Want to access the Dock faster on the Mac? If you use a hidden Dock in Mac OS X, you can speed up the time it takes to show the Dock with a defaults write command. This command removes the delay from when a cursor is hovered near the Dock location and to when the Dock is displayed, making it show faster when a mouse is hovered at the bottom of the screen. This trick does does not change the animation speed of the Dock sliding in and out itself.

How to Remove the Delay for Auto-Hide & Auto-Show of Dock in MacOS X

Launch the Terminal and enter the following defaults write command:

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0 && killall Dock

The tail end of the command includes killall which will cause the Dock to relaunch in order for changes to take effect. After it has been refreshed, hover over the area of the screen where the Dock is hidden and you’ll notice it shows up immediately, without the fraction of a second delay.

This tip also impacts how to show the Dock in a full screen app, preventing the need for a double-swipe down when in full screen mode, and instead displaying the Dock instantly with a hover in the region.

Return to Default Dock Hide / Show Delay on Mac

To return to the default setting and autohide delay, go back to the Terminal and enter the following command:

defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay && killall Dock

The Dock will again relaunch and settings will return to their default state.

This trick works in all modern versions of Mac OS X, including MacOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, and Mountain Lion.

This is a handy tip from MacWorld, thanks for sending it in Eric