Problems in my dock

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Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes.....

I am experiencing problems with my dock.

1st i have the dashboard, finder, and trash in my dock without the icon showing. When i pull the cursor over them they appear (name only) without the icon.
2nd just installed Microsoft Office and it put it straight on my dock (no complaints here), but the dock is getting way to big for my liking, my gripe is i cant click and drag unused icons to the trash (remove from dock) and have them be removed from the dock. They still remain.....
3rd i cant drag documents to the dock to create any stacks.... Grrrr

and to top it off i cant right click on the dock icons to use any right click preferences...

Can anyone help pleaseeeee
Cheers
 
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Regarding your desire to remove icons from the dock, you need not drag them to the trash, but just drag them slightly over the desktop, and they will disappear.

To right click while using a single button track pad or mouse, hold control and then click your mouse. Your revision of the MacBook may also allow you to hold two fingers on your track pad and then click your button to right click as well.

I'm not sure about your other problem, maybe run macjanitor or disk utility to clean up cache or check your scripts and permissions.

I'll look into this more later! Good luck.
 
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Yea Greenredfield i appreciate your time and effort.... thankyou.

The right clicking part of my problem is primarily in the dock. I can right click anywhere else in other programs and apps ... so i have just narrowed it down to just the dock. Its got problems. The dragging slightly over the desktop doesnt work. When i try the dock in its expanded state freezes for approx 5 seconds and when it retracts the icon i try to get rid of is still in the dock..???? Frustrating.

Have run disk utility with no joy. Seems all is in working order. Will do a lil more research into the the script and permissions side of it....

cheers

EDIT: Played with terminal a whiles ago and command killall dock. Could this be a problem and if so how do i reverse it ???
Sorry for playing dumb but been a mac user for only 4 months :)
 

bobtomay

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try moving the dock preference file to the desktop - located at:

Users / your user / Library / Preferences

com.apple.dock.plist

log out and back in
 
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Users / your user / Library / Preferences

com.apple.dock.plist

Awesome mate.... Thanking you. I still have the trash and finder icon invisible in the dock now. They seemed to be there once i logged back on without me dragging them there.
Would this be normal????
But yes it cleared the dock and reset all my preferences on it.

EDIT: Just doing some browsing and found this post for a ? of what do the transparent icons mean...

It means the applications are hidden. You can enable this via the terminal. Open the terminal (/Application/Utilities/Terminal) and enter the following and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true

killall dock then press return.
Does this sound right. Need to be sure before i do anything as such



I'm presuming that now i can relocate the plist back to where it came from without a worry ?????

Thanks again for the wise advice :D
 

bobtomay

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No, since it worked - go ahead and trash that file.
A new one was created, so you don't need the old one anymore.

On the terminal stuff - don't know, I'm a mouse/gui guy and stay away from the command line unless I just have to go there.

If you find two decent sites giving the same advice for command line stuff, you're usually pretty safe.
 
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Nice work gentlemen. Good luck. I stay far from the command line too.
 
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Yes thanking you all..
Should be right now.
That terminal is a worry, might heed advice and stay away too.

Until my next problem....... cia
 
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Invisible icons in dock

I have a problem with invisible icons on my dock.

Trash, Dashboard and Finder
Doing research into it i found a post on another forum saying he........
Ran "Archive and Install" and it fixed the problem. In his post he had exactly the same problem as me .......

Question is, even though it might seem silly... But how do i Run "archive and install"
Cheers in advance
The reason i ask here bis because people explain it in lamence terms so the non tech heads can understand it.....
 
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Get out your Mac restore CD, and boot from it (Hold down Option while starting the computer, then choose the CD). Choose your language etc, then choose "Archive and install". What this does is reinstall your OS, but save everything on your hard drive to a folder called "Previous System", so you won't lose data.
 

bobtomay

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Create a new user account and see if the problem persists there or is only in your user account.

edit: A reinstall is typically the last thing you want to do and I've never recommended it. However, if you nor anyone else can figure out what you did to make them invisible an archive and reinstall is probably a quicker fix than a whole bunch of troubleshooting.
 
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bobtomay... I have having the same kinds of problems with my dock. I was trying to customize the color, and in doing so some of the icons became ghosts (which I did fix that part), I was also not able to right click for awhile. However, although I did resolve those issues, I cannot get rid of icons on my dock by dragging them off OR right clicking to remove them. Whenever I drag an icon off the dock, it seems to disappear for a moment, but then my dock hides and then immediately pops back up WITH the icon there again. It's like the dock is constantly relaunching itself. Any advice? Would the thing that you mentioned about moving the preferences to my desktop do anything? I see the dock.plist that you mentioned in the folder, but what do i do with it?
 

bobtomay

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Don't know what it will do since I don't know what you've been doing.

Drag and drop the dock preference file to the desktop or to the trash, log out and back in. The system will create a new preference file.
If the changes you made (I am assuming via the terminal) were done in that file, it should reset everything to default.

After you check it out, you can either trash the file or move it back where it came from.

My advice to those not familiar with the terminal and just have to change the way the dock looks - use Candybar.

For those that are new to the command line, before you go about changing any system settings via the command line, I would highly recommend you learn some about the terminal to the point of being at least somewhat comfortable using it prior to making any changes.

I would also suggest creating a text file to keep a log of system changes you make using the terminal. Particularly when first beginning.
 
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Create a new user account and see if the problem persists there or is only in your user account.
Sorry for length of time to reply......
It still exists in another user account... From the feedback i have recieved back in thinking a " Archive and install" is the way to go. Im as far now that still cant see trash icon but pops up when cursor over the area and cannot open it.... Appreciate the reply on the " Archive and install" itself from Unibody thanks mate

Helpfull
Cheers
 
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My advice to those not familiar with the terminal and just have to change the way the dock looks - use Candybar.


Have had Candybar for a while and it does the job so so easy, and with all the free icons out there the world is your oyster ....... as they say.

Good call
 
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thanks for all help peoples
Just archived and install and all my problems have gone away
WOOOOHOOOOOO
Cheers
 

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