Dockyard

Dockyard is not yet Leopard-compatible. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Dockyard is a "dock switcher" for Mac OS X. It allows you to have multiple docks and switch between them with one click. Dockyard now comes in three forms: a menu extra, which appears in your menu bar, a widget, which appears in your Dashboard (Mac OS X v10.4 only), and a normal application (called Dockyard Manager) which allows finer control over your docks. All three programs were created with Apple's Cocoa API, using the Objective C programming language.

If you want to use the Dockyard menu extra, you must first get a program like Unsanity's Menu Extra Enabler to allow it to work, as a restriction on third-party menu extras has been imposed. After you install one of these programs, just double-click on Dockyard.menu to launch it. From then on, it will always be in the right side of the menu bar. To remove Dockyard from the menu bar, command-drag it out. The menu extra requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later to run.

If you would prefer the Dockyard widget, you may simply download and install it like any other widget. It should automatically be installed by the Dashboard. However, you must first remove any version of the Dockyard menu extra prior to version 1.6. You may continue using the menu extra with the Dockyard widget, as long as it is version 1.6 or later. The widget should run on any system with the Dashboard, that is, Mac OS X v10.4 or later.

Last is Dockyard Manager. Unlike the menu extra and widget, Dockyard Manager is a fully-fledged dock editor. Not only can you create, rename, reorder, and delete docks, but you can also add, remove, and reorder the individual items in them. Finally, you can change docks straight from the current Dock by accessing Dockyard Manager's dock menu. Like the Dockyard widget, you must first remove any version of the Dockyard menu extra prior to version 1.6. You may continue using the menu extra with Dockyard Manager, as long as it is version 1.6 or later. Dockyard Manager should run on Mac OS X v10.3 or later.

For developers, there is the Dockyard library. This allows you to access the Dockyard methods of changing, adding, and deleting docks, as well as being notified when the dock changes. Just send me an e-mail if you are interested.

Although most of Dockyard's bugs are gone, it is still recommended that you back up your Dock before using it. Thanks to Cocoa Dev Central for their menu extra tutorial, Apple and mmalc for the drag and drop array controller, CocoaDev for useful code additions, Apple again for the combined image/text cells, Rainer Brockerhoff's RBSplitView, Kritter's Foundation Collections Palette, James G. Speth for a fix to the Javascript/Objective C interface, and Darren Ford for an index set enumerator.

New features:

Universal binaries
Dashboard switching
Black and white menu extra icon

Testimonials:

Dockyard Manager & Dockyard go hand in hand. Just what I needed. Once setup it has worked flawlessly. It allows me to easily switch docks depending on what I'm doing at the time. ...Totally BOSS (Awesome for those who don't know what Boss means.) Anymore, I don't think I could function without them. — macitis via VersionTracker.com
Why in the world Apple didn't create something like this to begin with is beyond me. — Ken Estep via email