How to Change Launchpad Icon Grid Layout in Mac OS X

Change the Launchpad grid icon count in Mac OS X

Launchpad is the quick application launcher available from the Mac OS X Dock and a keystroke that looks quite a bit like the Homescreen of iOS. By default, the Launchpad app grid usually displays icons in 7 rows and 5 columns of apps, but with a little adjustment from the command line of OS X you can switch and customize the Launchpad icon grid to any number of apps you’d like to see on the Mac.

This uses the command line and defaults strings to customize the Launchpad grid layout, if you’re not comfortable with Terminal you’re probably better off leaving this alone and enjoying the default Launchpad app icon grid. We’ll combine the commands into a single syntax string for ease of use first, but you can break them apart as we show you a bit further below.

How to Adjust the Icon Grid Count of Launchpad in Mac OS X

    1. Open the Terminal found in /Applications/Utilities/ and enter the following command syntax, replacing the X numbers for the appropriate columns and grid icon counts

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int X;defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int X;defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock

For example, to set the Launchpad grid to 3×5 you’d use the following syntax:
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 5;defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 3;defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock

  1. Hit Return and wait for the Dock and Launchpad to refresh
  2. Open Launchpad as usual to see the layout change

The settings change is immediate after the Dock refreshes:

Change the Launchpad grid icon count in Mac OS X

You can also cram many icons onto screen with this if desired:

Change Launchpad icon count in Mac OS X

If you want to return to the default setting, just change the column and row counts back to what yours was originally. The default on my MacBook Pro Retina display is a 5 x 7 grid, but yours may be different depending on screen size and screen resolution.

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 7;defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 5;defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock

Customize Launchpad grid icon layout

The commands for customizing the Launchpad layout can also be split apart if desired like so:

Set the Launchpad Column Icon Count

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 3

Set the Launchpad Row App Icon Count

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 4

Reset Launchpad

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;

Relaunch the Dock with killall

killall Dock

You can also choose to just set a custom row or just a custom column count, but you must reset and refresh the Launchpad, and finally killall Dock to relaunch the Dock in Mac OS X and have the changes to take effect regardless of how you customize it.

Thanks to LifeHacker for the neat find.

[Source:- osxdaily]