Mac Lesson 4: The Dock

Navigating the Dock with VoiceOver

The Dock on the Mac desktop is a convenient place to access apps and features that you’re likely to use every day, for example, the Launchpad and the Trash are on the Dock.

The Dock can also show up to three recently used apps that aren’t already in it and a folder for items you download from the internet.

By default, the Dock is located along the bottom edge of the screen, but you can set an option to show it along the left or right edge instead.

The Dock is used to open apps, documents, folders, or stacks.

Navigating the Dock

Press VO + D to move the VoiceOver cursor to the Dock.

Move through the Dock by pressing the Left or Right Arrow keys.

You can jump to an app icon in the Dock: Start typing the name of the app.

To exit the Dock: Press the Escape key or Fn-Tab, or scrub back and forth with two fingers on the trackpad.

Use items in the Dock

To open an item: Press VO + Space bar.

You can open a shortcut menu for an item that the cursor is on by pressing VO + Shift + M, then use the arrow keys to move up and down the shortcut menu. To close the shortcut menu without making a selection, press the Escape key.

To move an item, hold down the Option key and use the arrow keys to move the item. Each arrow key press moves it one place.

Add or remove items in the Dock

To add an item, navigate to the item in the Finder or on the desktop, then press Control + Shift + Command + T.

To remove an item, open its shortcut menu (VO + Shift + M), choose Options, then choose Remove from Dock.

Open items in the Dock

In the Dock on your Mac, do any of the following:

• Open an app: Click the app icon. For example, to open the Finder, click the Finder icon in the Dock.
• Open a file in an app: Navigate to the file or search for the file name and then press VO + Space bar.
• To show an item in the Finder: Command + click the item’s icon.
• Switch to the previous app and hide the current app: Option + click the current app’s icon.
• Switch to another app and hide all other apps: Option + Command + click the icon of the app you want to switch to.

Customize the Dock

On your Mac, choose Apple menu / System Settings, then click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

Below Dock on the right, change the options you want.

For example, you can change how items appear in the Dock, adjust its size, locate it along the left or right edge of the screen, or even hide it.

To learn about the options, click the Help button at the bottom of the window.

Tip: To quickly adjust the Dock’s size, move the pointer over the separator line in the Dock until a double arrow appears, then click and drag the pointer down or up. You can Control-click the separator to access other actions from the shortcut menu.

You can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate to the Dock.

Press Control-F3 (Control-Fn-F3 on a Mac laptop) to move to the Dock. Then use the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to move from icon to icon. Press Return to open an item.

A red badge on an icon in the Dock indicates you need to take one or more actions in an app or System Settings. For example, a red badge on the Mail icon in the Dock indicates you have new emails to read.

Use Desktop Stacks on Mac

Desktop stacks on your Mac neatly organize files on your desktop into groups. When you save a file to the desktop, it’s automatically added to the appropriate stack.

Turn on Desktop Stacks

On your Mac, click the desktop, then choose View / Use Stacks or press Control + Command + 0. You can also Control click the desktop, then choose Use Stacks.

Browse files in a desktop stack

On your Mac, swipe left or right on the stack using two fingers on the trackpad, or one finger on a Magic Mouse.

Expand or collapse a desktop stack

On your Mac, do any of the following:

• Expand a stack: Click it on the desktop. When the stack’s expanded, double-click any item to open it.
• Collapse a stack: Click its Down Arrow icon.
• Change how desktop stacks are grouped: You can group stacks by kind (such as images or PDFs), date (such as the date a file was last opened or created), or Finder tags.
• On your Mac, click the desktop, choose View / Group Stacks By, then choose an option. Or Control-click the desktop, choose Group Stacks By, then choose an option.
• Change the appearance of desktop stacks: you can make icons bigger, change the spacing between icons, move icon labels to the side, or show more information (such as how many files are in a stack).
• On your Mac, click the desktop, choose View / Show View Options, then change options. Or Control-click the desktop, choose Show View Options, then change options.