Getting To Know the New Stacks

If you’ve already downloaded the new Leopard update, you may or may not have right-clicked on your stacks yet. If you have, you would have noticed a huge improvement. Notice how my stacks are no longer represented by the first icon in the folder but rather by the folder icon itself. To make this change, right click on the stack, then select “Folder” under the “Display as” category.

Another neat addition to Stacks is the ability to choose between different viewing options. Fan is for the smaller folders (a single curving column), and Grid is for larger folders (just a grid of icons on a transparent background). The newest option is List, which is a popup scrollable menu which is used for the largest folders such as your Applications folder.

The default setting for the above viewing options is Automatic which chooses the appropriate setting based on the amount of items you have within the folder, but if you must have the Fan or Grid for the bling-factor, you may choose a different setting.

Finally, there’s the newly added ability to choose how you want the items to be sorted whether it be by Name, Date Modified, etc.

My main complaint about the original Stacks was that the you couldn’t change the icons without some degree of elbow grease (many reviewers seemed to agree). Apparently, we complained loudly enough and Apple listened. All in all, the new Stacks are a brilliant improvement upon an already excellent OS

 
 

Submitted on February 11, 2008 at 10:22 pm - Getting To Know the New Stacks was written by Michael Zhao - There have been 8 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips, Finder Tips, Leopard Tips

8 Responses to “Getting To Know the New Stacks”

1. 
   badolina
   No doubt, this is a huge improvement. But I still wait for smart folders (or searches) in Stacks.
   Say, for example, I want to view documents I opened in the last 3 days within my Documents folder. How do I turn it into a stack? (and yes, I am aware of the Recent Documents stack - but it has way too much stuff). February 12th, 2008 at 7:16 am
   
   
2. 
   James
   I am really pleased with this improvement, the list view is just awesome, makes things more productive.
   
   I did see a hack for the fan stack mode in which it would scroll through all the files like the arrows in list view. I would wish to see this option in fan and grid in the future. February 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
   
   
3. 
   Robb
   I don't have a fan option, anyone else with the same problem? February 12th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
   
   
4. 
   Brad Jasper
   Robb, it looks like fan is only available when the dock is on the bottom. February 12th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
   
   
5. 
   Karina
   I'm glad to see improvements in stacks. Folder display mode is really all I wanted. February 12th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
   
   
6. 
   Robb
   thank you Brad, i was going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with my system!! February 12th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
   
   
7. 
   Michael Zhao
   @ Karina: Me too! :) February 12th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
   
   
8. 
   Gizzzo
   I'm a mac newbie. Just bought my first imac and am exploring its cool features.
   
   My problem: Intro on stacks says there's 2 initial folders: documents and downloads. When I removed the intro pdf, the documents folder also disappeared with it. (I don't know why.)
   
   What happened and how do I restore it?
   
   Thanks. June 19th, 2008 at 8:31 am
   
   

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