The dock

The dock holds what you kept, then whatever else is open. A thin line separates the two, and a kept application that is running is one icon in its kept place, not a second one beside it. The same kept applications come first in the launcher. With nothing kept, nothing open and no launcher button, it is not drawn at all.

Every application is drawn from the WhiteSur icon set, one rounded square each, so the shelf reads as a set whatever the applications ship. The file manager has a tile of its own. Hovering magnifies the icons under the pointer and parts their neighbours, and the icon under the pointer holds still while it grows. Up to three dots under an icon say how many windows it has open.

Kept applications, then what is running, with a dot under each open one.

Using it

Do	And
Click	Opens it if it is not running, raises it if it is, and steps to its next window if it is already in front
Middle-click	Opens a new window of it
Right-click	Opens its menu
Drag a kept icon	Moves it along the kept ones
Point at an icon	Magnifies it and shows its name over it

The button at the start of the dock opens the launcher.

The menu

Right-click an icon for its windows by name. Each window is a row with its title and its workspace, and a dot marks the one in front; a click goes to it. Under the windows:

• Open, or New window while it is running.
• Keep in the dock, or Remove from the dock.
• Close, or Close all windows when there are several. It turns red under the pointer and asks nothing.

A click anywhere else, or the right button again, closes the menu. A window the dock cannot match to an application is still shown, under its own name, with only its windows in the menu.

The name of the icon under the pointer.

A right-click lists the application's windows by name.

Keeping applications

Keep one from its right-click menu, or under Settings → Dock → Kept on it, where Add an application picks one from a search. The list stays editable with the dock off, since the launcher ranks by it too. Order is set by dragging on the dock itself.

Settings

Under Settings → Dock:

Setting	Does
Show the dock	The dock on or off; also the Dock tile in the control centre
Edge	Bottom, Left or Right — the top is the bar’s
Alignment	Start, Middle or End of that edge
On every screen	On, One on each, all showing the same; off, Only on the screen you are on. Dimmed with one screen
Icon size	28 to 72 px; everything on the dock scales with it
Magnify on hover	The icons under the pointer swell and their neighbours make room. On by default
Ground	Classic, Glass or Liquid; the capsule, the name plate and the menu all wear it
Background	How solid the capsule is, 20 to 100 %; lower lets the blurred wallpaper through. On glass and liquid it thins the glass itself
Shadow	Lifts the dock off the wallpaper
Launcher button	The button at the start that opens the launcher
Open applications	Running applications that are not kept, after the line
Hide until pointed at	The dock slides off its edge, and pointing at the edge brings it back

The dock has a ground of its own, classic out of the box. Classic is the island’s black; glass is the terminal’s own ground, the accent over a blur of what is behind, with a lit edge; liquid is a clear frosted pane, lit from one side, that lets the wallpaper’s own colours through. The three are the same as the bar’s. The compositor blurs behind the dock while it is glass or liquid, or while a classic capsule is below full opacity.

Windows and widgets pass under the dock, so moving it, hiding it or letting it stay never moves anything else.

Full screen

The dock leaves under a full-screen window, only on the screen whose workspace has it, and comes back when it goes. A maximised window, SUPER ALT F, keeps it.

Note

Every screen shows the same shelf: every application on the desk, whichever screen its windows are on. See Several screens and limitations.