Blog · Guide

How to organize apps and folders without a cluttered Dock

The macOS Dock starts tidy and ends up a row of tiny icons you squint at. The edges of your screen have room to spare.

October 14, 20265 min read

Use all eight places

SideDock can put a dock in eight places: the left, right, top and bottom edges, the four corners, and under the notch. Push the pointer against the edge and the dock slides out, no click; move on and it slides away. Use one, or all of them.

Give each edge a job

A layout that works for a lot of people:

  • Left: the apps you open all day.
  • Right: things you glance at, like your next event, the weather and battery.
  • Bottom corners: folders such as Downloads and the project you’re on.
  • Under the notch: music, what’s next and Pip.

Your hand learns where things live quickly, which is the whole point.

Group apps and stack folders

Drop one app on another to make a group; it opens beside the dock, ready to launch, and you can rename it. Add a folder and it opens as a stack you can drag files out of, straight into whatever you’re working on.

Keep the Dock you have

SideDock doesn’t replace the macOS Dock. Its docks know where your Dock is and stay out of its way, so you keep both. If you’d rather see a dock all the time, keep it open instead of sliding away. And when you get a new Mac, Settings › Privacy & Data exports your whole setup into one file to import there.

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Everything unlocked, no card, no account. Pay once if it stays.

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