I know that I had read that the next release would provide the ability for the dock to open the existing/running instance of a program, instead of just acting like a launcher, creating a new instance. Has the feature made it into any beta versions yet?

No beta has been released yet... not sure if there will be one either...

Thanks for the quick reply, Jorge! I know you probably hate this question, but I haven't seen it mentioned.. Is there an estimate / date on the next update for the Nexus Dock? I'm really looking forward to that feature, it will finally allow me to do away with my taskbar.

Thanks again!

Brandon

All going well, sometime before the end of this month (August).

I didn't really get what he was asking, maybe because I'm a noob. If I have MS Word open, I can open up several instances of Word by clicking on the Word Icon. You want to be able to right click on, say for example, the running MS Word icon , and choose, "create another instance", that will start Word again, so this makes two or more instances of Word? So you want that option instead of having to find the Word icon, and starting a new instance?

No, what he wants is: if the dock already has a shortcut to Word, and word is already running, then clicking the shortcut will bring the running instance of Word forward instead of opening another instance.

Furthermore, if there is already a shortcut to Word on the dock, then the same will not be duplicated in the right side of the dock displaying the running tasks, the existing shortcut displaying a 'running' indicator instead.

See that's why I was confused, because I have Nexus configured to show my running tasks (because I don't want to use my taskbar) and it shows the application running, so I can just select it from there.

This is indeed possible right now, but then you have mutiple icons of running apps, some in the dock area and some in the taskbar area. With the requested feature you only have one and thus a combined dock and taskbar like in Windows 7!

I'm working on this right now, and while, at first it looked liked something pretty straighforward to implement, it actually isn't. For instance:

I added a 'Do not launch multiple sessions' setting to the Misc.Advanced dialog in the Advanced tab of Preferences.

Now, with that setting enabled, the idea is that if that program is NOT currently running, a new instance is launched, otherwise the window belonging to the currently running instance is brought to the foreground.

The problem is when you already have multiple instances of the same application already running, each with its own window (imagine multiple windows of Internet Explorer)! See? Now you need to add a way to let the user select which window/instance should be brought to the foreground.

Could you make it so middle-click on the icon of a program will instead of bringing the running program to foreground launch a new program instead?

No, that would be confusing. What the Windows 7 taskbar does is launch a new instance if you Left Click with SHIFT pressed, therefore that is what I am going to do.

My idea for this is that when the 'Do not launch multiple sessions' setting is enabled, any shortcut in a dock or shelf that belongs to an application currently running will then act as a task icon would.

What happens will actually depend on other settings and also on how many instances of that application are currently running: if you enable 'live thumbnails', mousing over the icon will open a thumbnail list of all windows belonging to that application, much like it happens when you mouseover a task button in the NextSTART taskbar. Otherwise, you get a tasklist menu showing all the windows that belong to that application.

It's a bit complex because of all the possible setting combinations, but I think it will work out in the end.

Ok, I'm simplifying things a little as I managed to confuse myself, but let me explain first for you guys to understand what is going on too. Keep in mind I'm still trying to figure this out myself (i.e.; best way to implement) so suggestions are welcome.

There are 3 new settings being added:

1. Do Not Launch Multiple Sessions
2. Show Window thumbnails on mouseover.
3. Do Not Show Task Icons for applications already in the dock.

"Do Not Launch Multiple Sessions" is Global in that it applies to all docks and to the Shelf. I was over-complicating this in my last post because I was mixing it with setting 3, but in the end this is what it does:

If an application is not running, it launches it. If the application is running, it brings it to the foreground or, if multiple instances are already running, brings one of the instances to the foreground (usually the last one you launched). If you press SHIFT while left clicking the shortcut, it will launch a new instance regardless.

So, simple and straightforward.

My question is if it would be also useful to add a setting to the Dock Entry Properties to make specific shortcuts override the global setting?

Anyway, on to "Show Window thumbnails on mouseover". Now, this is to make the tasks section of a dock act a bit like the Windows 7/NextSTART Taskbar for displaying live window thumbnails when you mouse over it.

Currently a 'static' window snapshot is displayed for task icons in the dock, unless tasks are groupped, in which case groupped tasks are represented by an icon with the number of instances currently running overlapped.

So, the idea here is that, when this setting is enabled, mousing over a task icon will display a thumbnail of the application (or a group of thumbnails if several instances are running and tasks are groupped) below the icon. You can then interact with the thumbnail(s), just like you do with the NextSTART/Win 7 thumbnails (in fact these thumbnails will animate as smoothly as the window thumbnails in the NextSTART taskbar, so it will be a cool effect).

Now, the problem is setting number 3, of course, the 'Do Not Show Task Icons for applications already in the dock'. With this setting enabled, if you are displaying the tasklist in the dock and you have a shortcut to, say, Firefox, which you then launch, instead of a duplicate Firefox icon appearing in the tasklist section of the dock, the original icon will instead double up as a launch icon and a task icon.

Here is where things get as complicated as I described in my previous post.

I really like ideas 1 and 2. I'm not sure I understand #3. I really, really like the idea of the mouseover showing mini-windows a la Windows 7 taskbar, but I'm curious if you've thought how that will work with animations, such as magnify (like the OSX dock)?



I this situation can't you go back to the shift+left-click behavior? A regular left-click opens the existing instance, a shift+left-click opens a new instance?

Maybe we need diagrams / screen captures before this gets too confusing!

Under Windows 7 imagine you have a IE quick launch icon on the taskbar. You now click on this icon and a session of IE is launched - on previous version of Windows, you would now have two IE icons on the taskbar, one for the QL icon, another the task button. Under Windows 7, you only get the original icon - mouse over it and it now behaves like a taskbar button would.

Now transfer this to the dock: if you are displaying running apps in the dock and you already have a shortcut to IE on the left side of the dock (shortcuts area), when you run it you will NOT get a duplicate icon on the right side of the dock (tasklist area). Instead, the original IE shortcut will now double up as a task icon too.



Just implemented it and, as I imagined, quite well, actually. The window thumbnails appear where the icon label usually would.

Thanks for explaining #3, I understand now. I'm not sure what you're looking for though. If you're asking would it be useful, I think it would be very useful. If you're asking opinions on how to handle that, I think default Win 7 behavior is fine. I think you need to lock the mouseover option to #3 though. If #3 is chosen, #2 is chosen by default. That way if an icon is both launch/task, mouse-over identifies the running instances and allows them to be chosen. If you left-shift and click, a new instance is opened.

The problem I see is if a user is not aware that an application instance is running, and they try launching another instance of the application, they will get frustrated. Forcing the mouse-over window (#2) helps with that.

Does that make any sense?