This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
How to: Use Right Clicking In The Dock To The Full
Did you know you can right click in the dock for additional options? You can have additional control over your Finder, Applications, Folders, and the Dock in general.
Some of the examples you may come across include:
In the image above you can see some of the additional Finder preferences. From here you can create new folders, perform searchers, go to directories or servers as well as show or hide all Finder windows. Should you have Finder windows open, these will be presented at the very top of the list.
In this image above you will note that you have additional controls available in iTunes. You can see the current content that is playing and give it a rating, along with immediate buttons which will allow you to search the iTunes Store. Most importantly for iTunes users is the quick access to functions such as Pause, Next, Previous, and Eject.
Each Application when open will have its own set of control options.
Applications which are closed also have additional options when right clicking in the dock. If we look at the Options area you are able to remove the app from the Dock (it will not be removed from your Applications folder), open the app every time you login, and show the full Application in a Finder window. If you use multiple desktops you can also assign the Application to a specific desktop if you wish.
If you right click within the Dock slider additional options will be presented which allow you to control how the Dock will behave. Some of these include turning Hiding and Magnification on and off, along with positioning on the screen, and how the animated minimization will appear.
The image above showcases the options available when right clicking folders in the Dock. You will have the ability to change how the content is sorted and displayed.
The most important option available to the Dock in my opinion is the ability to Force Quit an application which has become non responsive. Please note that by using the following method you will lose any unsaved data within the specific application.
Force Quit is available for every application within the Dock. Although, it is not immediately available when right clicking within the Dock. In order to access it simply right click over the application icon and then hold down the Option key on your keyboard. Whilst still holding the Option key down simply click Force Quit and the application and all open windows contained within will be shut down.
