Stacks Reference

History
Stacks was introduced as a Leopard Dock extension for folder handling. Stacks was patented about 15 years ago by Apple and was called Piles. A Pile is "a loose grouping of documents. Its visual representation is an overlay of all the documents within the pile, one on top of the other, rotated to varying degrees...a pile on the desktop looked just like a pile on your real desktop."

It also appears that the beta release of Leopard delivered a slightly different Stacks solution that the final release did.


Controversy
Flat or hierarchical? Applications or documents? Big or small?

Comparing Tiger to Leopard, Stacks has replaced the simple pop-up folder list in the Dock with a more visually-appealing, flattened version that appears to be a true Dock extension. Some Leopard users are upset with the current implementation of Stacks, since hierarchical menus are no longer possible as they were under Tiger. It is rumored that Leopard update 10.5.2 will add hierarchical views as a third Stack view option.

Along with the hierarchy debate, functionality regarding document handling has been questioned. According to Apple documentation, the Dock "provides easy access to some of the Apple applications on your Mac...displays which applications are currently running, and holds windows in their minimized state. It's also the place to find the Trash...For your convenience, you can add your own applications, files, and folders to the Dock" It appears that applications, files and folders are not a major area of concern for the Dock or Stacks. Quick View and Cover Flow are not available in Stacks.

Only so many items can be displayed in a stack. You cannot scroll through all items in a stack, only the items that are displayed. Also, Stacks do not have a built-in Spotlight for searching. In its current form, fewer items in a Stack is better.


How to Use
Clicking and dragging a folder to the right-hand side of the dock will create a symbolic link to the folder and display the contents as a Stack. Hidden folders such as Trash and network shares can also be viewed as a Stack. The user may then launch applications from the Stack. Items can also be dragged in and out of a Stack. The downloads stack will reflect download status.

Stacks has tight integration with the Finder. To open a Stack folder in Finder, a user can:

• Click and hold on the stack, wait for the pop-up menu to appear, then move up and highlight "Open ..."
• Right-click a Stacks folder and selecting "Show in Finder", or
  
• Hold the command key on the keyboard and click on a Stack to open the Stack's folder in Finder. Doing the same thing on a folder within a stack will open that folder as well.

While viewing a stack, an item will be selected when typing the first letter of its name. Arrow keys on the keyboard can also be used to navigate a stack, but the mouse scroll wheel/button for Stack item selection is not supported yet.


Enhancements
Most Stacks enhancements involve changing Stack icons, some sites are also providing instructions on how to create custom Stack icons. Other enhancements include adding a recent items stack, enabling mouse-over Stack item selection, and clearing working Stacks. Utilities are also enhancing Stacks navigation. Stack-like solutions are appearing on the iPhone and Microsoft Windows.


Summary
Although there is still controversy over whether or not Stacks is useful in its current state, some users are embracing its functionality as a good way to enable application and document favorite categorization.

Leopard Stacks...no hierarchy needed

The following entry was originally posted on a MacLife forum.

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One of the things that really gets under my skin is the "Start" button in Windows, having to navigate multiple levels of hierarchy just to start an application. I am not going to use any utility in OS X that attempts to emulate that.

DockFun! was a great Tiger utility, it dynamically changes the OS X Dock based on categories that are setup in advance. I had multiple docks setup on my system with various applications, including a home dock, a work dock, a video project dock, etc. The docks did not necessarily reflect the application hierarchy that was setup in the Applications folder. My goal was to keep every doc as flat as possible, to enable quick application launching.

Unfortunately, DockFun! is not compatible with Leopard Stacks, but I was able to setup similar functionality using Stacks:

1. Create a subfolder in the Applications folder and name it "Stacks".
2. Within the Stacks folder, create a subfolder for every application category required (e.g. "home", "work", "video projects").
3. Copy application aliases (click-and-drag with command-alt) to each of the category folders (those created in step 2).
4. Add custom overlay drawers to the category folders as shown here.
5. Click and drag the category folders onto the dock.

I currently have 13 favorite applications in my dock along with 14 separate stacks/categories that are easily recognizable and quick to navigate.

Is Stacks perfect? No, but it is a great start. For some reason, Stacks in the beta release of Leopard looked different than it did in the final release. I would love to be able to scroll through all Stack items using my mouse scroll button, regardless of how items are in each Stack.