Use Terminal to Remove Leopard’s 3D Dock Effects

Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) introduced the 3D Dock, which makes Dock icons appear to be standing up on a ledge. Some people like the new look, and some prefer the older 2D look from Tiger (OS X 104.x). If Leopard’s 3D Dock isn’t to your taste, you can use Terminal to switch to the 2D visual implementation. Can’t decide? Try them both. Changing from one to the other takes a matter of minutes.

Use Terminal to Apply a 2D Effect to the Dock

1. Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2. Enter the following command line into Terminal. You can copy/paste the text into Terminal, or you can simply type the text as shown. The command is a single line of text, but your browser may break it into multiple lines. Be sure to enter the command as a single line in the Terminal application.

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

3. Press enter or return.
4. Enter the following text into Terminal. If you type the text rather than copy/paste it, be sure to match the case of the text.

killall Dock

5. Press enter or return.
6. The Dock will disappear for a moment, and then reappear.
7. Enter the following text into Terminal.

exit

8. Press enter or return.
9. The exit command will cause Terminal to end the current session. You can then quit the Terminal application.

Use Terminal to Apply a 3D Effect to the Dock

1. Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
2. Enter the following command line into Terminal. You can copy/paste the text into Terminal, or you can simply type the text as shown. The command is a single line of text, but your browser may break it into multiple lines. Be sure to enter the command as a single line in the Terminal application.

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO

3. Press enter or return.
4. Enter the following text into Terminal. If you type the text rather than copy/paste it, be sure to match the case of the text.

killall Dock

5. Press enter or return.
6. The Dock will disappear for a moment, and then reappear.
7. Enter the following text into Terminal.

exit

8. Press enter or return.
9. The exit command will cause Terminal to end the current session. You can then quit the Terminal application.

That’s it for this simple tip. The 2D and 3D versions of the Dock have exactly the same functionality. It’s just a matter of deciding which visual style you prefer.

• using the dock
• using terminal