Dock Shortcut For Mac

There are a lot of useful features from other desktop operating systems that would be awesome on macOS, but Apple is generally quite keen on doing its own thing. One of them is the ability to quickly launch or switch to applications in the Dock or Taskbar using a hotkey.

Dock Shortcut adds that functionality to macOS in a very straightforward manner. All you have to do is press a modifier (Option by default) and one of the 1 through 9 number keys, depending on the app’s position in the Dock.

The Option key is used by the app by default, but you can also use Cmd, Control, or Shift. Just select your preferred modifier from the app’s preferences, which you can access from the menu bar. After configuring everything, you can even hide the menu bar icon.

As for how it works, all you have to do is press the modifier and the number corresponding to the app’s position in the Dock. If it’s already open, it will be brought to the foreground. If it’s closed, it will be launched.

This is one of those features that seem like they should have been a part of the OS in the first place. It’s a great way to quickly bring up certain Dock apps, and it’s faster than Cmd+Tab if you need to switch between more than two applications.

If you prefer, you can have the app ignore Finder, which is always the first app in your Dock. However, it might get a bit confusing when trying to tell what number you’re supposed to use for certain apps, at least until you get used to it.

It would be helpful to have a number show up next to each Dock icon when holding down the modifier, indicating which hotkey you should use. However, it would probably be difficult to implement.

Dock Shortcut is an awesome idea, bringing some useful functionality from Windows and Linux to macOS. It’s easy to use and configure, it’s written entirely in Swift, and it’s free and open-source.