I mean, they look quite different. Any idea?
Mainly because the Mac world is turbulent; the look and feel of the OS changes every two to three years or so. More recently Apple has started to dictate how icons should look to developers, sometimes quite specifically, and expecting people to copy their “art” design otherwise.
Case in point, the icon you think the Mac version uses right now is already “obsolete” and will be replaced in a few weeks, as icons guidelines have changed once again.
The Windows version uses the original icon that was designed for version 3. Ideally it would be the same on the Mac too, as we don’t like changing the icon over and over.
4 Likes
The core of the icon is the same with the stylised S, even on the new macOS 26 style icon.
For Mac users, Apple is most thoughtful, changing icon requirements regularly so we don’t get stuck in a rut and bored. 
1 Like
For my Dock apps, which are few, I have mostly retained icons from the past, including Scrivener’s. A glorious mess of shapes, as it should be. I don’t know if Tahoe allows users to change their icons – Choice! My God! – or encages them in the some glowing crystal shell to muzzle their irregularities. Probably.
Tahoe might allow users to change their icons (I haven’t checked), but it doesn’t allow any icon to have any shape other than a rounded square. You can no longer even have a rounded square with protruding elements - anything that doesn’t fit snugly inside a rounded square is shrunk down and put inside a grey rounded square.
1 Like
As a user, I’m always bemused by how much attention people pay to icons. As long as I can relate the icon in the dock to the app, I’m not really concerned about what it looks like. The only permanent items in my dock, which is hidden, are Finder and Trash; I open apps through Spotlight and then their icons appear in the dock, but most days I don’t even look at the dock, I have 5 desktops with the apps I use regularly assigned to a specific one, so when I want to change app, I simply move to the appropriate desktop.
But I’ve just installed the 3.4.5 update (not that I’ll be updating to Tahoe any time soon!) and so see there is a new Scrivener icon. For me, it’s “Ho hum…” but I do appreciate that developers on Apple have to keep changing things to fit in with Apple guidelines/requirements.
Mark
1 Like
Well quite right.
Docks are a waste of screen space and only exist to be made as small as possible, then hidden.
Apps are to be opened by Spotlight (or Alfred if you must) using the keyboard Like Nature Intended, not that nasty little mouse thing…
2 Likes
When I used Mac, I had my applications folder in the dock so I could access all my apps.
1 Like
I could actually wish that there was a way to keep the dock hidden only to be opened by a keyboard shortcut, so that taking the mouse cursor over to where you have the dock set would not immediately open it!
Mark
2 Likes
I have the dock small and hidden, although I do actually use it for my very small number of “I live here” apps (like scrivener).
However, I have the Dock on the right hand side of the screen, not the bottom so it takes much more of a deliberate action to open it. The bottom of an app is just too high activity an area!
Try (in Terminal):
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay 3600
killall Dock
Downside is, if you actually want to see the dock, now you have to wait for an hour. Or use the keyboard shortcut.
EDIT: If anyone wonders how to restore the default behavior:
defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay
killall Dock
3 Likes
I’ve seen it called a squircle jail.
1 Like
Oh, I don’t care much. It’s just the one’s in the Dock I attend to, and only because they’re there all the time, and I’d rather not see ugly icons all the time.
re: the Dock
I only really need it to remind me of active apps. I have it set to the left and very small. I tried it with just Finder and Trash, er, Bin, but since it was there anyway, I added a few more apps: the ones that are almost always active anyway.
I’d happily do without the Dock all together if, for example, the active apps could be shown in the menubar. I routinely use LaunchBar (in preference to Spotlight) to launch apps.
Says the man with the most beautiful forum avatar ever!
2 Likes
Well, thank you for that! That design was created for me by my then 9 year-old granddaughter, so I use it everywhere as a tribute to her!
Mark
3 Likes
My dock is on the right too. On my Mini, as I have a Studio monitor, the mouse cursor rarely goes over that far so I don’t see it. It’s more of a “problem” on my MacBook Air.
Mark
1 Like
