I like to keep my dock tidy with almost only the applications I'm currently using shown. As such, I tend to completely quit out of apps so that they don't clutter my dock. However, there are apps which would be advantageous to allow to update in the background (e.g. mail). Is there a way to allow an app to remain open, but hide the icon when there are no open windows? I've seen ways to completely hide the icon at all times, but I would prefer that the icon was there when there are active windows open. Any clean way of doing this? Thank you much.
MacOS – OSX – Only show apps with open windows in the dock
dockiconmacos
Related Solutions
I think you are looking for this feature:
(System Preferences => Dock)
I just tried it on my own system and it when you minimize, it minimizes on the icon. You can click the icon to make the minimized window appear again.
You didn't mention what version of OS X you are on; I'm on Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.4).
Depending on how your System prefs are set, F3 will do a variety of window-juggling tasks…
If Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard is set to default, with "Use all F1, F2…" unchecked then they will work as stated, if it's checked you will need to add the Fn key to each of these commands.
F3 will toggle Mission Control - all windows of all apps & Desktops spread out so you can see them.
Cmd ⌘ F3 will toggle desktop view only.
Ctrl ⌃ F3 will show all windows of only the frontmost app *[this is likely to be the closest to what you need.]
Shift ⇧ F3 will do the same as just F3 … only really really slowly [for presentations etc]
Opt ⌥ F3 will bring up Mission Control prefs, where you can tweak other behaviour.
You can also go directly to a given tab by right-clicking the app icon in the Dock, though it only shows the frontmost tab's title for each window.
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Best Answer
Hide the Dock, then use Contexts for Mac to switch between active windows. Contexts has an option to show only the application with active windows regardless it’s running in background or not. You can read my review here.