ShortcutDock Favourites Bar: The Power User Guide

The Favourites bar sits at the bottom of every ShortcutDock dropdown view. It's always visible, no matter which group you're browsing. Think of it as a persistent "hot row" for the apps you can't live without. Here's how to make the most of it.

What Goes in the Favourites Bar?

Your Favourites bar should contain the apps you open most frequently - the ones you launch 5+ times per day. These are the apps that should be exactly two clicks away: click the menu bar icon, click the favourite. No scanning, no group switching, no searching.

Think about which apps you reach for instinctively:

Your primary browser - the one you use for work, not the one you occasionally test in
Your code editor or main work app - VS Code, Figma, Excel, whatever you spend hours in
Your messaging app - Slack, Teams, Discord, Messages
Terminal - if you're a developer, this should definitely be a favourite
Finder - for file management
System Settings - surprisingly useful to have instant access to
Notes or your writing app - for quick capture
Music - Spotify, Apple Music, or whatever keeps you focused

How to Add Favourites

Open ShortcutDock from the menu bar
Find the app you want to favourite in any group or the "All Apps" view
Right-click (or Control-click) the app icon
Select "Add to Favourites"

The app immediately appears in the Favourites bar at the bottom of the dropdown. You can reorder favourites by dragging them left and right.

The Two-Click Promise

Without Favourites, launching your most-used app requires: click menu bar icon → navigate to the right group → scan for the app → click. That's effectively 3–4 actions. With Favourites, it's: click menu bar icon → click the app. Two clicks. Every time. Guaranteed.

That might not sound like a big difference, but consider the numbers:

Average app launches per day: 50+
Time saved per launch with Favourites: 2–3 seconds
Daily time saved: 2–3 minutes
Monthly time saved: 1+ hours

More importantly, it's not just about time - it's about cognitive load. Two clicks with zero decision-making is fundamentally different from scanning a grid of icons. Your brain doesn't have to work to find the app; it's always in the same place.

Rotation Strategy

Your Favourites should evolve with your work. If you're in a design-heavy phase, swap in Figma and Pixelmator. If you're heads-down coding, swap in Terminal and GitHub Desktop. Review your Favourites monthly and ask: "Am I actually using all of these every day?"

The Favourites bar works best when it contains 6–8 apps. Fewer than 6 and you're underutilising it. More than 10 and it starts to feel crowded, defeating the purpose of quick recognition.

Combined With Groups

The real power emerges when you combine Favourites with Groups. Use Groups for context switching (opening your "Design" or "Dev" toolkit) and Favourites for individual app launching (the apps you need regardless of context).

This two-tier system means you never need the Dock again. Groups handle batch workflows. Favourites handle instant access. Together, they cover every app-launching scenario faster than any alternative.