I was just curious as to how many people keep there dock visible vs. hidden. I find myself going back and forth. I keep my dock hidden for a period of time until I get annoyed by it and then I go back to making it visible.

Have any of you noticed it affecting your productivity at all?

haha just created this thread out of curiosity.

Always hidden. Less cluttered that way, and easy enough to summon when I need it.

Hidden. I hardly ever use it.

I always keep it visible,
I like to see reminders for updates from the App Store.

I just wished that iTunes would show updates available as well next to their dock icon.

Hidden

Left side vertical, and always hidden.

Right side vertical, and always visible.

Always hidden. Less cluttered that way, and easy enough to summon when I need it.

I also remove the Launchpad icon from the dock and instead I access it from the bottom right hot spot corner. Very handy, except that sometimes I switch to Launchpad view accidentally. Easy enough to switch back by clicking the background.

Left side vertical, and always hidden.

Same here, makes the most sense, to me at least.
I use the dock relatively seldom.

What I find a bit odd, twice as many people who voted said that they keep the dock visible bcompared to non-visible, but in the actual thread the ratio is very much the opposite.

Hidden on the bottom. Same with my XP machine at work.

Hidden on the bottom. Same with my XP machine at work.

Exactly the same for me except on Vista at work.

Bottom, visible.

Visible left side vertical.

Hidden on the right. I almost never use it since I use Quicksilver to launch everything. All I keep in it full time is the finder and trash.

Right side vertical, hidden.

On my older systems (previous), i found that it would sometimes lag a little if you kept it hidden, so on those machines, i kept it visible.

For those who are saying they keep it visible I wonder why.

You still have to move the cursor over to it to use it and it just takes up valuable screen real estate when not in use. It takes a fraction of a second to pop up when you need it so it isn't like it slows things down...

Just curious as to what advantage people see in keeping it visible... At any rate different strokes...

Right side vertical, hidden.

On my older systems (previous), i found that it would sometimes lag a little if you kept it hidden, so on those machines, i kept it visible.

Those would have to have been very old systems by now... just sayin.

For those people that have is HIDDEN, how much do you use your dock? do you use your Mac a lot for work?

For those people that have is HIDDEN, how much do you use your dock? do you use your Mac a lot for work?

All the time... video production, photography, web dev... etc,. etc, etc. But I also use Quicksilver a lot... Truth be told for Pro work I use Quicksilver most and for personal stuff I use the Dock more.... but even at that I prefer it to be Hidden....

My thinking is that having is visible will allow you quickly to see what apps you have open. BUT, on the other hand I find that when I do have it visible I'm always switching from program to program... and when I have it hidden I can actually focus better on the current window/app..

So I guess we could... what allows you to FOCUS better? Visible or Hidden? :cool:

I leave it visible on the 27" iMac. With so much screen real estate, I'm totally okay with giving up a sliver at the bottom.

On my MBP, I go back and forth. I use Alfred or Spotlight to launch apps, but I do keep my most-used apps in the dock, particularly ones I drag files to often.

Bottom visible. With medium magnification on.

For those who are saying they keep it visible I wonder why.

You still have to move the cursor over to it to use it and it just takes up valuable screen real estate when not in use. It takes a fraction of a second to pop up when you need it so it isn't like it slows things down...

Just curious as to what advantage people see in keeping it visible... At any rate different strokes...
even that fraction of a second can be removed with this fix (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120326061614691).

Right-vertical. Hidden.

On a 13" laptop screen, every little pixel counts...

Depends on screen size. Visible on most machines, right side, but not on my MBA, too little screen. Couldn't vote.

Visible, at the bottom, but pretty small and no magnification. I like to see what's running, and I do use it to switch back and forth fairly often when I'm working on web sites (browsers, code in various apps, Transmit, Dreamweaver for some sites, Photoshop, Word etc....) I work mostly on my Mac Pro - with a 24" monitor, so space is not as much of an issue as it would be if I was working all the time on my MBP.

For those who are saying they keep it visible I wonder why.

You still have to move the cursor over to it to use it and it just takes up valuable screen real estate when not in use. It takes a fraction of a second to pop up when you need it so it isn't like it slows things down...

Just curious as to what advantage people see in keeping it visible... At any rate different strokes...

I keep mine visible like i said before.. on all my machines. Its partly because thats how I've always had it and I haven't seen the need for change and I'm comfortable with it like that.... And I do like seeing whats open and not. I kinda liked the black triangles arrows they had back in Tiger. (I started off using Tiger on my Black 1st Gen Macbook.)

I did try it on different sides of the screen a few years ago; but even then I would mouse down to where I'm used to the dock being and have to correct myself. Even though it was a matter of seconds; it was still annoying.

I'll look at this Quicksilver app and see what the fuss is about. But Why change something that works well for me? Right?

^

+1.

I wouldn't remember half the apps I have and use if not for the visual reminder of the dock. I like to see what's open. Something like quicksilver would be useless to me because I would never remember any keystroke shortcuts.

+!
Left side always visible - small. I also use drag and drop and have some key docs there. I manage battery pretty closely so need to keep an eye on stuff open.

Prefer the dock hidden..





https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5_b5NTc8Cfc/T1YGApbBS1I/AAAAAAAAERQ/S__WeQczm5A/s800/IMG_0404-1A.jpg

I prefer visible. I hate to have it going up and down all the tome

Though, without the dock, spotlight could very well do the job at launching apps I want. But why type when you can just click?

even that fraction of a second can be removed with this fix (http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20120326061614691).

thank you!

Visible, left side vertical. I'm using Mission Control for a lot of things now though so I don't always see it.

Visible.I feel the Dock should be solid like a rock.

iMac, always on.

Wife prefers it hidden in her Air.