monitor is the primary, and both the menu and dock follow this. It would seems it is the fault of something deep underneath yet that keeps you from separating the dock from the menu bar.
The issue seems to be that the arrangement panel in the monitors preferences only allows you to change which monitor is the primary, and both the menu and dock follow this. It would seems it is the fault of something deep underneath yet that keeps you from separating the dock from the menu bar.
TommyWillB
Registered
Dual screen shot (Scaled 75%, but still quite wide.)
I could not make Grab get both screens in one shot, so I stiched these together. Also it did not include my desktop pattern for some reason...
(Oh, and I switched the resolution of #2 to 1024 for this.)
I could not make Grab get both screens in one shot, so I stiched these together. Also it did not include my desktop pattern for some reason...
(Oh, and I switched the resolution of #2 to 1024 for this.)
Obviously, I was very wrong in assuming OS X was not dual monitor aware. I apologize for my mistake.
Thanks for correcting me without being too derogatory... LOL
BTW, can you all tell me how you have your monitors set-up. I mean, do you have two video cards? Or is there one special card for the set-up? How is the second monitor managed? Do the two need to have the same resolution? Does it matter that my primary screen is an Apple Cinema Display? Is there a way to add a second AGP port so I could add another flat panel ADC display?
Okay, I know... I'm asking really stupid newbie questions here, but I have always been intrigued at the prospect of running dual displays, however I have never done any research into it.
Thanks.
PS - Is two the limit of displays you can run?
Thanks for correcting me without being too derogatory... LOL
BTW, can you all tell me how you have your monitors set-up. I mean, do you have two video cards? Or is there one special card for the set-up? How is the second monitor managed? Do the two need to have the same resolution? Does it matter that my primary screen is an Apple Cinema Display? Is there a way to add a second AGP port so I could add another flat panel ADC display?
Okay, I know... I'm asking really stupid newbie questions here, but I have always been intrigued at the prospect of running dual displays, however I have never done any research into it.
Thanks.
PS - Is two the limit of displays you can run?
The screens are arranged logically in software so that when you run off of the edge of one screen you go onto another, or you hit a wall.
I have 2 cards, different types, and they can be at different refresh rates, resolutions, bit depth, etc. It all doesn't matter. They don't have to be matched in any way. Some things macs will always do best.
My friend Tom is doing 3 monitors, different makers of cards, etc. I have never met a limit in the number of displays. If there is a limit, it's probably higher than the number of PCI slots you'll ever have. Maybe if I filled all of my slots with dual monitor cards, then I'd find a limit.
Finally, there is no such thing as another AGP slot. Not to my knowledge. I believe the AGP slot is kinda understood to be unique. I don't even know if it's theoretically possible to have two AGP slots. All additional cards will be PCI for the time being.
I have 2 cards, different types, and they can be at different refresh rates, resolutions, bit depth, etc. It all doesn't matter. They don't have to be matched in any way. Some things macs will always do best.
My friend Tom is doing 3 monitors, different makers of cards, etc. I have never met a limit in the number of displays. If there is a limit, it's probably higher than the number of PCI slots you'll ever have. Maybe if I filled all of my slots with dual monitor cards, then I'd find a limit.
Finally, there is no such thing as another AGP slot. Not to my knowledge. I believe the AGP slot is kinda understood to be unique. I don't even know if it's theoretically possible to have two AGP slots. All additional cards will be PCI for the time being.
the_mac_nerd
Registered
I heard that Mac OS X was just bad at saving preferences period. I checked both the actual resource file, and the user preference, and it should have worked. It may be something with the dockling server, but I couldn't find any useful XML to edit inside of there either.
If you're interested in killing the dock, I found one way to do it that's very safe and actually seemed to increase performance and stability a little bit. But it comes with a caveat. Once you disable the Dock it's very tricky switching between any open Apps, but not impossible. If someone were to come up with a utility to replace just the Application Menu up in the menu bar I'd disable the Dock for good. And to open your programs you'll have to dbl-click them from within your hard drive, or create aliases and place them on your desktop.
Anyway, here are the instructions. Use at your own risk.
OK, fire up Terminal and login as su. Then go to System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS. There you will find the Dock application simply named Dock. To play it safe, make a copy of this file and save it to another folder. I put a copy in my Mac OS X Applications folder. Next, use the mv command to rename the Dock so that Mac OS X can't find it when it wants to start it up. I changed mine to Dock.old. Here's the full command line:
mv Dock Dock.old
Type exit to logout as su.
Type exit again to logout of Terminal.
Quit the Terminal program.
Next, go to the Mac OS X Applications folder and then open the Utilities folder.
Dbl-click the Process Viewer.
Look for Dock in the Process Viewer, dbl-click on it and choose Quit.
The Dock is gone. For good.
Almost.
Remember that copy you made and tucked away safely somewhere? If you want to bring the Dock back just dbl-click on the copy of the Dock you made and the Dock is back. Be advised though that if you reboot now, the Dock will *not*load up when you reach the desktop because Mac OS X can't find the program called "Dock" where it should be.
And if you want the Dock back permanently, just follow the instructions listed above and change the command line to:
mv Dock.old Dock
Reboot and the Dock will be back, behaving the way it did before.
Now if someone could create a replacement for the Application Menu that sat up in the Menu bar...
I did the exact same thing to kill the dock (moved the Dock application out of CoreServices), and I couldn't be happier. I installed DragThing 4, which gives me a much more configurable replacement to the Dock. I also returned my Trash to the desktop.
Regarding a process menu in the menu bar: There's one called ASM, which I use in addition to DragThing. It places an application menu to the right of the clock in the menu bar. The menu displays running applications, like the application menu in OS 9. ASM needs a little work, however, since it doesn't show icons (and does not include the other application menu items - like hide and show). You should be able to find ASM on Version Tracker.
Regarding a process menu in the menu bar: There's one called ASM, which I use in addition to DragThing. It places an application menu to the right of the clock in the menu bar. The menu displays running applications, like the application menu in OS 9. ASM needs a little work, however, since it doesn't show icons (and does not include the other application menu items - like hide and show). You should be able to find ASM on Version Tracker.
Forgot to add two things:
1) I tried to download ASM from Versiontracker and it wouldn't unpack correctly. I went directly to the developer's site:
http://asm.cocoa.vercruesse.de/
And download from the link there. Worked perfectly.
2) Monolith, what did you do to get the Trash back on the desktop? Some of the utility apps I've tried place the Trash can icon on the desktop but clicking on it doesn't bring up the Trash.
1) I tried to download ASM from Versiontracker and it wouldn't unpack correctly. I went directly to the developer's site:
http://asm.cocoa.vercruesse.de/
And download from the link there. Worked perfectly.
2) Monolith, what did you do to get the Trash back on the desktop? Some of the utility apps I've tried place the Trash can icon on the desktop but clicking on it doesn't bring up the Trash.