Hi all

Just wondering if anyone has managed to hide the dock icon for skype, I would like it if just the menu bar icon was visable and no dock icon as for me its not nessusary to have it visable. I played around with the info.plist but sadly couldent make it hide using:

<KEY>NSUIElement</KEY>
<STRING>1</STRING>

Any tips if not i would personally like this as an option to turn off the dock icon if you have the menubar icon active.


Thanks

Lee

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone has managed to hide the dock icon for skype, I would like it if just the menu bar icon was visable and no dock icon as for me its not nessusary to have it visable. I played around with the info.plist but sadly couldent make it hide using:

<KEY>NSUIElement</KEY>
<STRING>1</STRING>

Any tips if not i would personally like this as an option to turn off the dock icon if you have the menubar icon active.
Thanks

Lee

I also like an option to hide skype from the dock...

Try Dockless.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12516

Try Dockless.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12516

Dockless removes the menu bar icon as well as the dock icon (according to that page), so that doesn't help. The app should really be smart enought to not appear in the dock if the Menu Bar option is turned on.. you don't need two icons in two places on the screen.

I agree, it really bugs when when software uses the dock and the menu bar. Something like skype really should have the open to use one or the other, it is the sort of thing that could be open for hours on end and never used, so sitting in the menu bar out of the way without a dock icon is perfect.

Skype developers, please consider adding this

Hehe, I have more than 30 icons at my dock, I find them so useful!

At Jira system you can submit all feature request you want, but... Are you sure so many people would use this? You would loose some features. Usually the top icon is the one to show / hide.

Anyway, is an interesting suggestion

SECOND!
I want that feature, too.
So Skype doesn't show up when I'm tabbing through applications any longer...

I found an application so you can hide the icon in the dock. I haven't tried it yet, but hope this may help you.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32125

Yeah that is what I use right now, problem with that sort of thing is that it removes access to the menubar for the application you use it on

Seconded, this would be very useful indeed. I keep it on 24/7 and tend to keep a minimalist Dock, so it bugs me the whole time. Ideally:

- when you click "show Skype status in menubar", another option becomes available, "do not show icon in Dock".
- there is an option under the menubar icon to "Show Main Window" or similar, so that you can call up the contact list whenever you want.
- when the main window is up, you will have access to all the Skype menus as normal, so there is no loss of access. You could even show the Dock icon whilst the main window was open, and lose it again when it closed, if that was possible.

This would be a totally sweet mac-like feature!! Developers?

- when you click "show Skype status in menubar", another option becomes available, "do not show icon in Dock".

And then, how do you show it again if the menu bar menu is not enabled?

Maybe the solution is adding -another one!- option in the Advanced menu?

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone has managed to hide the dock icon for skype, I would like it if just the menu bar icon was visable and no dock icon as for me its not nessusary to have it visable. I played around with the info.plist but sadly couldent make it hide using:

<KEY>NSUIElement</KEY>
<STRING>1</STRING>

Any tips if not i would personally like this as an option to turn off the dock icon if you have the menubar icon active.
Thanks

Lee

It's possible. You were on the right track, but, the info.pllist file is cached, as of OS X v10.3 (You need to move the Skype.app file somewhere else, run it and move it back. Well, you deffintly need to move it, not sure if running it is completely necessary).
Full guide thingy:
- Right click->Show package contents.
- Go to the Contents folder
- Double click the Info.plist file (It'll open in the Property LIst Editor)
- Click the triangle on Root.
- Single-click root, press the New Child button, type the name as NSUIElement, and a value of 1
- Press return, File>Save, File>Quit
(And the important bit you never done)
- Move the skype.app file to your desktop (or any other folder), launch it. If you have Skype in your dock always, drag it out, and it'll disapear. You can then drag Skype back to your application folder.

That's it. It'd be much nicer just to have a preference option for it, but this works.
Other small note: If you happen to lose your menu-bar icon for skype, you can get back to the skype menu by double-clicking the Skype.app - Although if your techically minded enough to want Skype out your Dock, and happy editing plist files, I imagine you could work that out
Slight bug: Because I moved skype, ran it then moved it again, it has problems with opening the preferences (Icons missing and such). You'll need to relaunch skype when you move it back
- Ben

This post has been edited by mr_dbr: Wed Aug 29 2007, 13:03

I edited the PList and it removed Dock icon but it also removed the Skype Menu items so I can't change the Preferences etc.

