How to Auto Hide/Show The Dock on macOS

MacOS includes a Dock bar at the bottom of your MacBookโ€™s screen. The Dock is among those essential macOS features, providing a quick launch bar to open applications and including entire running applications.

From the System Preferences menu, you can change the settings on a MacBook to have the Dock bar automatically hide and show. Once you turn this setting on, the dock bar will only appear when you move the mouse over the bottom of your MacBookโ€™s screen.

Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut to hide or show it quickly on macOS.

What is a Dock?

Dock is a feature of the macOS operating system that allows users to access and launch applications from a fixed location on the desktop. 

The user can customize the Dock to include their favorite apps, and it also provides access to critical functions of the macOS operating system, such as Finder, Launchpad, Mission Control, and more.

Using the System Preferences

Step 1: Click on the Apple icon and select the โ€œSystem Preferencesโ€ option.

auto hide and show dock
on macOS Catalina or older
dock macos
on macOS Big Sur and above

Step 2: Click on the โ€œDockโ€ icon from the System Preferences window.

Step 3: You can see the option โ€œAutomatically hide and show the Dock.โ€ Check the box for hiding and showing the Dock.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Command + Option + D

You can use the Command + Option + D button on your keyboard to auto-hide and show the Dock bar. It will immediately hide or show the Dock on Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

auto hide and show dock 3

Using the keyboard shortcut is quick and efficient to switch the Dock hides and shows.

Set The Time You Want To Show The Dock

To establish the amount of the needed time to show the Dock (for this example, for 4 seconds), open the Terminal and enter the following command into a Terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 4 && killall Dock
auto hide and show dock 2

This will keep the Dock hidden until you move the mouse at the Dockโ€™s screen edge for a full 4 seconds. You can modify the number of seconds that you want.

You use the following Command to show the Dock immediately without any delay.

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 && killall Dock

To bring the default setting back, enter this command below:

defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay && killall Dock

How to change the Dock size on macOS

dock macos

To change the size of the Dock on your Mac, go to System Preferences > Dock. From here, you can adjust the size of the Dock by using the slider at the bottom of the window.

dock macos
macOS Big Sur
dock macos
macOS Ventura

You can also enable โ€œDock Magnificationโ€ to make your apps and icons appear more significant when you hover your mouse over them. Then, you can adjust the slider to change the size of the icons.

Automatically Hide And Show The Menu Bar

Open System Preferences and go to Dock & Menu Bar to enable auto-hide Menu Bar on macOS Big Sur. From here, check the box for โ€œAutomatically hide and show the menu bar.โ€ 

This will minimize the Menu Bar when youโ€™re not using it, giving you more space on your screen.

dock macos

For macOS Ventura and above, choose Always at Automatically hide and show the menu bar.

dock macos
5/5 - (1 vote)
We will be happy to see your thoughts

Leave a reply

Tutorials Related To Windows, Mac, iOS & Android - OMGHowTo.Com
Logo