Docky users seeking more control over how their Dock looks, behaves and functions will surely find a treat or two in amongst the following five tips.

1. Blur the dock background

Find your Dock theme a bit too see-through? If you’re using Compiz and wish to enable blurring can do so with minimal fuss.

  1. Open up Compiz-Config-Settings-Manager from the System > Preferences menu
  2. Enable ‘Blur’ by checking the box next to the icon
  3. Now click on the blur icon to enter the blur config area
  4. Here you want to add Docky to the list of ‘Alpha blur windows’. Use either the ‘grab’ method (by clicking the green cross) or by manually adding ‘class=Docky’ to the entry field.

File:Docky.png

2. Add more themes

Adding themes in Docky is a snap. Download one of the themes below, hit the Anchor icon followed by the ‘Install theme’ button and locate the .tar file. Docky will do the rest.

You can find even more using our ‘dockytheme‘ tag.

3. Change the urgent colour glow

The colour of the alert ‘glow’ used to denote dock items in need of attention is also configurable. Indulge yourself and change the colour using these steps: –

  1. Press ALt + F2
  2. Type ‘gconf-editor’ (sans the apostrophes)
  3. Navigate to: /apps/docky-2/Docky/DockController
  4. Experiment with finding a colour that suits you by changing the UrgentHue value to a number between -180 to 180. The default is 150.

4. Launch any application using the Anchor icon

You can set the Docky Anchor icon to launch any application you like. Here’s how: –

  1. Press ALT + F2 together
  2. Type ‘gconf-editor’ (sans the apostrophes)
  3. Navigate to: /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem
  4. Enter a command between the two quotation marks (“”) to launch a specific application/action.

For example to launch the Gnome Control Centre when clicking on the Anchor enter:

“gnome–control–center”

If you’re a Cardapio menu user you can have Docky’s anchor icon launch Cardapio on mouse-over for super neatness.

5. Enhance your productivity with Docky’s timer applet & the Pomodoro technique

Seriously. Docky isn’t just there to look good – it can significantly improve your workflow. How? We covered it in more depth in a previous post.

Finally…

If by the end of all that you’re still not Dock-ied out then grab this cool Docky inspired wallpaper made by ~ebupof.

docky_1280_4

Don’t forget that for even more (yes, even more) Docky tips, information and answers to common questions you can head over to the Docky Wiki @ wiki.go-docky.com