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Pretty much self-explanatory... I just have a bunch of utilities (LaunchBar, DeliBar, Tags, etc...) that I never need to tab to and so are just in the way.

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I don't know about the others, but LaunchBar can be set to run as a background service. Open LaunchBar's preferences, click the Advanced tab and the press the 'Hide Dock Icon...' button at the bottom of the screen. It'll restart LaunchBar and it won't be in the dock any more. – Ian C.♦ Apr 21 '11 at 20:36

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If these applications offer the ability to Hide the Dock Item, and live only in the Menu Bar, then they will not show up in the Command+Tab switcher list. Review the preferences within each application to see if this feature is supported.

Last I knew, there were no stable solutions for hiding Dock Icons without adverse application affects.

I have numerous applications that live in the Menu Bar only, and most have an option to show it if necessary:
Alfred, Sparrow, iMenuMeters, Divvy, Last.fm, Flux, Little Snitch, and Tunnelblick.

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+1 - The application itself has to make a call to the system to say not to draw a dock icon. It's pretty easy and you can request it for the apps that don't support it. It's not super hard, and is a level of fit and polish most purveyors of software will agree is worth the effort to code. – bmike♦ Apr 21 '11 at 20:57
Thanks, didn't realize the connection between the Dock and the cmd-tab switcher. I've found that LaunchBar (as Ian C. mentions above) and Tags support this. Wish Mail, iCal, Evernote and Skype would as I have them open all day, every day and switch to them using only my LaunchBar shortcut. – evanmcd Apr 22 '11 at 13:00

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