The Disappearing App Launcher
The Dock is a quintessential part of the macOS experience, providing quick access to your favorite applications, running programs, and the Trash bin. To maximize screen real estate, especially on smaller MacBook Airs, macOS offers an option to automatically hide the Dock. When this feature is active, the Dock slides off the bottom (or side) of the screen completely, leaving you with a full-screen view of your active windows. It only reappears when you physically shove your mouse cursor against the very edge of the display. While some users love the clean aesthetic, others find the constant sliding animation distracting and hate having to “fish” for their applications when they need to switch tasks quickly.
Pinning the Dock
To maintain constant visual access to your applications and stop your Mac from automatically hiding the Dock, you must adjust the core Desktop & Dock settings.
Click the Apple logo in the extreme top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings from the dropdown menu. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, scroll down and click on Desktop & Dock. Look at the very top of the right-hand panel, in the section specifically related to the Dock’s appearance. You will see a toggle switch explicitly named Automatically hide and show the Dock. If your Dock has been disappearing, this switch will be blue. Click the toggle to turn it grey (Off). The Dock will immediately slide up from the edge of the screen and remain permanently pinned in place, regardless of what applications you open or where your mouse cursor is located.