OS X Mountain Lion For Dummies

Customizing Your Dock

The Dock is a convenient way to get at oft-used icons. By default, the Dock comes stocked with icons that Apple thinks you’ll need most frequently (refer to Table 4-1), but you can customize it to contain any icons that you choose, as you discover in the following sections. You also find out how to resize the Dock to fit your new set of icons and how to tell Dock icons what your preferences are.

Adding Dock icons

You can customize your Dock with favorite applications, a document you update daily, or maybe a folder containing your favorite recipes. Use the Dock for anything you need quick access to.

Adding an application, file, or folder to the Dock is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Open a Finder window that contains an application, a document file, or a folder you use frequently.

You can also drag an icon — including a hard drive icon — from the Desktop.

2. Click the item you want to add to the Dock.

As shown in Figure 4-6, I chose the TextEdit application. (It’s highlighted.) I use TextEdit all the time to type and edit quick text notes to myself and others, so having its icon in the Dock is very convenient for me.

3. Drag the icon out of the Finder window and onto the Dock.

An icon for this item now appears in the Dock. Note that the Dock item isn’t the actual ...