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DESCRIPTION
Dock Gone keeps the Mac OS X Dock out of your way so that it doesn’t interrupt your work.
While you can always hide the Dock without Dock Gone, it will reappear whenever you mouse over the edge of the screen, blocking whatever is below the cursor. And you can be sure it will happen at the worst possible time. Dock Gone prevents this by moving the Dock completely out of your way, effectively turning it off until you ask for it back.
More than one way to turn off a Dock:
Dock Gone gives you several ways to turn the Dock off.
- within the Dock Gone Preference Pane in System Preferences
- in a menu in the menu bar
- using a global keyboard shortcut that you define
Why turn off the Dock instead of just hide it?
Since Mac OS X first appeared, users have had a love-hate relationship with the Dock and its auto-hide feature. While it’s beautiful and useful, there are times when it just gets in the way. Scrolling long documents, navigating long menus in web browsers, and dragging documents around the screen can all inadvertently trigger the Dock to appear exactly at the wrong time. If you move just a little too close to the edge of the screen, the Dock insists on reasserting itself whether it’s wanted or not. This gets old fast. Especially for users who like to get the most out of their screen real-estate, it happens way too often.
Dock Gone is the Leopard-compatible way to keep the Dock out of your way until you specifically ask for it. Press its hot key, and the Dock will disappear. Try all you want, you cannot get the Dock to appear when Dock Gone is active. Press the hot key again, and the Dock reappears in exactly the same place and with the same settings as you had before.
No more Terminal commands. No more Dock appearing when you’re scrolling through a long document. No more losing your old Dock settings.
Dock Gone will become your constant companion, and you'll come to expect the Dock to always behave as it does when you have Dock Gone installed, no matter what Mac you're using.
WHAT'S NEW
Version 1.0.3:
- Removed the segmented control that had been added in 1.0.2.
- There was a bug where minimizing a window while the Dock was hidden, if the new "Minimize windows into application icon" preference was selected in the Dock Preferences, would cause the Dock to crash. This has been fixed.
- Upgrading Dock Gone could cause a second version of Dock Gone to run due to a bug in System Preferences. This has been fixed.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.
Compatible with Mac OS X 10.6
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| Dock Gone User Reviews (10 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Jan 19 2010 |
BARGAINMAC I am LOVING this little utility. Thank you for finally coming up with a way to rid us of the dock in a way that is both safe and effective. I've been using it now for about a week and can say I've had no problems at all with it. I only wish it would automatically disable the dock at start up, but I've now gotten used to the Control + Option + Command + D shortcut. I've combined Dock Gone with LaunchBar to create a very minimalist and unobtrusive version of OS X that stays out of my way until I need it. Dock Gone keeps the dock out of my work space and LaunchBar makes everything on my Mac (and the Internet for that matter) just a couple of keystrokes away. | |
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| May 25 2009 |
F451 One of those little apps that you never thought you really needed until you try it. Positively a feature Apple should have incorporated in its OS in the first place. I purchased a license as the developer is responsive and has also remedied a slight issue with other apps that hide along the screen's edge.
(Version 1.0b7) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
 | May 22 2009 |
ROBOTANK Very good overall. I think DockGone may be a little expensive for a simple app, but I've been wanting something that will get the Apple dock out of my face for a long time. There are far better alternatives to the dock out there (DragThing, A-Dock, Application Wizard, etc.), and being able to make the dock actually disappear is very handy.
(Version 1.0b6) | |
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| May 10 2009 |
TOFIC VERY SMALL APPLICATION; HUGE RELIEF FROM ANNOYING DOCK, THAT POPS HER HEAD OUT, WHEN I DON'T WANT IT
(Version 1.0b4) | |
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| May 6 2009 |
NORIKER This is exactly what I always needed (and as Apple should have built the Dock). This comes in very handy when drawing or using the entire screen in graphic design applications, where you don't want panels to be trapped behind the Dock. No more sizing the Dock down. No more Pull Down Menus behind the Dock. No more "I hope I don't get too close to the edge of the screen". Here's why it's great: 1. I can still call/hide the Dock just as used to, nothing new to learn. Only this time it stays away, as it should. 2. I can replace the standard shortcut or add an additional one, so the old mode (auto activating Dock) is still available at the same time. 3. Some older applications (DockBlock etc.) were built for Tiger and don't work anymore. This works under Leopard. 4. Other methods of getting rid of the Dock also kill functions like the Application Switcher. No such problems with Dock Gone. 5. By triple clicking the item in the menu bar, the Dock shows/hides. By single clicking the item, you get a menu.
(Version 1.0b3.1) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| May 9 2009 |
CROUPIER49 Maybe I'm crazy, but how is this any different than simply typing Command + Option +D? Whenever I type this, the dock completely disappears and doesn't return until I type the command again.
