How to Customize the Dock on macOS

Master your Mac workflow by customizing the Dock. Learn how to add, remove, resize, and position your app icons for maximum productivity.

1. Access Dock system settings. Open the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings. Navigate to the Desktop & Dock tab in the left-hand sidebar to view all available customization options.
2. Add or remove application icons. To add an app, drag its icon from the Applications folder into the Dock. To remove an app, drag the icon out of the Dock toward the middle of your desktop until you see the Remove label, then release it.
3. Resize the Dock icons. Within the Desktop & Dock settings, move the Size slider to the left or right to decrease or increase icon dimensions. Alternatively, hover your cursor over the separator line in the Dock until it turns into a double-ended arrow, then click and drag to resize manually.
4. Change the Dock position. Locate the Position on screen option within System Settings. Select Left, Bottom, or Right to anchor the Dock to your preferred edge of the display.
5. Enable or disable auto-hide. Toggle the Automatically hide and show the Dock switch to ON to reclaim screen space. The Dock will now disappear when not in use and reappear when you move your cursor to the edge of the screen where the Dock is positioned.
6. Add a stack for folders. Drag any folder from Finder onto the right side of your Dock, near the Trash icon. Right-click the folder icon in the Dock to choose how the stack is displayed, such as Fan, Grid, or List view.