DragThing is one of the oldest file launchers for the Mac, having been around for almost ten years. Thus one of the first programs that offered dock-like functionality, and although the OS X dock is an integral part of our everyday experience, there are still many things that DragThing can do to enhance the way you work.
DragThing has four types of docks, grouped into two categories. Sounds complicated? It really isn't...
Dynamic DocksThe fist category of docks is that of dynamic docks. This means that, much like the native dock, they change size and content dynamically without direct interaction on behalf of the user. There are three dynamic docks.
The first dynamic dock is the Process Dock. If you ever worked in Classic, this will be very familiar. This dock will grow and shrink on the fly to accommodate all your currently running applications. You can use to switch from one application to another, hide a certain application or hide other applications. The only thing it doesn't do that the native dock does is show which applications are hidden. Another difference is that the DragThing Process dock always sorts applications alphabetically. Another thing I have noticed is that while for example you can drag any text onto the Safari Dock icon to have it Google that text, dragging text onto the Safari icon in DragThing has no effect.
The second dynamic dock is the Disk Dock. This dock will always contain all the currently mounted drives. Dragging anything onto this will allow you to copy, move, or create an alias of that file and not just at the root of the drive but anywhere within it, thanks to a hierarchical navigation menu.
The third dynamic dock is the Window Dock. Here you can find all your currently open windows. The list is sorted alphabetically and accorded to the order of the applications (also alphabetical). Same as with the Process Dock, I am missing the ability to
see which of those windows are minimized and which are not.
Static DocksThe second category is static docks. While the name might make them seem inferior to the dynamic ones, they are in no way so. Not being dynamic means that you have total and utter control over them, and can shape and mold them as you please.
Static docks are similar to the Launcher of yore. They provide a space where you can store things and launch them easily. Each such dock can have as many layers as you like, and each layer can hold a large number of items, and you can have as many static docks as you like. It all mounts up to as much space as you need to keep things. Beside the topical applications and documents that you can store in these docks you can also keep text clippings and URLs. Each layer can be selected easily using the tabs on the border of the window and each can be totally customized in terms of looks.
Statistic docks, and indeed all docks can be used in one of two modes: drawer and window. Drawers slide smoothly off the screen leaving only the tabs still visible and they can be configured to be on top of other applications or not. Windows will act like normal windows, you can drag them around, hide them, minimize them and so on.
One of the better things about static docks is that you can drag any clipping into them to save it, quickly add a label and go on with your work. Unfortunately, there is one limitation of static docks and that is that they are static. If you have a 4x3 dock and it is full with 12 items, you cannot add another. Your only options are to remove an item to make space, or create another layer to make space or to resize the dock to make space (which resizes the entire dock across all layers). This means you can't be messy and just dump stuff in there to sort through later because you quickly run out of space.
Other neat thingsDragThing offers a great deal of freedom to the user, starting with the way things look, down to the way you work with them, everything can be modified and tweaked. For those who crave power interaction, you can control DragThing using HotSpots to perform all sorts of actions. But hotspots are limited to the four corners and the edges of the screen... enter Hotkeys.
You can do nearly anything in DragThing using Hotkeys, from hiding, showing, minimizing and maximizing docks to launching items from within them, everything can be controlled through system-wide shortcuts.
And as a last note, for those who are still nostalgic, it can even place a Trash can on the desktop, which can be moved about anywhere on the desktop, and it can also add the trash to any layer of any static dock.
The GoodDragThing has many features that come to complement the native dock, and many that offer the same functionality. If you would like to keep your most commonly used applications and documents in one place, without having one of those docks that stretches from one side of the screen to another, this is just the thing.
The BadFeels a bit constrained to the fixed size of static docks. Sure you can make the icons tiny and cram many in there but what you gain in space you loose in ease, having to actively search to find anything in all those ant-sized icons.
The TruthThe missing link between Classic and OS X in many ways, it offers some of the best of both worlds and then some.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
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