DockView 2 Documentation
DockView 2 is a small utility for macOS that brings window previews to your Dock: point at an app’s icon and you see thumbnails of all its windows, live. Alongside that it adds a window switcher, numbered Dock shortcuts, quick window layouts and a folder-style app panel in the Dock — each one optional and off until you turn it on.
First launch
The first time you open DockView 2 it asks for two permissions: Accessibility — so it can see the icons in your Dock and control windows — and Screen Recording — so it can show the thumbnails themselves. Without them previews can’t work: macOS simply won’t let an app look inside other apps’ windows.
DockView 2 lives in the menu bar and has no icon in the Dock.
If the permissions get lost or you need to grant them again, go to
Settings → Permissions. It shows what has been granted and what hasn’t, Open Settings takes you straight to the right page in System Settings, and Show Onboarding Again walks you through the first-launch steps once more.
Window previews in the Dock
Point at an app’s icon in the Dock and a panel appears above it with thumbnails of all its windows. You can see what’s open where and jump straight to the window you want instead of cycling through them one by one. While the panel is open the thumbnails stay live — they keep refreshing rather than showing a frozen snapshot.
What you can do with a thumbnail:
- Click — switch to that window.
- Point at it — three buttons appear on top: close the window, minimize it, zoom it. Clicking zoom again returns the window to its previous size. You can also hide the buttons entirely if they get in the way of the thumbnail.
- Two-finger swipe down — minimize the window; swipe up — restore a minimized window, or zoom a normal one.
- Keep hovering a little longer — see the window full size (needs to be turned on, see below).
The panel stays put as long as the pointer is on it or on the icon. Right-clicking the icon hides the panel and opens the usual Dock menu.
Making it yours
| What | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|
| How fast it appears | General → Hover Delay | 0.1 to 1 second; 0.4 by default |
| Appearance | General → Appearance → Theme | System follows macOS, plus Light, Dark, and Classic — dark with a bright white outline |
| Fade in and out | General → Panel fade animation | on; turn it off if you’d rather the panel appear instantly |
| Minimized windows in the list | General → Include minimized windows in previews | on |
| Skip apps with a single window | General → Skip preview when app has a single window | with Calendar, Maps or Contacts the preview just shows the same window that’s already in front of you |
| Thumbnail size | Preview → Thumbnail Size | width 100–400, height 80–300 points; 200 × 130 by default |
| Distance from the Dock | Preview → Panel Position → Gap | 0–40 points, 12 by default; increase it if the panel overlaps the Dock |
| Full-size preview | Preview → Full-Size Preview | off; turning it on adds a delay slider — how long to keep hovering, from 0.2 to 2 seconds |
| Button style on thumbnails | Preview → Window Control Buttons → Style | Classic — light circles; Traffic-light — colored, like macOS window buttons; Hidden — no buttons at all, just the thumbnail |
General → Reset to Defaults restores every setting in the app, not just the ones
on that tab.
Previews for minimized windows (beta)
Minimized windows sit apart in the Dock — to the right of the separator, next to the
Trash — and you won’t find them among the app icons. Turn on
Preview → Minimized Windows → Preview minimized windows in Dock (Beta) and pointing
at one of them shows its preview too.
Still in beta, off by default.
Clicking a Dock icon
Normally, clicking the icon of an app that’s already in front does nothing.
DockView 2 lets you put that click to use:
Dock → Click on Dock Icon → When the app is already active.
Do nothing— the macOS behavior. This is the default.Hide the app— hide the app, same as ⌘H. An extra checkbox appears:⌥ Option+click hides other apps— holding ⌥ while clicking hides everything else and leaves just that app on screen.Switch to next window— cycle through the app’s windows. Each click moves you to the next one; hold ⇧ while clicking to include minimized windows. Step away for more than three seconds and the cycle starts over.
This only applies to the app you’re currently working in. Clicking any other app’s icon still simply switches to it.
Numbers on Dock icons
A quick way to switch between apps without the mouse.
Hold the modifier and numbered badges appear on your Dock icons. Press a number to switch to that app. The first nine icons get 1 through 9 and the tenth gets 0; numbering stops there, since that’s how many digits the top row has. Folders, the Trash and the separator aren’t numbered.
Turn it on in Dock → Dock Shortcuts → Show numbers on Dock icons; off by default.
The default modifier is ⌃⌥ Control+Option. macOS has claimed ⌃ Control on its own
for switching desktops, so that option only works if you have a single desktop.
