How to use DockAlly.

Open the disk image and drag DockAlly into your Applications folder. Open it from Applications rather than from the disk image, or macOS will keep running it from a temporary copy.

DockAlly lives in the menu bar. Look for the paw print near the clock.

The key is in your purchase email and starts with DOCKALLY. Paste it into the box on first launch and press Activate.

One key works on up to five Macs. You can manage which machines are using it from the customer portal link in that same email.

macOS will ask for this, and DockAlly cannot do much without it. It is how the app reads where your Dock icons are, so a creature can run to the app you just opened, and how it puts windows back where you saved them.

It reads positions. It does not read your screen, your keystrokes, or anything you type. If you miss the prompt, turn it on in System Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Accessibility.

Open Settings from the paw menu and pick Dock Profiles. You get four to start: Coding, Designing, Studying, and Personal. Personal is a copy of the Dock you already had.

Add apps to a profile, group them so they sit together with a gap between groups, and choose which folder sits next to the Trash. Press Use Now to write it to your real Dock.

Your original Dock is backed up before the first change. Restore Original Dock puts it back exactly, including each folder's own sort order and view.

The switcher sits just past the end of your Dock. Click it to change profile. The Dock has to restart to change, so DockAlly covers that moment: glass tiles wrap each icon, gather into one bar while the Dock reloads behind it, then split over the new icons and fade.

Turn on Switch automatically and DockAlly will notice which apps you have been living in and change profile for you.

A profile can carry your whole setup: apps to launch, a folder to open in Finder, links to open in your browser, a window layout to restore, and a focus timer.

Nothing opens by itself. When the Dock changes, a button appears beside it and waits for you to click. That is deliberate. A profile switch should never hijack your machine.

Set the minutes on a workspace and the timer starts when you press the button. It sits beside the Dock as a ring that empties, with the minutes left next to it. Click it to stop early.

In Settings under Creatures, choose who lives on your Dock, how big they are and how lively. Turn off speech bubbles if you want them quiet, or turn the creatures off entirely.

With them off, profiles, workspaces and the focus timer carry on exactly the same. The creatures are the fun part, not the point.

In Settings under Starting up, turn on Open DockAlly at login. macOS owns this setting, so you can also change it in System Settings, then General, then Login Items.

You bought it once, so you never pay again. Download the app any time from dockally.com, even if you deleted it and the disk image. It is the same file everyone gets.

Lost your key? Sign in with the email you bought with at the customer portal. Your key is there, along with which Macs it is running on, and you can free up a slot if you have run out.