(Version 1.0b4) | |
| May 10 2009 |
NORIKER No you're not crazy but you probably won't need this app. Whenever you get close to the bottom of the screen (or wherever you have placed your Dock) it will pop back up. This can become extemely annoying when drawing or when using auto scrolling in an application. Worst case would be a slow computer that is stopped processing by the Dock because it suddenly has to reveal it and blend in the name of the app that is below the cursor. It might also pop up when you open a drop down window, such as your list of bookmaks in a browser, as soon as you get close enough to the edge. In this case it will pop up BEHIND the window, completely useless. And who needs the Dock to show up below the cursor while drawing a selection in Photoshop? Most people never use their entire screen and leave some space for the Dock. Given how huge the standard Leopard Dock is, that's a lot of space. This tool allows you to use the entire screen and hardly ever use the Dock. I use Quicksilver to launch apps, so I don't have much need for it.
(Version 1.0b4) | |
| May 4 2009 |
RICH K. With respect to the Devs effort: i've been using Dock Block http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13261/dockblock for years to get rid of the dock although its performance in leopard is a bit flakey so i searched and found http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27841/dock-spaces which is more user configurable and free!
(Version 1.0b2) | |
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| May 4 2009 |
DANA SUTTON Yes, Dock Gone works as advertised, and yes, it performs a valuable function, so I'll almost certainly purchase it. But it's not the solution I want. The problem is the Dock's "hair trigger" responsiveness: if your cursor grazes the edge of your screen for even a millisecond while you have the Dock hidden, up it comes, I deal with this nuisance a dozen times a day. But I think there's a potentially a better solution than Dock Gone. Back in the OS9 days I used A-Dock, which has a feature where the cursor has to stay in touch for a user-defined period (say, a half a second) before its dock would pop up. Rather than being forced to remember yet more hot-key command and have one more icon in my dock (with Dock Gone running I currently have 17), I'd rather have a Preference panel which made Apple's Dock behave like A-Dock in this respect.
(Version 1.0b2) | |
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| May 4 2009 |
EASER For me, the issue is whether it's out of the way and unobtrusive. I use one of those customized dock programs (Workstrip; there are others, such as A-Dock and DragThing) that lets me choose what does and does not appear in my "dock." I use command-tab when I need to switch to something that isn't in my custom dock. Since I cannot really control much of what shows up in the Apple dock, it is of limited value to me. I have tried working with it and making friends with it. I just don't like it or use it. So having it out of the way - somehow - is a boon to my personal productivity. As I said, DockGone still does better than anything else I've found.
(Version 1.0b2) | |
| [ Reply ] | |
| May 1 2009 |
OSSIE Does NOT totally hide the Dock. What it does is shrink it down to something a bit longer than a quarter inch and sticks it way to the right. Better than nothing but definitely not hiding. Oh, sure, if your Dock is set to hide it will be hidden until you drag over it, then you will see it and actually be able to use it. Why, oh why did Apple make Leopard unable to allow the Dock to be shrunken away to the top behind the menu bar?! So, worth the full $10? Arguably not since it is not truly hidden. Still, I'll probably end up buying it. Dang.
(Version 1.0b1) | |
| [ 2 Replies - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| May 1 2009 |
EASER Yes, I had not noticed this earlier. It appears to be based on an old trick I had read about several years ago. However, I tried that trick, and while it worked, it also very quickly hosed my system. So far, Dock Gone does not appear to be having adverse effects. And the teeny tiny dock one is left with (mine appears in the lower right corner) is still unobtrusive enough to be satisfactorily out of my way. So, no, it's not the perfect solution. But it's the best I've seen to date. I think people should at least check it out.
(Version 1.0b1) | |
 | May 5 2009 |
The new 1.0b3 should keep the little phantom tiny dock thing away most of the time. I'd be curious to hear your opinion of it.
(Version 1.0b2) | |
| May 1 2009 |
EASER I know there are many people who love the dock. I am not one of them. Years - literally years - I have looked for every means by which to keep this thing out of my sight and out of my way. Apple at the very least could have provided that option. When I first saw this on MU, I was a sceptic. But I went to the developer page, and it's the same developer for LazyMouse, Trampoline, etc. These have always been solid programs for me. The bottom line is that Dock Gone actually works. So far, I've had no troubles with it. I gladly paid what I consider to be a nominal fee for it.
(Version 1.0b1) | |
| [ 1 Reply - Reply ] | |
Replies:
| May 1 2009 |
OSSIE Agreed and not so sure they shouldn't make it a feature. Best of both worlds kind of thing. Just shouldn't claim it's gone.
(Version 1.0b1) | |
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