Add ‘Recent Things’ Stack/Grid to Dock in Leopard

Here’s a command-line hack that allows you to add a “Recent Things” Stack/Grid to the Dock. “Recent Things”; as in Recent Documents, Recent Volumes, Recent Applications, Recent Servers or Recent Items. Here’s the command:defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }' then runkillall DockEnjoy!

Submitted on December 16, 2007 at 10:51 am - Add ‘Recent Things’ Stack/Grid to Dock in Leopard was written by Travis Jeffery - There have been 10 comments - Categorized in General Tips, Intermediate Tips, Leopard Tips, Terminal Tips - Tags: dock, hack, leopard, terminal

10 Responses to “Add ‘Recent Things’ Stack/Grid to Dock in Leopard”

Omer Zach

Wow, I never realized you could have a stack that didn't direct to a folder somewhere in the computer! December 16th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
whosit

When I do it I only get recent apps. How do i get recent documents? I have no idea how to use terminal, so if i am missing an obvious change I am sorry. December 16th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
whosit

NM. figured it out.

A little 'right click' action and you can change it... December 16th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
JRip

jrips-macbook:~ JRip$ killall dock
No matching processes belonging to you were found

what am i doing wrong? can anyone offer some help. I am still pretty new to the mac world March 17th, 2008 at 1:46 am
julian

I can't seem to get this to work. You just copy/paste the command line into the terminal right? Do you do the same for the killall dock part as well? When I do that it says "No matching processes belonging to you were found" ???
And I don't get the stack. March 17th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Andrew in S. Africa

Uh, oh. I did something wrong. I tried the "Add ‘Recent Things’ Stack/Grid to Dock in Leopard" command above and instead of adding a nifty new feature I seem to have totally screwed my new MacBook Pro. The dock won't appear, the dashboard won't come up, I can't alt+tab to switch between apps, Spaces is kaput and my desktop image changes every 3 seconds (no matter delay time what my display settings are)
I'm new to Mac but realize I did something foolish. I closed Terminal and restarted hoping the problem would go away. It didn't. Only AFTER the problems continued did I notice the "undo" command in Terminal. I know, I know. Can someone please help a newbie out? March 19th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Andrew in S. Africa

Never mind. I called Apple Support and they advised me to reinstall OSX (while "preserving user & network settings." 3 hours later my OS was rolled back to the version of Lepoard that shipped with my MacBook Pro but the software installed since (which I don't have with me on this trip to Africa.) My user settings were still intact... as was my Dock glitch. :(

I learned at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6394139&;#6394139 the solution was to "try deleting com.apple.dock.plist and com.apple.dock.db from username/Library/Preferences". I created a folder on my desktop and merely moved the offending corrupted files out (so both were moved but not deleted) and Leopard instantly rebuilt the files and restarted the Dock. I tell you, I was never so happy to see the Dock on the bottom of my screen for the first time in 23 hours!!! March 20th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Travis Jeffery

I use this all the time with my recently used applications. April 27th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Shiro

Hey. I tried it an it worked great. Just highlight, copy and paste into terminal. One question tho, it only comes up in grid form. Is there a way to make it in stacks form? Thanks for any help. April 27th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Travis Jeffery

As far as I know, at least as of right now it's only available in the grid form. April 27th, 2008 at 10:54 pm