New Leopard Dock separator
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:
- Download this image. I’ll assume you downloaded it to ~/Downloads.
- 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).
- Rename the image file. If your Dock is on the bottom, name it separatorstraight.png; otherwise, name it separatorstraight-horizontal.png.
- Open a second Finder window.
- Hit ⇧⌘G and go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources.
- Make a backup of the separatorstraight.png or separatorstraight-horizontal.png file from that folder.
- Move (⌘-drag) the image file from ~/Downloads to the Resources folder.
- Authenticate, if necessary.
- 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.
October 29th, 2007 at 19:23:08
Thanks, it looks great!
October 29th, 2007 at 20:00:04
If you could make one for the 3D dock and one not so bright or even white at all but maybe a grayish color for the 2d dock would be excellent. I’ll try to make one in the meantime.
Anyways, what is the red dock icon and the globe icon?
October 29th, 2007 at 23:45:52
Johnny: I believe the red dock icon is Peter’s own CPU Usage app, and the globe icon is OmniWeb.
October 30th, 2007 at 02:51:56
Simone: You are correct, sir; yes.
January 21st, 2008 at 08:05:24
I can’t get this to work even though I’m the admin and I authenticate. I can’t rename the original file or replace it. What gives?
May 7th, 2009 at 18:02:47
I would love a 3d version plz can yo u send it to me? thanks a lot!