[spyderman]

HappyMacMore
Now, I keep two clear icons in my doc to separate programs. I love it because everything looks less cluttered.
That's a great idea, I like it too... now I'm off to create an invisible icon...

[uchuugaka]

I too learned the hard way. OSX doesn't like a dirty desktop unless you have a higher-end machine.
I can feel a difference in responsiveness by adding more than the existing 3 icons to the desktop (my two hard drives, and my kill dock toy, for dock freezes)
get a few windows going and things slow...

[Albertr]

My dock is also always on the right. You will not believe this but long before X as soon as the Aliases came into existence I had a dock on the right of the screen, sort off. I had a long folder with aliases of stuff I had available immediately by just opening the very long folder on the right. Recently I took a folder with aliases I keep on the bottom of the screen and stretched it when open at the bottom of the screen. Voila! Not one Dock but two of them! That is the way I have reduced the clutter in the dock and made programs available instantly even when not in the regular Dock. The secondary "Dock" holds only Aliases of infrequent usage programs such as Lightroom.app alias, iMergePDFs.app alias, Phone Dialler alias, SuperDuper!.app alias, PhotoExpress alias, Snail Mail alias, Toast 6 Titanium.app alias, VueScan.app alias.
Try it, you'll like it too.

[whitedog]

Another tidy desktop solution is Macabinet, a little app that can store any kind and number of files in user definable groups (actually in folders in the Macabinet Folders folder in your user folder). Set up a keyboard shortcut and a window pops out on command, displaying the contents, be they files, folders, applications, aliases, whatever. When you've selected the item you want, click the keyboard shortcut again and it withdraws (on the left or right side of the screen), invisible till you need it again.

[texas_macman]

You might want to try A-DOCK.
A-Dock is a bit like Mac OS X's dock. It acts as an application switcher and an application launcher
It's separated in 3 zones :
your favorite applications you've added by drag & drop (left part)
the other applications running on your computer (middle part)
* the trash (right part)
It's freeware & operates on OS 8.5 - 9.2.2 (also has an OS X version). Get it at http://jerome.fouche...e.fr/ADock.html

Cheers, Tom
Mac Troubleshooting, Maintenance & Tips
http://www.geocities.com/texasmacman/MacTroubleshoot.html

[beagle_11]

Great reply, I wish all fixes and tips could be this succint. I don't know what this guy is complaining about or why he has so many folders on his desktop anyway. I prefer to have everything under document or apps. and have a virtually clean desktop. I wasn't aware of the auto-hide function. It's great because even clean desktops sometimes when windows (web or otherwise) are maximized you have to stop short of the dock, so I've gained an extra inch of screen and have the dock automatically when I need it. This resolves the problem much, much better than the mumbo jumbo that was officially offered. Computers are complicated enough without having to perform another 10 step operation just to clear up screen space especially by filling it with bogus files??? What gives. Here's a hint for the computer world, especially Mac forums. K.I.S.S. Thanks again for the simple but effective OS X hint. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[hitthosekeys]

Nice tip: thank you.
The issue with the dock isn't so much a full desktop as it is a full desktop AND a lot of open application windows. Depending on where you keep your dock, mousing among windows will inconveniently bring up a hidden dock, which I find more annoying than trying to activate a folder that is too close to the dock and accidentally opening an unwanted application (though that's also annoying).
I'm with the people who keep their docks to the right and I try to keep my desktop debris to the left. It would be nice if one could specify that newly created folders and downloads appear in certain places on the desktop, since they seem by nature to congregate on the right and have to be muscled over to the left.
As for desktop management, mine is a no-additional-software needed system. Once a month I make a folder called "[MonthName] Tidy" and sweep everything on the desktop into that. It creates an instant archive of what I'm working on/preoccupied with at a certain time, which is handy when I want to reconstruct an idea or process or go back to an earlier stage of thinking. Sometimes recall isn't about file names, dates or types--it's about context. fwiw.

[glenn]

Maybe a simpler way is just to go to the view options for the finder and have the labels appear on the right side of the folder icons instead of the bottom? This way, if you have snap to grid turned on, you will be able to place your folders slightly closer to the bottom of the screen and still be able to see the first line of their titles. You could also try making your dock smaller and have its magnification larger.

[hsmultimedia]

Since moving to OS X, I have virtually stopped looking at the desktop itself. Rather I look for desktop items in the desktop folder, which is the top item on the toolbar on the left side of finder windows. This way I get a quick overview of what's on the desktop - and I can sort them according to name, kind, date created, size, etc.
Finder > option N > View menu > show toolbar > click "desktop"

( View menu > customize toolbar > "show icon and text" or "show icon only")
I too have placed the dock on the side - on the left - and keep it hidden (who needs to look at all these icons constantly?). Positioning the dock on the side, makes particular sense if you have a wide screen monitor like my iMac.