[dzp111]

The year will be 2010-something, and some of us will say: "Hey! remember Stacks, in 2007? Wasn't that a riot?

: )

Heck, I'm already chuckling.

[mjankor]

I hope that stacks becomes what we saw in early builds and will still be used in 2010, however I sure will be laughing at this version of stacks.

It reminds me of 10.0 with the ridiculous transparencies and other peculiarities. A sign of great potential while at the same time being a really horrible implementation.

[CharlesS]

I think people are laughing at them now.

[larrinski]

Originally Posted by dzp111 

The year will be 2010-something, and some of us will say: "Hey! remember Stacks, in 2007? Wasn't that a riot?

: )

Heck, I'm already chuckling.

I may be sticking my neck out on this one, but I like the grid feature on my Downloads folder. Yes, it may a little eye candy, but it is nice to quickly look in a folder without opening up the finder...

[OliverTwist]

Stacks aren't a total loss. Compared to docked folders, they save you two clicks: single-click to launch an item instead of double-click, and no need to close the Finder window afterwards. It would be nicer if they added a vertical scroll bar to the Grid view so you could fit ALL contents in the stack.

Then again, I just hide my dock and use Spotlight for everything, so I don't care either way.

[Brass]

It's the icon(s) on the Dock that are the primary problem with stacks. The same folder/stack, can change icon periodically (as the folder content changes), and the icon can be very misleading, even if it doesn't change.

Another big problem with them, is that you can no longer just click on the icon to open the folder. You've got to right click and then show in Finder then open, or click, move mouse all the way to the top, click. Dumb.

The overall idea is good (eg, has potential to save desktop clutter, and improve organisation), but as the OP suggests, it was poorly implemented.

[L'enfanTerrible]

Oliver is on to something, it would be a great implementation of stacks if you could get perhaps a slimmed down version of the finder, with a sidebar and column view. You would have to double click to open something, but it would anchor the finder for easy access..

Just thinkin...

[Wiskedjak]

I don't get what the big deal is. I've been doing this forever with my dock folders just by right-clicking on them

[jasonsRX7]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak 

I don't get what the big deal is. I've been doing this forever with my dock folders just by right-clicking on them

Well, I've never seen anything more complicated in my life. It's like a column view list with icons in it, how can you possibly make sense of that??? And your Applications folder icon doesn't look like the Address Book icon. How are you supposed to know that it is your Applications folder if it doesn't look like an Address Book?

[workerbee]

Originally Posted by jasonsRX7 

Well, I've never seen anything more complicated in my life. It's like a column view list with icons in it, how can you possibly make sense of that??? And your Applications folder icon doesn't look like the Address Book icon. How are you supposed to know that it is your Applications folder if it doesn't look like an Address Book?

Well said.
On the other hand, looking at what I get today in the Dock, > > .

Nice prophesy about the laughing, though... we'll definitely laugh at and about Stacks, but not (only) in 2010.

[mjankor]

rofl rofl rofl.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by OliverTwist 

Stacks aren't a total loss. Compared to docked folders, they save you two clicks: single-click to launch an item instead of double-click, and no need to close the Finder window afterwards.

Oh so clueless.

[MartiNZ]

Heh, good times.

I now have just two stacks, Home and Work, each with 6 items, few enough so they still fan out, and if I'm bored I can entertain myself by fanning and unfanning for a while. I'll keep everyone posted with my progress .

It did annoy me in Tiger that those three items at the bottom of the list appeared, but that was easily fixed through editing the dock menus file; that and the invisible files that appeared in the root directory .. again easily fixed. What to fix now with Stacks ... where to start!

Meantime, I'll join in the .

[thunderous_funker]

Originally Posted by Brass 

It's the icon(s) on the Dock that are the primary problem with stacks. The same folder/stack, can change icon periodically (as the folder content changes), and the icon can be very misleading, even if it doesn't change.

Another big problem with them, is that you can no longer just click on the icon to open the folder. You've got to right click and then show in Finder then open, or click, move mouse all the way to the top, click. Dumb.

The overall idea is good (eg, has potential to save desktop clutter, and improve organisation), but as the OP suggests, it was poorly implemented.

QFT

[tuqqer]

There are many ways to use the Dock. For the way my brain works, it's hard to beat the speed and efficiency of this:

[Geobunny]

Oh goodie, another thread! Can I play?

Having replaced the default folder icons with those from 10.4 and having gone back to the Dock from pre-WWDC '07 (oh the irony of how we whinged when ADC members were denied it for weeks), I can at last join the gaggle of laughter at stacks seeing as how they affect me no more

[dzp111]

This just occurred to me..

I had a friend over last night (Windows user all his life). I gave him a quick tour of Leopard.

