OIT Public Knowledge - Managing the macOS Dock for Apple Computers

The OIT Managed Desktop Services team manages the Dock for macOS 12 and newer.

The Dock on the Mac desktop is a convenient place to access apps and features that you’re likely to use every day—for example, Launchpad and the Trash.

The Dock can show up to three recently used apps that aren’t already in it and a folder for items you download from the internet. By default, the Dock is located along the bottom edge of the screen, but you can set an option to show it along the left or right edge instead.

What does the Dock look like?
How is the Dock managed?
Video Tutorials
Use the Dock on Mac
Open items in the Dock
Take other actions for items in the Dock
Add, remove, or rearrange Dock items
Escalation
Related Documentation

Information

What does the Dock look like?

How is the Dock managed?

We only place the Self Service application on the Dock, and prevent its removal. All other settings are left up to the end-user.

Video Tutorials

• Add an item to the Dock

• Remove an item from the Dock

• Badge notifications in the Dock

Use the Dock on Mac

• The Dock on the Mac desktop is a convenient place to access apps and features that you’re likely to use every day—for example, Launchpad and the Trash.

• The Dock showing icons for apps, the Downloads stack, and the Trash.
The Dock can show up to three recently used apps that aren’t already in it and a folder for items you download from the internet. By default, the Dock is located along the bottom edge of the screen, but you can set an option to show it along the left or right edge instead.

Open items in the Dock

• Open an app: Click the app icon. For example, to open the Finder, click the Finder icon in the Dock.

• Open a file in an app: Drag the file over an app’s icon. For example, to open a document you created in Pages, drag the document over the Pages icon in the Dock.

• Show an item in the Finder: Command-click the item’s icon.

• Switch to the previous app and hide the current app: Option-click the current app’s icon.

• Switch to another app and hide all other apps: Option-Command-click the icon of the app you want to switch to.

Take other actions for items in the Dock

• Display a shortcut menu of actions: Control-click an item to display its shortcut menu, then choose an action, such as Show Recents, or click a filename to open the file.

• Force an app to quit: If an app stops responding, Control-click the app’s icon, then choose Force Quit (you may lose unsaved changes).

Add, remove, or rearrange Dock items

• Add an item to the Dock: Drag apps to the left side of (or above) the line that separates the recently used apps. Drag files and folders to the right side of (or below) the other line that separates recently used apps. An alias for the item is placed in the Dock.

• The right end of the Dock showing the separator lines preceding and following the recently used apps section. When you drag a folder to the Dock, you can view it as a stack. By default, the Dock comes with a Downloads folder. See Use folders in the Dock.

• Remove an item from the Dock: Drag the item out of the Dock until Remove is shown. Only the alias is removed; the actual item remains on your Mac.

• If you accidentally remove an app icon from the Dock, it’s easy to put it back (the app is still on your Mac). Open the app to make its icon appear again in the Dock. Control-click the app’s icon, then choose Options > Keep in Dock.

• Rearrange items in the Dock: Drag an item to a new location.

• A red badge on an icon in the Dock indicates you need to take one or more actions in an app or System Settings. For example, a red badge on the Mail icon in the Dock indicates you have new emails to read.

Escalation

Any questions on process or content contained in this document should be escalated through the NC State Help Desk and a have an incident assigned to the OIT_DESKTOP_SUPPORT queue.

The NC State Help Desk is the primary point of contact for computing services. Visit help.ncsu.edu or call 919.515.HELP (4357) to get help now.

Managing the macOS Dock for Apple Computers

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