Difficult to tell when apps are open

[gopnick]

Does anyone else find it next to impossible to tell which apps are open in the dock in OS X Mountain Lion?

I read one review where a person said it was much easier, now. I don't get that.

If there's already a thread on this, please forgive me... I did a forum search which turned up nothing.

 

[steve-p]

Much harder yes, impossible no. It's a lot less obvious at a glance than it was. It doesn't really affect my workflow though as normally I use Command Tab and/or Mission Control enough to know what's running and what isn't. Also I auto-hide the dock anyway to get more screen space.

 

[SpyderBite]

Its the reflection effect of some of the icons that makes the indicators a little hard to notice. For example, the App Store reflects a blue hue and almost looks like an indicator of some sort when its closed.

I'd love another option in the dock preferences to change the color/hue of the open app indicator or even an option to turn off the "reflection" effect of the icons. But that's what the Feedback is for.

 

[gopnick]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one. Judging by the lack of talk about this, I thought I was going blind or crazy.

Still could be one of the two.

This affects my workflow because I sometimes glance at my list of items in OmniFocus and choose tasks based on what applications are already open. I suppose I'll just need to find a new way to manage it.

 

[pilot01]

I agree, the open app indicator sucks! Also, when I right click a open dock icon, the quit app icon is not there. I will really miss that.

 

[Blipp]

I don't have a bunch of apps on my dock for easy access. I create Stacks for different app categories (Video, Design, Games, Office, etc) and place aliases to each app in the correct stack. With the exception of a few must-have apps that I do leave on the left side of my dock I know that any app icon on there is an app that is running. I've been doing this since they first included stacks and I love it. It's all about having a workflow that works for you.

 

[FireFly62]

When the dock is on the bottom I noticed these indicators for open apps appear cutoff where they run off the screen and I only see the top half of the circle. This happens at any resolution. When the dock is on the side I see the whole indicator.


MBA 13" Late 2010

 

[Soundflunky]

The indicators are just as obvious as the old ones, to me.

 

[chrisherbert]

There are a few options:

- Change to the 2D dock. You can do this put putting the dock on the sides or using a Terminal command or the Secrets app to change the bottom dock. This will use a different, and a little more noticeable, indicator.

- Shrink the dock icons. When you increase or decrease the size of the dock, the indicator lights stay the same size. That means that when you have huge icons the indicators are comparatively small and hard to see, but when you have small icons they are very obvious.

- Don't pin any apps to the dock. Then if you see an app in the dock, it's running. No exceptions. This is what I do. You can then launch apps by pinning the applications folder to the dock, using spotlight, or using launchpad.

 

[eagandale4114]

I agree, the open app indicator sucks! Also, when I right click a open dock icon, the quit app icon is not there. I will really miss that.

????
Am I missing something?

 

[M87]

I have no trouble seeing what apps are open. The indicator is on the front edge of the dock which is pretty dark.