Then I showed him the stacks at which point he said "WOW! That is sooo cool!"

So there it is.


: )

[Geobunny]

Originally Posted by dzp111 

Then I showed him the stacks at which point he said "WOW! That is sooo cool!"

Oh yeah, stacks are cool to look at - most of Mac OS X is cool to look at. It's just a PITA when the looky-feely camp beats the functionality camp in an important rock-paper-scissors meeting at Apple HQ.

In all honesty I do have to concede that I appreciated the "sort by date added" option (esp. in my downloads folder), which for some reason hasn't made it into any of the normal Finder window view options.

[ibnabouna]

I know many of you liked the hierarchical folders in the Dock, but for me--a person who uses Spotlight to find everything--Stacks is quite enjoyable.

The hierarchical file system as we know it is coming to an end. I believe future operating systems will use different logic to abstract files and the relations between them. Viewed this way, Apple's Stacks feature may be a step ahead and not necessarily a step backwards.

[Big Mac]

1. It looks like ass, subjectively.

2. It functions like ass, objectively.

3. Other than perhaps the sorting option, how in the world is better than classic Dock menus?

[Dakarʒ]

How does it act when you have a ridiculous amount of items in a folder? Let's say like 100-200.

[Big Mac]

Truncated grid across the whole screen.

[Geobunny]

Badly. You get the first 80 items and then a curvy arrow with the title "XX Mo...Finder" telling you how many more icons you'll be able to see in a Finder window.

[::maroma::]

I think something that Apple can (and should) add to Stacks is simply the ability to right-click on a Stack and get the "old style" of list of that particular folder.

That, and the ability to turn off the icon changing thing.

If they make those 2 changes I think Stacks will live on.

[Big Mac]

So Geo, there's no developer build with a version of the good Dock that also supports Spaces, right?

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Truncated grid across the whole screen.

That doesn't sound too bad.

Originally Posted by Geobunny 

Badly. You get the first 80 items and then a curvy arrow with the title "XX Mo...Finder" telling you how many more icons you'll be able to see in a Finder window.

That does.

Though I guess from an objective standpoint, that's still an improvement over navigating a large folder from the dock previously.

Except for the whole clicking to open the finder window thing.

[Geobunny]

Originally Posted by Big Mac

So Geo, there's no developer build with a version of the good Dock that also supports Spaces, right?

What makes you say that

[OliverTwist]

Originally Posted by Brass 

It's the icon(s) on the Dock that are the primary problem with stacks. The same folder/stack, can change icon periodically (as the folder content changes), and the icon can be very misleading, even if it doesn't change.

Agreed - I forgot to mention the obviously ridiculous stack icons.

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Oh so clueless.

?

[Big Mac]

Oliver, apparently you don't know about classic Dock menus because you said that you only used Docked folders to open Finder windows.

[OliverTwist]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Oliver, apparently you don't know about classic Dock menus because you said that you only used Docked folders to open Finder windows.

Is that what this is about? You came in this thread specifically to be an ass to me? Are you starman under a new name or something? Seriously, get a life. I forgot about the contextual menu - sue me for my transgressions.

[MindFad]

Oh yay, another stacks thread.

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by OliverTwist 

Is that what this is about? You came in this thread specifically to be an ass to me? Are you starman under a new name or something? Seriously, get a life. I forgot about the contextual menu - sue me for my transgressions.

I responded to you because it seems that many people like Stacks only because they had no idea about Dock folder menus, a feature that is far superior and that has existed for the last six years. It's just infuriating, especially after everything that's been written on the subject around here.

[Kerrigan]

I think that the one and only area where I see stacks as being more convenient than traditional menu navigation is in the instance of downloading files. That way, for the average user, the desktop won't get cluttered up with all sorts of icons, and you can easily see what has happened to your most recent download, since it's right in your dock. So in this regard, stacks is a good feature. For everything else though, it's just cluttered and strange.

[fisherKing]

options, apple should give us options. for someone who likes it: stacks. for the rest of us, hierarchal menus.
i for one spent a lot of time organizing my life (ie my mac) into folders,subfolders. naming files correctly (except photos, easy to deal with in iphoto, or column view, or coverflow).

losing the ability to navigate thru levels of folders is a drag.

so...am waiting for fruitmenu, my fave navigation app.

[Big Mac]

That's exactly what we've been asking for. (See Stacks Usability thread.) Unfortunately, much like the request to have a clean separation between spatial and browser Finder modes, Apple would probably prefer we switch to Windows instead of giving us the simple things we request.

[rubaiyat]

Originally Posted by dzp111 

This just occurred to me..

I had a friend over last night (Windows user all his life). I gave him a quick tour of Leopard.

