One of the best ever interface tools ever devised for the web is the icon. Click an icon and something happens. But there’s a problem when a screen becomes cluttered with too many icons.
That brings me to the second best ever interface tool devised for the web. Tabs. The perfect example of icons vs. tabs is the Mac’s Dock vs. Tab Launcher, a Dock-like app launcher tool that does more in less space. Think about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Dock on your Mac. It can be unobtrusive, even out of sight until needed, but the more you add app icons, the more clumsy it becomes.
Tab Launcher works like the Dock, attaches to the sides of the Mac’s screen, display app icons but also has tabs which create a more efficient hierarchy of app icons. Take a look at these tabbed docks vs. your Mac’s Dock.
App icons, folder icons, and more can be used as Dock icons, but organized by tabs. You control how the tab looks, too– color, title, font, shadow, shape, position, transparency, animations, and more.
Tab Launcher also displays a marker for each currently running app on your Mac. There’s also a tab which displays the most recently used files from a specific folder.
Imagine how much more efficient OS X’s Dock would be if it had tabs where you could easily add apps by category, or documents you use the most. Now you can. Hide the Dock entirely and only use Tab Launcher if you want to save screen space. This may be the easiest change to your daily workflow you can get.