Creating stacks for apps

[P-P-S-S]

When i installed my HP printer it installed plenty of icons on the dock. Is there a way of creating stacks in the dock for storing apps in?

 

[CamFire]

A Stack is simply a folder on the special part of the Dock. What you need to do is to create a folder, copy those app's or their aliases to it, and then drag-n-drop this said folder onto this special part of the Dock. Eliminate those app's icons on the Dock by dragging them onto the Desktop.

Make sure you right-click the folder being "stacked" and choose "View Content As" selection.

 

[Tenex]

I've never got into Stacks, keep thinking they're a good idea and never remember to go back. Suppose its because I don't use the Dock. Spaces OTOH couldn't live without!

 

[kdc]

you can add a link to the applications folder to the right hand side of the dock.

go to your finder, navigate to the applications folder (don't use the link in the sidebar) and drag the folder to the right hand side of the dividing line on the dock.

You now have a direct link to your app folder. if you right click (control click if you havent enabled the right button function) you can choose from

Fan
Grid
List
or
Automatic.

I chose list because you can quickly navigate to any app (its like a more streamlined version of windows start menu)


stacks is just the term for how the folder is displayed, either as a folder icon or as a "stack" of icons, i.e. all the contents stacked ontop of each other.

 

[Tenex]

I notice no one has suggested using Spotlight to launch your apps instead of cluttering up your Dock? I use Quicksilver but Spotlight is OK.

 

[kdc]

I think everyone has different methods, as you said.

I never use spaces as expose suits me fine,

I've also never used quicksilver and don't like using keyboard shortucts, If I can get to an app with a few mouse clicks thats fine by me...

I love the dock and expose is the one feature I really miss when I use windows at work...

 

[Chester]

I notice no one has suggested using Spotlight to launch your apps instead of cluttering up your Dock? I use Quicksilver but Spotlight is OK.

I use Spotlight for apps I don't have in my dock, and I try and keep the icon count down for those times I've got a shed load of apps open. Not very often but it does happen. I use the same technique in Vista at work (press the Windows key, search for what I want, it's usually the top entry so simply press ENTER). Quick if you're familiar with the keyboard (as in don't need to look at it too often).

 

[DJACID]

Snow Leopard will come with Stacks for the apps folders,
so more and more ppl will start using stacks this way....

 

[alanrob]

I've been using Stacks for a while in my Dock as I was growing tired of having a Dock that covered the entire bottom of my screen (getting to look like a Windows menu bar!)

So I switched to using Stacks for the most common applications I use and sorted them by type (even created a stack for my Utilities folder ). Now I only have my stacks folders on the Dock and I just put aliases to new apps into the relevant Stacks folder in my user area. Looks great.

 

[Tenex]

I've been using Stacks for a while in my Dock as I was growing tired of having a Dock that covered the entire bottom of my screen (getting to look like a Windows menu bar!)

My Dock fills the bottom of my 23" monitor BUT that's only for aesthetics. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to autohide it as it just eats up screen real estate. After all mousing over it makes it reappear having it in view all the time is pointless?

 

[alanrob]

My Dock fills the bottom of my 23" monitor BUT that's only for aesthetics. I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to autohide it as it just eats up screen real estate. After all mousing over it makes it reappear having it in view all the time is pointless?

I do that as well, just hate the look of all those apps etc clogging up my Dock. Just like the Start menu on my old PC. I was constantly cleaning that up too.
I have eight icons (when nothings running) on my Dock - Finder, Network apps, Virtual Machines, Video, Common apps, Utilities and Recent Applications.
Looks very neat and tidy to me and I also have all the app icons clustered behind the front icon so it looks like they are all sitting inside a box
Just like on this site.