The Launchpad on your Mac allows you to quickly find and launch apps from a single place. You can open it from the dock and then click on the app icons to launch them and even search for the apps that you think are a few screens away. Any new app that you add to the Applications folder automatically appears in the Launchpad
While the Launchpad is already loaded with all of the features you would need for your daily use, it can also be customized. Yes, you can now change how many rows and columns are displayed on the Launchpad screen, and that changes the number of apps that appear on a single screen. Doing so only requires the Terminal app.
The following method lets you change the number of rows and columns for apps that appear in the Launchpad.
Changing the Launchpad Layout on a Mac
Here is how my current Launchpad layout looks. I am going to change it to something else.
1. Launch the Terminal app from your Launchpad.
2. When Terminal launches, type in the following command and press Enter:
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int ColNum; defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int RowNum
You can specify the number of rows and columns that should appear in the Launchpad. Just change “RowNum” to the number of rows you wish to have and “ColNum” to the number of columns you would like to have.
I am changing my Launchpad’s layout to show four columns and four rows.
3. After executing the above command, you will need to reset the Launchpad. Enter the following command in Terminal and press Enter.
defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE
4. You will then also be required to kill the dock by using the following command in Terminal:
killall Dock
5. When that is done the Launchpad will refresh and then open. You will notice that it now only has the rows and columns that you had specified in the command. It has overridden the default values and is now using the values specified by you.
This will help you customize your favourite go-to place on your Mac with your own values.
If you did not like the new layout and you would like to go back to what it was before, you can do so by just changing the values of the rows and columns in the above command to what you had before.
Conclusion
If you would like to have only a few or a few more apps than the current number that appear on your Launchpad screen on your Mac, the above guide should help you.
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Mahesh Makvana
Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who’s written thousands of posts about various tech topics on various sites. He specializes in writing about Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android tech posts. He’s been into the field for last eight years and hasn’t spent a single day without tinkering around his devices.
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