DockView extends the dock and makes it aware of any windows you have open. Whenever you point your mouse over an app icon, thumbnail images of the windows are displayed.

DockView helps you visualize any windows you have open and easily find what you are looking for. It can also display a thumbnail preview when clicking the Command+Tab application switcher.

Here are some other features listed from the Kapeli site:

* Live previews. The previews refresh constantly so that users can keep an eye on windows without activating them
* Activate windows. Users can click anywhere on a preview to activate the corresponding window
* Close windows. DockView provides a very convenient way of closing windows
* Control iTunes. The image previews for iTunes show Play, Pause and Skip buttons so that users can keep iTunes minimized and still control it
* Customizable. The previews can be any size users want
* No hacks. DockView doesn’t modify the Dock or any system file

Here are shots of the preferences:

Kapeli is a one-man software project ran by Bogdan Popescu, a Software Engineering student at Birmingham University. Kapeli has a simple goal: to solve some of the most common problems users encounter on Mac OS X. He offers a few other useful apps but I haven’t checked them out yet. To download DockView and read more about it, go to this link: http://kapeli.com/dockview/

I now use DockView all the time and it makes it SO much easier to get my work done. Give it a try and let me know what you think or if you use DockView and would like to share your experience, please leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers. Oh, and don’t forget to share this article with others.

Today’s desktop customization theme is by Chazz. The reason I chose this theme is because of the personal feel it gives. Also, it isn’t cluttered. It has the feel of a real desk.
Here are the tools that Chazz used to create this one-of-a-kind desktop.
To change the menubar, Chazz used the program Magnifique with the Mistkikons Dark Theme.
To change the dock, Chazz used the Summer Dock theme.
For the background, Chazz started with a wooden background. Then,  got a .psd of a film strip and a book. Chazz filled the book with pictures and text. For the plant and iPhone, Chazz got them from the internet and traced them out.
To see more of Chazz’s work, check out these links:  (click on the picture to be directed to the site.)

My husband is a wonderful designer. I started messing around with a variety of Mac desktop tools to enhance my own user experience. I’ve seen articles in LifeHacker about a variety of desktops that users have created and I decided to make my own. All from messing around with tools like GeekTool, Docks, Magnifique, Drag Thing, Img2Icns, Rainlendar, Screeni, and SuperDocker. These are all wonderful tools for the noob like me who wants to change their user experience with their Macs. I’ve downloaded icons off the internet and didn’t really care much for some of them for this desktop design so my husband made the post-it note icons for me using .psd and the Img2Icns for my icons. Pretty cool – right?!? I wanted something that you would see in a normal home office. A bulletin board is usually what people see. So I thought it would be cool to make my desktop background a bulletin board – with my husbands help with .psd of course. He’s a genius at this. Anyways, this is the finished look. What do you think? I LOVE IT!
-TINA