How to add a quick-access app launcher to the MacOS dock

The MacOS desktop interface is very user-friendly and makes it easy to work with your applications. With each iteration of the desktop, it gets better and better. 

Those of you who've been working with MacOS for a while have probably grown accustomed to using a combination of dock icons and Launchpad to open your installed applications.

There's another way to take on this task, one that might feel a bit more traditional to users who prefer multiple ways to open their applications. 

This alternative method is similar to Launchpad, without the search option. In other words, it's just a straightforward application menu. 

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This might seem redundant, but I've found it helpful because it places an app menu at both ends of the MacOS Dock, which means you can access your installed apps from either the left or right side of the display for a more efficient workflow.

The feature is built into MacOS but isn't enabled by default. I'm going to show you how to add this app launcher to the MacOS dock.

How to add a quick-access app launcher to the MacOS dock

Adding this menu to the Dock is a rather hidden affair. You won't find it in System Preferences or the Dock Settings. In fact, I happened upon it rather by accident and I'm glad I did because I prefer to use this method of launching apps over Launchpad.

How do you add it? It's quite simple (once you know how).

Requirements

The only thing you'll need for this is a MacOS device like a MacBook Pro with an updated version of the operating system. I will be demonstrating with MacOS Ventura (v13.0). That's it. Let's get this menu added to the Dock.

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And that's all there is to adding yet another method of opening applications in MacOS. Give this App Launcher a try and see if it doesn't either become your go-to app launcher or just a means of supplementing Launchpad. Either way, this trick should come in handy.

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