[chris v]

I finally went 10.5 a few days ago, and am tinkering around. One of the limitations of stacks I'm finding, is that they can only contain the contents of folders.

Is there any way to

A. make a stack of files in different folders, or to make a stack of only some of the files within a folder?

B. Make a stack from a smart folder?

If not, then WTF, Apple?

[Luca Rescigno]

Nope.

Stacks were originally touted as being hugely different from how they turned out. Originally it looked like you could create virtual folders containing files of your choice from anywhere on your hard drive. By the time Leopard was released, though, they got rid of all that functionality, and now Stacks is simply a new (and significantly WORSE) way of displaying the contents of folders in the Dock.

The only way to get a stack containing files from different folders is to create a new folder and fill it with aliases.

[analogika]

Actually, since 10.5.2, I find them *at least* equal to what we had before - both menu-only Dock folders and pop-up windows in OS 9.

[JKT]

B. A stack of a smart folder would be constantly changing so this probably would not be a good use of your average system's resources.

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Actually, since 10.5.2, I find them *at least* equal to what we had before - both menu-only Dock folders and pop-up windows in OS 9.

The problem with Stacks is that you can't always see everything in a folder. If you drag your Applications folder to the dock and click on it, you'll probably be limited to seeing 40 or 50 items in it, and at the bottom right corner, there will be a button labeled "XX more in Applications." Click on that, and it'll take you straight to the folder where you can see the whole thing.

The problem is that there is no way to give a higher priority to frequently used applications when sorting the stack. You're just stuck looking at the first however many items in the folder. I far preferred the menus.

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by Luca Rescigno 

The problem with Stacks is that you can't always see everything in a folder. If you drag your Applications folder to the dock and click on it, you'll probably be limited to seeing 40 or 50 items in it, and at the bottom right corner, there will be a button labeled "XX more in Applications." Click on that, and it'll take you straight to the folder where you can see the whole thing.

The problem is that there is no way to give a higher priority to frequently used applications when sorting the stack. You're just stuck looking at the first however many items in the folder. I far preferred the menus.

You do realize that since 10.5.2, you can right-click a stack and view it as a list instead of the grid, right?

Steve

[JKT]

Luca, that isn't a Stack, that is a Grid (or Fan) view of a folder and is not related to the Stack (jumble of icons, one on top of another) that you see in the Dock.

Also, you can change the order of the view in the Grid/Fan/List view, though it might be nice if there was an option to also sort by 'Most Opened' for the application stack. However, you might want to read this tip about adding various types of 'Favourites' and 'Recent' folders to your Dock, which might go some of the way to mitigating your desires. I have ones for Recent Applications, Recent Documents, Recent Servers, Favourite Volumes and Favourite Items in mine:

macosxhints.com - 10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock

[chris v]

Originally Posted by JKT 

B. A stack of a smart folder would be constantly changing so this probably would not be a good use of your average system's resources.

That would depend on the criteria of the smart folder, (I.e. a Smart Folder of Photographs created between x dates would pretty much never change) and since the smart folder might be constantly changing itself, how would this be any more of a drain than displaying the same folder in the Finder?

Conclusion: Stacks as they exist are worthless and stupid.

If Apple is trying to move away from the folder hierarchy, as it appears they want to do judging by the interface of Smart Folders, Aperture and the iApps, then Stacks do absolutely nothing to further that move.

Just so I don't piss off everyone in the fora, I'll say something positive about 10.5 -- no beach-balling Finder while I mount my .mac share! YAY! And I really like Quick look.

[lpkmckenna]

I love Stacks. I keep my fixed Dock items low, and instead I have Stacks for Apple Apps, 3rd party apps, Utilities, 3rd party utilities, Web apps, Video apps, and Downloads. This method of app organizing and launching rocks.

I would love it if I could navigate Smart folders via Stacks or column view. Regardless, I'm very happy with Stacks.

[Hal Itosis]

Originally Posted by chris v 

I finally went 10.5 a few days ago, and am tinkering around. One of the limitations of stacks I'm finding, is that they can only contain the contents of folders.
Is there any way to
A. make a stack of files in different folders, or to make a stack of only some of the files within a folder?
B. Make a stack from a smart folder?

Did you ever use Launcher in System 7.5? Same principle... but way better.

Just make a folder somewhere (out of the way), and fill it with *aliases* to whatever you like.
Use several folders perhaps: one for apps, one for docs, one for searches, one for other folders.
[add a nice icon to the folder(s), drag to the dock, and: display as 'Folder' ; view contents as 'Grid'.]

Originally Posted by chris v 

If not, then WTF, Apple?

Conclusion: Stacks as they exist are worthless and stupid.

You're a few months late to the Stacks-bashing fest.
Apple already restored hierarchical menus in 10.5.2

But I use more grid-based folders than hierarchical list types, in my Dock.
Stacks (or "Grids" in my right-side Dock) are actually pretty f&%#ing cool.

[chris v]

Originally Posted by Hal Itosis 

You're a few months late to the Stacks-bashing fest.
Apple already restored hierarchical menus in 10.5.2

Yeah, well, I'm a few months late to the 10.5-bashing fest in general, I suppose because I'm a few months late getting it installed. And yes, fortunately, they have at least put back 10.4 dock functionality. That's one of the reasons I'm as late to the game as I am -- I'd been waiting for 10.5.2.

Point is, in 10.4, I could make folders full of aliases and put them in the dock, too. I was hoping that stacks would be a more elegant solution, like if you want something in the stack, no matter where it is in your folder structure, drag it to the stack. Failing that, how about selecting a group of files in a folder and dragging them to the dock, and have that become a stack, or maybe via a contextual menu, or via the Action widget in the Finder toolbar. It seems so promising, and yet falls so short.

So far though, it's all I really have to bash on. My backup drive isn't big enough for Time Machine -- I'm stuck with one duplicate of all my files via mirroring for now, so I can't even really check that out. I'm seeing if I might have a use for spaces. And boy, I'm glad they laid brushed metal to rest. I like being able to view the path at the bottom of the Finder window, but someone should make a nifty hack that replaces the icons with forward slashes to save some space. And as I said above, Quick Look was just about worth the price of admission all by itself.