QUICKTIP - Make Applications Run in The Background / Hide Them from the Dock

I just want to share a very simple way to hide a running application from the Dock without using third party software.

For the first, but easiest, solution you'll have to install Apple's Xcode Tools which can be found on the OSX installation disk you got by your Mac or can be obtained as a free download on Apple's website here.

(free subscription is needed although)

Once installed you will have the necessary tool to quickly change the behavior of an application.

PEOPLE RUNNING XCODE 3 on OSX 10.5

First of all you will have to locate and open the application's Info.plist. To do this just rightclick (ctrl+click) on the application you want to hide and choose Show Package Contents.

A new finder window appears and shows the package contents. What interests us here is the info.plist file.

Go ahead and open it. If you have Xcode installed it will open as default with the Property List Editor application. It will look depending on which version of Xcode/OSX you have like this:

Just select the last row and press the + symbol a new line will appear with a dropbox.

Search the following key in the dropbox "Application Is Background Only" and then select the box to activate. Save and quit the editor and then (re)open the application.

If you ever want to change the setting again just deselect the box.

PEOPLE HAVING AN OLDER VERSION OF Xcode

Users of an older version of Xcode have to do this in a slightly different way.

When they open the Properties List Editor it looks a bit different and they have to press the 'New Child' or 'New Sibling' button.

Then insert LSUIElement in the new item field and use 1 as value (be sure to have string as class).

Then save and quit the editor. The only thing left to do now is to update the LaunchServices.

The easiest way is to just replace the application to another folder (desktop) and open the application. If it works you can then put the application back to it's original folder.

To undo this just delete the row you just made or use as string value 0 and save. Also here you need to update the LaunchServices.

ALTERNATE SOLUTION WITHOUT Xcode (found this one on Mac Geekery)

Locate and open the Info.plist file. By default it will open with TextEditor. Scroll down and add the following exactly as is:

LSUIElement
 1

Then just save and quit TextEditor and you will have to update the LaunchServices (as described above) before this change will take effect.

To undo this just delete the new key in TextEditor, save, quit and update the LaunchServices.