MacOS – With multiple displays: how best to keep the Dock to one side, and on the same display as the menu bar

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I currently have the Dock to the left. In the Displays pane of System Preferences, I have the external display (if present) configured to be on the left side of the main built-in display; and the menu bar on the built-in display.

Problem:

when I connect an external display, the Dock jumps to it, separating it from the menu bar.

How can I configure the Dock to stay on the main display with the menu bar?

Some things to keep in mind:

I prefer the Dock to the left.
I don't want it on the right, since that would interfere with the disk icons on the desktop.
I don't want it on the bottom, since I have widescreen displays and that would be wasteful of vertical screen real-estate.
I can't unusably configure the external display to be on the right side, since it's actually to the left, given the way my desk is setup.

I'm using Mac OS X Lion on a Macbook Pro.

Best Answer

As far as I can find, putting the Dock on the left side of the right monitor or the right side of the left monitor can't be done.

But let's look at other possible solutions to your problem. Point #1 notes that you don't want the dock on the right because it would interfere with disk icons on the desktop. And when you first drag the Dock to the right side, it does indeed cover the disk icons on the right side. But if you select "clean up" on the Desktop once the Dock is positioned on the right, it will move those icons over to make room for the Dock. This is a temporary solution, however, because newly mounted drives will still be buried by the dock. If you select "clean up by name", however, then newly mounted drives will fit into the grid created and not be covered by the Dock.

Not the solution you were looking for, I know, but it might be a workaround.

Related Solutions

MacOS – How to switch Dock configurations when an external display is connected

DockSpaces is nice and convenient, but annoyingly unscriptable. So, I wrote two little shell scripts, one to change to my desktop Dock and one to change to my mobile Dock.

The desktop script is triggered on arrival in my Home context in ControlPlane, and the mobile script is triggered by departure from it.
The desktop context is defined based on the presence of my external displays: enter image description here

Here's how the scripts work:

I save a copy of both Docks in my Documents folder (the Dock configuration is stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist).

When I switch from one to the other, I replace the appropriate file in my Documents folder with the current file in my Preferences so that changes I've made to the Dock are saved. Then I copy the alternate Dock from my Documents to my Preferences. Finally, the Dock process is restarted so that the changes take effect.

The Scripts:

To Desktop:

#!/bin/bash

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Documents/Docks/mobile.plist
cp ~/Documents/Docks/desktop.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
killall Dock

To Mobile:

#!/bin/bash

cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Documents/Docks/desktop.plist
cp ~/Documents/Docks/mobile.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
killall Dock

MacOS – How to force the application switcher to stop following the dock and instead show on the main display in Mavericks (OS X 10.9)

If you are OK with losing the new features of Maverick's multiple displays, open System Preferences, click Mission Control, the uncheck the box that says, "Displays have separate spaces". Log out, then log back in, the problem should be resolved.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – How to switch Dock configurations when an external display is connected

MacOS – How to force the application switcher to stop following the dock and instead show on the main display in Mavericks (OS X 10.9)

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