The Dock is one of the most iconic elements of macOS—a persistent row of app icons sitting at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to instantly launch software or see which applications are currently running.
However, if you are working on a smaller MacBook (like a 13-inch MacBook Air), screen real estate is incredibly valuable. The Dock permanently consumes the bottom 10% of your display. If you are editing a large spreadsheet or trying to read a long PDF document, hiding the Dock allows your active windows to stretch all the way to the bottom bezel, giving you significantly more vertical space to work with.
How to Automatically Hide the Dock
You can instruct macOS to automatically slide the Dock off the screen when you are not using it, and slide it back up the moment you need it.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older Macs).
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Desktop & Dock.
- At the top of the main panel, look for the toggle switch labelled Automatically hide and show the Dock.
- Click the switch to turn it On.
The moment you click the switch, the Dock will animate and slide down, completely vanishing below the bottom edge of your screen.
How to Access the Hidden Dock
When the Dock is hidden, it is not completely disabled. It is simply waiting for you.
Whenever you need to launch a new app, simply push your mouse cursor to the absolute bottom edge of the screen and hold it there for a fraction of a second. The Dock will instantly slide back up and overlay itself on top of whatever window you are currently working in.
As soon as you click an app, or move your mouse cursor away from the bottom edge of the screen, the Dock will immediately slide back down and vanish again.
The Fastest Method: The Keyboard Shortcut
If you prefer to toggle the Dock on and off constantly depending on what app you are using, digging through the System Settings menu every time is tedious.
Apple built a hidden keyboard shortcut directly into macOS that bypasses the menus entirely.
Press Command (⌘) + Option (⌥) + D on your keyboard.
This shortcut will instantly toggle the “Automatically hide and show the Dock” setting. You can press the shortcut once to hide the Dock while you are writing an essay, and then press the exact same three keys again to permanently lock the Dock back to the bottom of the screen when you are finished.