Dash 6: Now Available

TL;DR: Download Dash 6 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 6 is the latest version of Dash and comes with a new interface design and lots of new features.

Dash 6 is a paid upgrade ($19.99 + VAT). To upgrade, download Dash 6 and add your existing Dash license in Preferences > Purchase and you’ll be prompted to upgrade.

Anyone that purchased Dash after the 15th of November 2020 gets to upgrade for free.

New Interface


  • The interface was updated to feel more native, especially in macOS Big Sur
  • The tab bar has been completely redesigned to use a new full-width style and also hide when only one tab is open
  • New button icons in the main window and preferences

Full-text Search Support

The most requested feature is here. I think I finally found a way to make full-text search fit well within Dash, alongside the results coming from the docset index.

Some highlights:

  • Full-text search is opt-in. You have to manually enable it for the docsets you want, by opening the docsets in the docset browser and choosing “Enable full-text search”
    • Note: some docsets do not support full-text search. If you’d like to enable full-text search in one of these docsets, please contact me with some sample search queries where full-text search would help
    • Docset authors can choose to have full-text search enabled by default for their docsets using the DashDocSetDefaultFTSEnabled key in Info.plist
  • Search time does not increase if you have full-text search enabled, but the docset’s disk usage increases by 50% on average
  • Full-text search results are filtered against the main index results, so you won’t get duplicate results or have your search cluttered by irrelevant results

Search Filters

Press the button shown at the top right of search results or CTRL+F to filter your search results further, by type or docset.

Apple Silicon Support

Supporting Apple Silicon required pressing one checkbox in Xcode 12 and then spend weeks fixing all the interface issues caused by linking against the Big Sur SDK.

Other Changes


  • You can now choose if you want the Light or Dark appearance, separate from your system’s settings
  • The Go docset repo was updated to use pkg.go.dev and will now also grab the docs for all subpackages

Download Dash 6

Dash 6 is a paid upgrade ($19.99 + VAT), but it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.