PACMan3000
How to change the look of your Dock
A few people have asked me how I changed the look of the Dock in my latest Mac OS 10.7 concept picture.
www.flickr.com/photos/pacman3000/4068239978/
I assure you that the changed Docks themselves were not the result of Photoshop trickery. There is actually a couple of apps that let you change your dock on the fly.
The one I find the easiest to use is called Dock Library. It's a free app that you can download here:
www.dativestudios.com/docklibrary/
I also like an app called SuperDocker. SuperDocker is free, but is technically Donationware:
www.superdocker.com/superdocker/
Although SuperDocker is less intuitive, it has way more options than Dock Library, such as the ability to change your Dock to the old 2D style or to add separators between the apps and folders or the ability to change the color of your Stacks. It also has a few options for the Finder, Dashboard, Safari, iTunes, Time Machine and iChat.
Of course, with each of these apps, you have to find actual Dock styles from sites such as LeopardDocks.net and import them into the application before you can change anything.
Although I have used both of these apps successfully in Snow Leopard, I can't swear to you that SuperDocker is completely safe. The maker of Dock Library has verified his app's compatibility with Snow Leopard, but the site for SuperDocker only specifies Mac OS 10.5, but says nothing about SuperDocker's compatibility with Snow Leopard. So use it at your own risk!
If what I just said is too scary for you to use either app, you can also install any Dock style using the manual method described below.
Steps for replacing your Dock manually.
1. Open the folder System/Library/CoreServices/
2. Control-/right-click on Dock.app and choose "Show Package Contents"
3. Navigate to Contents/Resources/
4. Make a backup of all of the "scurve" .PNG files and then move them from that folder (authentication may be required)
5. Copy the contents of the downloaded Dock Style into this folder.
6. Open up Terminal.app and type "killall Dock" (without quotes) or quit the Dock in the Activity Monitor. Don't worry, it will immediately restart itself.
How to change the look of your Dock
A few people have asked me how I changed the look of the Dock in my latest Mac OS 10.7 concept picture.
www.flickr.com/photos/pacman3000/4068239978/
I assure you that the changed Docks themselves were not the result of Photoshop trickery. There is actually a couple of apps that let you change your dock on the fly.
The one I find the easiest to use is called Dock Library. It's a free app that you can download here:
www.dativestudios.com/docklibrary/
I also like an app called SuperDocker. SuperDocker is free, but is technically Donationware:
www.superdocker.com/superdocker/
Although SuperDocker is less intuitive, it has way more options than Dock Library, such as the ability to change your Dock to the old 2D style or to add separators between the apps and folders or the ability to change the color of your Stacks. It also has a few options for the Finder, Dashboard, Safari, iTunes, Time Machine and iChat.
Of course, with each of these apps, you have to find actual Dock styles from sites such as LeopardDocks.net and import them into the application before you can change anything.
Although I have used both of these apps successfully in Snow Leopard, I can't swear to you that SuperDocker is completely safe. The maker of Dock Library has verified his app's compatibility with Snow Leopard, but the site for SuperDocker only specifies Mac OS 10.5, but says nothing about SuperDocker's compatibility with Snow Leopard. So use it at your own risk!
If what I just said is too scary for you to use either app, you can also install any Dock style using the manual method described below.
Steps for replacing your Dock manually.
1. Open the folder System/Library/CoreServices/
2. Control-/right-click on Dock.app and choose "Show Package Contents"
3. Navigate to Contents/Resources/
4. Make a backup of all of the "scurve" .PNG files and then move them from that folder (authentication may be required)
5. Copy the contents of the downloaded Dock Style into this folder.
6. Open up Terminal.app and type "killall Dock" (without quotes) or quit the Dock in the Activity Monitor. Don't worry, it will immediately restart itself.