Then I showed him the stacks at which point he said "WOW! That is sooo cool!"

So there it is.


: )

There you have it, confirmation it is a piece of ****!

[rubaiyat]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

That's exactly what we've been asking for. (See Stacks Usability thread.) Unfortunately, much like the request to have a clean separation between spatial and browser Finder modes, Apple would probably prefer we switch to Windows instead of giving us the simple things we request.

Neatly put!

[Brass]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan 

I think that the one and only area where I see stacks as being more convenient than traditional menu navigation is in the instance of downloading files. That way, for the average user, the desktop won't get cluttered up with all sorts of icons, and you can easily see what has happened to your most recent download, since it's right in your dock. So in this regard, stacks is a good feature. For everything else though, it's just cluttered and strange.

Sort of agree with you, but downloads has nothing to do with stacks. The downloads go to a default folder. That folder is (by default) on the Dock. In Leopard, that is represented by a Stack. In Tiger (if you'd done it in Tiger - which you could, it just wasn't the default) it would have been represented by a folder.

The Tiger implementation was still superior to the Leopard one for most users.

Leopard did well to clean up the desktop clutter by implementing a download folder and having it on the Dock. Stacks did nothing to improve Desktop clutter. This is marketing bunk from Apple.

[opus_az]

Originally Posted by tuqqer 

There are many ways to use the Dock. For the way my brain works, it's hard to beat the speed and efficiency of this:

Dang, that's nice. Wish I knew about that when I had Tiger. I don't see a way to do that in Leopard. (warning: noob alert)

[Big Mac]

It's amazing so many people apparently missed the feature all those years.

[Kevin]

I like stacks for certain things. I don't think stacks are bad. I think not giving us a choice between stacks, and having a list view like the screenshot above is however bad.

So in general stacks aren't bad. Lack of choice is however.

I used the list in the dock as a Apple menu replacement since before the public beta days. It was were I kept apps I used, but not all the time. It's also where I keep all my document templates for InDesign. And stacks simply don't work in that way. What Apple needs to do is offer the ability to have a stack folder, or a regular folder.

[Krusty]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

What Apple needs to do is offer the ability to have a stack folder, or a regular folder.

Precisely .... problem solved. I don't hate stacks, but there are some folders I would love to just leave as s d@mn folder, y'know. Some things are better found through hiearchy than spotlight ... especially if you don't know the name of what you are looking for.

The fanning behavior becomes downright annoying when it has more than a few items.

[MOTHERWELL]

Originally Posted by opus_az 

Dang, that's nice. Wish I knew about that when I had Tiger. I don't see a way to do that in Leopard. (warning: noob alert)

Opus I said the same thing and I am definitely not a noob. I wish we could do that it leopard. It would beat these aliases I have on my desktop.

[Krusty]

Originally Posted by MOTHERWELL 

Opus I said the same thing and I am definitely not a noob. I wish we could do that it leopard. It would beat these aliases I have on my desktop.

Wow, I'm sorta surprised more people didn't know about this .... it's one of the key elements of the Mac OS and the reason I've never had any desktop shortcuts -- just a folder in the dock straight to my Home and Applications folders (and any other folder I needed to access directly and traverse rapidly) that are always available and always on top. This ability to make a folder into an instant, navigable hierarchy has been around since way back in the Classic Mac OS days (via the Apple Menu at that time). I wonder if people who used Macs prior to OS X are more prone to find and use this feature since it roughly duplicated functionality of the old Apple Menu. I REALLY do miss being able to burrow down directly to what I need, 3 or 4 levels deep, without having to open finder windows along the way .... now our only option is to go one level deep, open that folder in a finder window and then go through window after window on the way down

[TETENAL]

Discoverability of the stacks feature is apparently way better. Even if Apple had default folders in the Dock in Tiger many user wouldn't have discovered the popup menu.

[.Neo]

Wow we actually need a second thread about this?

[Big Mac]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

Discoverability of the stacks feature is apparently way better. Even if Apple had default folders in the Dock in Tiger many user wouldn't have discovered the popup menu.

Sure, discovery is a lot better if Apple promotes the feature all over the place. Apple never did that for Dock folders before.

[TETENAL]

It's way better including for people who have never seen Apple's marketing material.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

It's way better including for people who have never seen Apple's marketing material.

What mythical creatures are you speaking of? People who have never seen Apple's marketing material?

Having said that, the previous functionality could be more discoverable without going all the way to Stacks. Discovery is moot in light of Stacks' other usability issues.

[dru]

Originally Posted by mjankor 

I hope that stacks becomes what we saw in early builds and will still be used in 2010, however I sure will be laughing at this version of stacks.

How were they in early builds?