Idle Time

If you’re like me, you reject Leopard’s new 3D-looking Dock out of hand, preferring the new 2D smoke look also introduced in Leopard. All it takes is a simple defaults command to switch the Dock from 3D to 2D mode.

I think the new 2D Dock looks a lot cooler than the Dock in Tiger, except for one part that, for me, sticks out like a sore thumb.

It’s the separator between the applications and not-applications sections.

Here’s what Tiger’s separator looks like:

Simple; gets the job done.

Leopard, on the other hand, has a goofy-looking zebra crossing instead:

I can’t have that. So I fired up Lineform and created a new separator that I think looks a lot better:

Obviously, it’s modeled after the white LEDs that have replaced the black arrowheads to mean “application is running”.

In case you prefer this separator as much as I do, here’s how to install it:

1. Download this image. I’ll assume you downloaded it to ~/Downloads.
2. If you keep your Dock on the left or right edge of the screen, open the image in Preview and rotate it.
   • If your Dock is on the right edge, rotate the image left (⌘L).
   • If your Dock is on the left edge, rotate the image right (⌘R).
3. Rename the image file. If your Dock is on the bottom, name it separatorstraight.png; otherwise, name it separatorstraight-horizontal.png.
4. Open a second Finder window.
5. Hit ⇧⌘G and go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources.
6. Make a backup of the separatorstraight.png or separatorstraight-horizontal.png file from that folder.
7. Move (⌘-drag) the image file from ~/Downloads to the Resources folder.
8. Authenticate, if necessary.
9. Open a terminal window and killall Dock. The Dock will relaunch automatically.

I haven’t made a 3D version. If you want one, post a comment. It shouldn’t be too hard to make, thanks to vector graphics.

Categories: Creations; Mac OS X. | Comments: 6 (feed).