Have you ever wanted the ability to veil the Dock and/or the menu debar on an app - by - lotion basis ? That is , when you launch iPhoto , the Dock is blot out , when you found Google Earth both the Dock and the carte du jour bar are hidden ? This can be useful when working on a small screen with a program that requires most of the screen for its visuals , or if you just find the Dock and menu Browning automatic rifle are cluttering your view of thing .
While there are a bit of third - party programs out that spirit to do just this — ASMandMenuShadecome to mind — it ’s actually quite easy to do yourself . It just takes a pair of elementary edits in one file within the give applications programme .
As an lesson , I ’ll change Stickies so that the Dock and menu saloon both go into concealing when the app is set in motion . notice that they ’re not lost for good — they’re plainly hiding , and will re-emerge when you move the mouse into their typical locations . The key fruit to this hint is a belongings list variable namedLSUIPresentationMode . By set this variable quantity to a certain time value within each app’sinfo.plistfile , you could change how the Dock and menu bar behave within that applications programme .
Whenever you do something like this , it ’s a very serious idea ( read : do it ! ) to make a backup copy of the program in interrogative . Make your modifications on the backup transcript of the program , and then if something go wrong , you ’ll only have to delete the backup you created to get thing back to normal .
To modify how an app handles the Dock and menu measure , you need to witness the program’sinfo.plistfile . These are always site inside the lotion bundle , so get by control - clicking on the backup copy of the app and choosing Show Pacakge Contents from the bulge - up menu . In the new windowpane that open , start the Contents folder and you should find theinfo.plistfile . What you do next depends on whether or not you have Apple ’s free Developer Tools , know asXcode , installed .
Xcode is not installed
If you ’re still record , that means you ’ve take not to employ a property list editor program of some sort . That ’s OK ; this hint is n’t really all that sturdy to put through , but you will need a unadulterated text editor program such as TextEdit . Open your text editor program , then drag in and discharge theinfo.plistfile onto the schoolbook editor in chief ’s icon in the Dock . If you ’re using a written matter of Stickies , as I am , then here ’s what you ’ll see :
To make Stickies hide the Dock and fare bar when plunge , tote up the follow two product line , just below the < dict > debut on quarrel four :
Save the change , and you ’re done . Jump down toPutting it to useto see how it process .
Xcode is set up
Once it ’s open in either editor , click once on the Root ingress in the Property List section of the windowpane , then snap the New Child button in the toolbar . put the name of the debut toLSUIPresentationMode , the Class soda water - up to Number , and give it a value of4 . Save the data file , and you ’re done with the editing .
Putting it to use
In the following short movie clip , you ’ll see two variation of Stickies running . The first is the breed Stickies , and you may see both the menubar and the Dock stay on seeable when it ’s launched . The 2nd is my modified Stickies — when it ’s launched , both the menu bar and the Dock vanish .
As you’re able to see in the video , the menu Browning automatic rifle and Dock both become visible again when you sneak into their respective regions , so nothing is lost for good . take down , however , that this trick will not necessarily work out perfectly in every software — hide the menu bar in Photoshop CS2 , for instance , and you may have issues selecting items in the menus . If you stick to Cocoa applications ( typically those provided by Apple , plus many third - party apps such as those by OmniGroup ) , you should have secure results . Modifying Carbon apps ( such as Photoshop , BBEdit , etc . ) may be more troublesome .
If you ever require / demand to undo what you ’ve done , just delete the backup copy of the app you modified , and you ’re done . What , you did n’t work on a backup transcript ? Well , just capable theinfo.plistfile in your editor program of pick , and remove the two demarcation you added ( or use the Delete feature in your place leaning editor program ) . Just make trusted the programme is n’t running when you do this . keep your changes , relaunch the programme , and things should be back to normal .
