14 DAY TRIAL // Developed by Patrick Chamelo of NS Coding, Dock Spaces is a unique piece of Mac software that allows users to have up to ten different docks and swap among them from the menu-bar. NS Coding is a small software development group headquartered in both England and (occasionally) in Greece. The company creates what it calls “useful and beautiful apps” for Mac OS X and iPhone.
By providing options to select whether or not icons bounce in one Dock, or by setting another to automatically hide itself while the rest are in Tiger-style 2D, with different alignment and positioning, Dock Spaces allows users to tailor their Mac's application launcher to their exact needs. Dock Spaces also works side by side with OS X Leopard's own Spaces feature and can equip them with as many as ten essentially different Docks.
Each Dock is customizable. The new version addresses overwriting issues and further adds support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
As noted in our extensive review of Dock Spaces, there are numerous applications that allow Mac users to modify the looks and the works of their Dock, but none offers the many advantages of Dock Spaces, from a functionality point of view. Given that the utility is completely free to download and use, there is no reason why one shouldn't download and at least try Dock Spaces to see how it fits their Mac.
Dock Spaces also sports “hotkeys,” allowing users to swap through their docks and spaces using whatever combination of keys they find most suitable. The main features include:
- Up to ten Different docks; - Task-specific / context-focused Docks; - Set the name of the Dock; - Spaces integration; - Growl support; - Software update; - Completely Free!
Unfortunately for Tiger users, Dock Spaces is only available for OS X 10.5 Leopard. The app is a Universal Binary, compatible with both PowerPC and Intel machines.