Last year I commented on how irritated I get when I move my cursor near to the bottom of the FCPX window and the Dock pops up.
Several suggestions were made but for me, the only real solution would be a keystroke to hide or reveal the Dock when appropriate.
Is there such a thing or could one be created relatively simply?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.5
In your case, I suppose you can do better than that - if you don't want the Dock to accidentally appear (just as I don't, since I hardly ever need it), there is a command to set a longer delay. This way, the Dock will only appear if the cursor stays in the Dock area for a set period of time.
I have this set to 5 seconds. It's great for me, because I know I can make the Dock appear, either by waiting 5 seconds, or pressing the shortcut. Maybe this will work for you; and of course it does not have to be 5 seconds, it could 2, or whatever you prefer.
defaults write com.apple.dock "autohide-delay" -float "5" && killall Dock
Of course, use a different number if you like; also, you can undo any changes by calling the command again with the default value, 0.5, or by deleting the preference with
defaults delete com.apple.dock "autohide-delay" && killall Dock
In your case, I suppose you can do better than that - if you don't want the Dock to accidentally appear (just as I don't, since I hardly ever need it), there is a command to set a longer delay. This way, the Dock will only appear if the cursor stays in the Dock area for a set period of time.
I have this set to 5 seconds. It's great for me, because I know I can make the Dock appear, either by waiting 5 seconds, or pressing the shortcut. Maybe this will work for you; and of course it does not have to be 5 seconds, it could 2, or whatever you prefer.
defaults write com.apple.dock "autohide-delay" -float "5" && killall Dock
Of course, use a different number if you like; also, you can undo any changes by calling the command again with the default value, 0.5, or by deleting the preference with
defaults delete com.apple.dock "autohide-delay" && killall Dock
A strange problem has arisen.
I deselect "Automatically hide and show the Dock" but the moment I use the keyboard shortcut to hide the Dock the auto action is once more selected in System Preferences and the Dock starts popping up as usual.
It will not remain deselected. This is true with Catalina and Big Sur.
It is easy to have a keystroke to hide and reveal the Dock - just make sure it is checked in System Preferences:
Something unexpected is happening when I use Terminal.
The 5 second delay command works fine but I felt the delay could be shorter.
So I used the command to reset the original parameters and then I used the 5 second command but substituted "2".
defaults write com.apple.dock "autohide-delay" -float “2” && killall Dock
When tested, the Dock popped up instantly as though I had not input the 2 second command.
I used the command to revert to normal (although it was behaving normally) and tried again but once more there was no delaying effect.
However, when I used the original 5 second delay command it worked as it should.
Any ideas as to why the 2 second command is not having any effect?
OK I have got it to work. I think it all depends on what state the preferences are when you input the Terminal command.
On another point, does it matter whether you spell Dock with a lower or upper case letter when using Terminal?
I have no idea why the 2 second version was not working as expected.
Regarding the spelling: the APFS file system (like Mac OS Extended before it) is, by default, NOT case sensitive, so if write a file name with different capitalization it will recognize it as the same. It does retain the capitalization as the file was created.
IIRC, Apple calls it the Dock, and it is supposed to be always spelled like this, with a capital D (and untranslated, no matter what language the system is using).
Since com.apple.dock refers to an actual file, the command should work regardless of capitalization (the file is in fact ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist, but I am not at my mac, so it could be
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Dock.plist
Thanks Luis.
Both solutions are excellent and I was completely unaware that there was a keystroke in System Preferences.
I assume that is a Terminal command?
I assume that is a Terminal command?
Yes.
That seems normal to me. The Dock can either be always visible or appear automatically. The effect of the keystroke is ro toggle between the two.
So there is no way of stopping it popping up?
In that case I will try your delaying Terminal command.
Thanks for the clarification.
I checked and it is lower case . . . ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
Keystroke to hide and reveal the Dock?