Open app not visible in dock?

aishafenton

aishafenton

Most remote member
Hi,

Does anyone know of a way to hide a running application's dock icon?

For instance.. I like to have Stickies running in the background but I don't want to have it cluttering up my dock..

And on a more general note..
Does anyone else out there think that in OSX there needs to be something equivalent to the Window's (yuk) System tray??

I do like the dock.. but some things I run just don't require that much attention...

Thanks,
Aisha

 

This hack does work.. but it still isn't the complete solution. The problem with this hack is that it puts the application into permanent background mode.. meaning that no keystrokes can go to it...

So doing this to Stickies, for example, is a bad idea, since you wouldn't be able to type to it...

Any other ideas anyone???



Quote "www.macosxhints.com" ...

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If you'd like to have an application running, but without a dock icon, there's a way achieve this by modifying the application's plist file. Read the rest of this article if you'd like the (fairly simple) instructions.

NOTE: This one goes in the clearly 'experimental' category. I have not tried this myself yet, but the source (the X4U mailing list) is generally good, and it seems to make logical sense. Use at your own risk!!

Open a terminal session, and first navigate to the "Contents" folder of the application you'd like to modify (note - you may want to make a backup of the app first, especially if it's one of the Apple-installed applications). This example uses Key Caps:

cd 'Applications/Utilities/Key Caps.app/Contents/'

Now, edit the Info.plist file:

vi Info.plist

You can use vi, pico, or emacs to do the editing.

Just before the closing Just before the closing </dict> tag, add

<key>NSBGOnly</key>
<string>1</string>

Save the edited Info.plist, then launch Key Caps from the GUI (it's in /Applications). If your edit was successful, you should see the Key Caps window come up, but no icon in the dock.
 
Does anybody know how I can hide an icon from an app in the Dock. I always have DropDrawers running. (A great little utility with a nice Aqua interface). I never want it to quit...

What can I do to make the icon in my Dock disappear?
 
An application has to be written to do this. Some have this feature implemented. Email the author and ask if she will consider adding it in.
 
I am not sure if I understand your Question..why would you want an icon disappear if you have it always running?
can't you just drag it out of the dock?
 
If it's a Cocoa app you want to do this to, you're in luck, but if it's a Carbon app you'll have to get the author of it to implement it.

If it's a Cocoa app, navigate to it, control-click (or right click on the mouse if you have a two button one), select 'Show Package Contents' from the pop up menu.

Open up the Contents folder. There will be a file called Info.plist. Open that up in your favorite text editor (NOTE: if you open it up in TextEdit, make sure that it is set to plain text, NOT rich text format).

At the bottom, before the <xmp></dict></xmp> line, add this in:

<xmp><key></xmp>NSUIElement<xmp></key></xmp>
<xmp><string></xmp>1<xmp></string></xmp>

Then save the file, and restart the the app if it's running.

Note that this will also disable the application's menu bar...you won't be able to see that, either.

If you want to set it back to normal, all you have to do is either change the 1 in that second line to 0, or just delete both lines. Restart the app if it's running.
 
Thank you all for your fast replies!

Damn, DropDrawers is carbon app! So I will have to write to SigSoftware and hope they will implement this in their next version.... If they only had a beautiful icon...
 
You can put a new icon on the application in the meantime. BTW Darkshadow, great tip. You should post it to the How-To forum.
 
The Dock has taken the place of the Application Menu, so if it doesn't show up in the Dock, I don't know how you would go back to it (unless you wanted it running only in the background).
 
not that i know of. in order to have the app not show up in the dock, it has to be written for that. this is only from what i've read (numerous posts) and i may be wrong, but im pretty sure that the application has to have that option built into it, and that its not just a universal option.
 
when you have the open app just hold the option key and click somewhere OUTSIDE of that application, finder for example and it will hide.
 
keeping an open app from appearing in the Dock is to erase the icon, you'll just get a blank space in the dock!!!!:confused:

I know, I ain't good at this system changing stuff!!!
 
I believe what he meant was to not have anything show in the dock, even a blank space. There are many examples of this, such as LaunchBar...and uhm...LaunchBar.

Anyway, it is possible to have any Cocoa application do this. It is even possible to get any carbon application to do this, although I threw away my only example of this.

Here is something that a quick search for the words hide, icon, and dock brought up:

Originally posted by Darkshadow
If it's a Cocoa app you want to do this to, you're in luck, but if it's a Carbon app you'll have to get the author of it to implement it.

If it's a Cocoa app, navigate to it, control-click (or right click on the mouse if you have a two button one), select 'Show Package Contents' from the pop up menu.

Open up the Contents folder. There will be a file called Info.plist. Open that up in your favorite text editor (NOTE: if you open it up in TextEdit, make sure that it is set to plain text, NOT rich text format).

At the bottom, before the <xmp></dict></xmp> line, add this in:

<xmp><key></xmp>NSUIElement<xmp></key></xmp>
<xmp><string></xmp>1<xmp></string></xmp>

Then save the file, and restart the the app if it's running.

Note that this will also disable the application's menu bar...you won't be able to see that, either.

If you want to set it back to normal, all you have to do is either change the 1 in that second line to 0, or just delete both lines. Restart the app if it's running.
Click to expand...
 
I just noticed that in that quote, Darkshadow said that it's not possible to it to a Carbon application oneself. Again, this isn't entirely true. It's very possible, and I've done it before. It's just not all that fun, and I'd have to refigure out how to do it. In some applications, you have to actually add a specific resource to it with ResEdit. In others, the resource is there, and it's easy to modify it.
 
One good example of the icon not showing up in the dock is Snapz Pro X, the awesome screen-capturing utility from Ambrosia Software (www.ambrosiasw.com).

I keep the icon in the dock anyway (it doesn't register as open though), because I can click the icon and have it bring up the screenshot window, as well as using Command-Shift 3.
 
do you know of any way to hide running apps in the dock? that is, i have a bunch of programs running and the dock gets too long. i don't want some of those programs showing up, i know they are running, they always run, and it seems like a waste of space to have the icon in the dock.

thanks for any help.
 
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