What you can change (in the same section):
Modifier— ⌃ Control, ⌥ Option, ⌘ Command or ⌃⌥ Control+Option.Number only running apps— skip apps that aren’t running, so the numbers cover only the apps you can actually switch to.Number right to left— count from the far end of the Dock.Badge color— your system accent color or any of the eight macOS colors.Badge size— three sizes. The badge scales with the icon, so it doesn’t shrink to a dot when Dock magnification kicks in.Badge position— any of the four corners of the icon.
Window switcher
Like ⌘⇥, but for windows rather than apps: every open window appears on screen at once, so you can see where you’re going.
Turn it on in Windows → Window Switcher → Enable window switcher — off by default,
because the feature takes over a keyboard shortcut and that’s your call to make.
The default shortcut is ⌥⇥ (Option+Tab). You can change it in the Shortcut
field next to it: click the field and press the combination you want (a key on its
own, without a modifier, won’t be accepted; Esc cancels).
While the switcher is open: pressing the shortcut again or ⇥ moves forward, with ⇧ backward, the arrow keys move the selection, ↩ or a mouse click takes you to the window, and Esc closes it. Releasing the modifier isn’t enough — you need to confirm your choice.
Two layouts to choose from (Windows → Appearance → Style):
Grid— windows in two rows, page by page.Carousel— the selected window large and centered, its neighbors angled behind it. This is the default.
You can also switch layouts from inside the switcher itself — your choice is remembered.
Quick window commands (Quick Windows)
A small panel in the middle of the screen that lays the current window out across half the screen, a quarter, three columns, or the whole display.
The commands come from the app’s own Window menu, so you get exactly what you’re
used to seeing in that program: Fill, Center, Zoom, Minimize, plus
Move & Resize and Full Screen Tile. Apps without a Window menu won’t open the
panel — you’ll hear the system alert sound instead.
Turn it on in Windows → Quick Windows → Enable quick window commands; off by
default. The default shortcut is ⌥⌘F, changed in the Shortcut field beside it.
Inside the panel: the arrow keys pick a command, ↩ applies it, Esc or a click elsewhere closes it.
The DockView icon in the Dock and the app panel
Your own folder in the Dock: an icon that pops open a panel of apps — the ones you put there yourself. The app launches and focus goes back to whatever you were working in.
The icon is drawn as a folder full of apps so it reads as a folder in the Dock. You
can turn it on in either of two places — System → Show icon in Dock or the first
line of the Dock Panel tab, Show the apps panel in the Dock; it’s the same
switch. Off by default. Clicking the icon again closes the panel.
You choose what’s in the panel on the Dock Panel tab: drag apps in from the Finder
or add them with +, remove them with −, and drag the rows to reorder. It starts
out with a few system apps so you can see straight away how it works.
Worth knowing: there’s only one such panel — you can’t create several separate folders. While the icon is showing, DockView 2 also appears in the ⌘⇥ app switcher. And if you turn the setting off while the icon was kept in the Dock, it stays behind as a shortcut — drag it out yourself.
The menu bar icon
This is where you open settings (⌘,), this documentation, check for updates, send feedback and quit. It also shows your license status and warns you if one of the permissions is missing.
You can hide the icon: System → Menu Bar → Show icon in menu bar. To bring it back,
launch DockView 2 again from Applications or Spotlight — the settings window opens.
Startup, updates and license
System → Startup → Launch at login— start together with the system.System → Updates → Check for Updates— check for updates by hand; also available from the menu bar.System → License— your license status: trial, activated (with the address it was issued to), or not activated. Buying and managing the license starts here too.System → About— the app version.
Where to find things in Settings
| Tab | What’s there |
|---|---|
| General | appearance, how fast the panel appears, preview behavior, resetting settings |
| Preview | thumbnail size, distance from the Dock, full-size preview, minimized windows, button style on thumbnails |
| Dock | numbers on icons, what clicking an icon does |
| Windows | the window switcher and quick window commands |
| Dock Panel | the apps in your Dock panel |
| Permissions | permissions and re-running the first-launch steps |
| System | license, launch at login, Dock and menu bar icons, updates, version |
Coming soon
The features below are still being built — they aren’t in the app yet.
Previews for Stage Manager groups. Pointing at a group of windows in the Stage Manager strip on the left will show the same thumbnail panel you get from a Dock icon.
Blurry thumbnail filter. With Stage Manager on, the system sometimes hands back a blurred frame of a window. DockView 2 will tell a bad frame from a good one and keep the last sharp image on screen until a clean one arrives.