Comments on: Make Hidden Application Icons Translucent in the Dock

By: 6 Ways to Maximize Productivity on Small Screens & Mac Laptops

6 Ways to Maximize Productivity on Small Screens & Mac Laptops — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:36:32 +0000

[...] a specific app to hide it as you begin working elsewhere. Hidden apps are easy to identify if you enable translucent icons in the [...]

By: 5 Simple Window Management Keyboard Shortcuts to Improve Workflow in Mac OS X

5 Simple Window Management Keyboard Shortcuts to Improve Workflow in Mac OS X — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:55:56 +0000

[...] keystroke is best paired with a defaults command that makes hidden app icons transparent in the Dock, giving you a simple visual indicator of what’s hidden and what’s [...]

By: My OS X Setup | Threadbox.net

My OS X Setup | Threadbox.net — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 02:58:42 +0000

[...] Make the dock icons dim a bit for apps that are hidden with this tip. [...]

By: chromium

chromium — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:14:10 +0000

I don’t have this problem. It could be that I’ve used OnyX before.

By: Dave52

Dave52 — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:57:39 +0000

Update: I was able to make the dot transparent using OnyX (Parameters->Dock->Use Transparent icons…).

By: Dave52

Dave52 — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:49:20 +0000

In 10.6.4, it seems that the ability to make the Dock icons transparent is missing. When I hide/show a docked app, I see no change in the icon nor the dot below it. When I ran “defaults read com.apple.Dock showhidden” I got the error message “The domain/default pair of (com.apple.Dock, showhidden) does not exist”.

The only time I see the icons dim or grow more transparent is when I bring up the contextual menu (right-click/control-click).

By: Hide all Windows on a Mac

Hide all Windows on a Mac — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:03:34 +0000

[...] would recommend combining both of these tips with the ability to make hidden application icons translucent within the Dock, it’s a simple Terminal command to activate and it helps to determine which apps are hidden [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:38:19 +0000

If an app is running, it has a little dot in the Dock, if it’s hidden, the dot is transparent. This is a marginal difference and I only just recognized it (since I never used the hide-feature).

The tip described here changes the icon of hidden apps to be transparent when normally only it’s little dot is.

Guess I got it now

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:24:31 +0000

Well, If you configured System Preferences…/Dock to
“Minimize windows into application icon”
and iconized all windows of an application, they are not on the screen or on the Dock, but you will see them using Exposé.

Once an application is hidden, it’s windows do neither show up on the screen, nor on Exposé, nor on the Dock; regardless if they are iconized or not.

So there is a marginal difference.

By: Mini Tip: icone trasparenti nel Dock per le applicazioni nascoste col Finder - TheAppleLounge

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:02:00 +0000

[...] [Fonte originaria del tip] [...]

By: David Drucker

David Drucker — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:22:34 +0000

Good. Thanks for the reply.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:06:37 +0000

Yes, this is aesthetics only, it just makes it easier to spot the hidden apps

By: David Drucker

David Drucker — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:13:31 +0000

This is just an aesthetic consideration, right. Right now I know that an app is hidden when a) I can’t see it on the screen, and b) there’s a dot under its dock icon. Or am I missing something? (A very real possibility.)