People always find it humorous to make fun of me for the excessive amount of applications on my Mac’s dock. Despite the torture, I have always justified each application’s position because I use every one on a daily basis. Finally, Dave (the other designer), came to my rescue and showed me a wonderful tool that clears my dock. All you need to do is add your most used applications to your Finder window, and you’re golden. Here’s what it looks like:
And here’s how it’s done: navigate to your Applications folder in Finder, and drag the desired app next to the “search” field. Hold it there until it gives you the green + symbol and drop it. And you’re done! If you want to open a file in that particular app, just drag the file over the icon and it’ll open right up! No more right-clicking to “open with” a certain application.
If these applications aren’t in use, it frees up your dock and no one will have a reason to make fun of you. And, if you have quite a few windows open, your dock doesn’t squash to a microscopic blob.