Any thoughts, can't even check the version of Skype now.

Although I prefer the dock icon over the menu bar option, I too can see the benefit of such a feature.

Basically Skype should look into how Google Notification for Mac works. It exists in the menu bar only. No dock icon, no icon when you Cmd+Tab, etc.. I don't think Skype should be reduced to that only, but as an option it only makes sense.

Based on this and the fact that it won't auto-hide on startup, it sounds like Skype needs to step up their Mac game.

You might as well just forget it guys. Like everyone else that has complained about this, I am very frustrated by the fact that the developers of Skype just don't listen to the requests made by their loyal users. This issue was recognized and acknowledged as an admitted bug/problem by one of the developers in 2005!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has never been addressed, and probably never will be.

We just need to wait for google to come out with a competing product that will undoubtedly be better than this. The wait will surely be shorter than waiting for Skype developers to address a problem that has been on the books for nearly four years now.

See: rosnow @ Mon Jul 11 2005, 11:18:
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic...mp;#entry142624

I pay for Skype, and would also like this bumped up on the priority list.

It's the main reason I don't keep Skype running 100% of the time.

Why won't Skype obey the standard "Hide" check box on the Login Items preference setting for Mac Leopard?

There are at least 2 ways to fix this:

1) Just make the Skype application follow Apple's guidelines and work like almost all other 3rd party apps on the Mac. (Obey the System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items setting for hiding applications in the Dock like everyone else.)

-or-

2) Add an option so that if you enable "[X] Show status in menu bar" in Skype's preferences you can also pick "[X] Hide Dock Icon."

@DS-XMA if Google Phone or someone does this, I'll cancel my Skype and go with them also. There's no reason to use up a slot on my Dock for a useless icon for a BACKGROUND application. No other IM client does this.

- Don

Dear Don,

I also am a paid user for a lot of things in this world, but I think there is a little confusion here about what to be hidden or not.

Hide the icon in the Dock is not included in the standards for the "hide on login option". I mean, if you choose for Apple Mail to be hidden on login or after startup, the icon in the Dock will remain visible but not the main window that will hide as if you used cmd+H function.

Hide the normal Dock icon can be done by using third party apps, because all normal applications do show an icon while running, except some root utilities or background proceses nor run by the user that nobody should see in order to let them run, no worries for the user about it.

I hope I understood your problem, if I'm wrong I'm sorry.

--

Aside from this, hiding the application (not including the Dock icon) after startup, is a feature that should work but it is not working, and this fix has been recorded many many times. I also agree is time to fix it and I know it will be done in the future, but I'm not the one deciding the priority if the bugs here, sorry.

Hello Carol,

After I posted I realized there are many different things people are talking about when they want to hide things, and I wasn't clear either. You're correct of course about the hide on login option.

Ironically, a few hours after I posted, I did manage to hide the Dock Icon using the following steps:

1. Open "Applications" in Finder

2. Locate the" Skype.app" icon. Right click on it, and pick "Show Package Contents"

3. Open the "Contents" folder, and double click on "Info.plist" icon to open it in the Property List Editor

4. In Property List Editor, highlight the first line "Information Property List" and click the "Add Child" button

5. A line opens up for you to type in. On the left side, type in "NSUIElement" and on the right side type in "1"

6. Save the changes.

When you start Skype it won't display a Dock Icon, but it will keep the Menu Bar Icon visible.

This is very similar to what the opening poster had tried and several others recommended. I'm not sure why it didn't work for some people. Maybe different versions of MacOS?

I do like Skype, and find it very useful. The native Mac and iPhone versions are very nice to have. I use them both.

Best regards,

- Don

Hello, Don,

I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your solution, sure some people will appreciate that!!

Also say to people: please be careful with those modifications, specially if you are not sure about what you are doing

Hi Don,

Thanks for the tip, I was wondering what I might be doing wrong though. I can follow you up until you say open "3. Open the "Contents" folder, and double click on "Info.plist" icon to open it in the Property List Editor." At this point I seem to only be able to open the file in TextEdit. Any ideas?

ALHarari