digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About

Fixing OS X Leopard's Stacks with overlaying icons

t.ecksdee.org — "Stacks" was Leopard's only non-eyecandy change to the dock, and it had the potential to be pretty handy. However the way stacks are represented on the Dock (by top icon) completely ruins it. Here is the damn fine-looking solution (although this is how it should have been from the beginning).

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 10, 2007

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

103 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • TheNik, on 11/13/2007, -0/+51These look fantastic but I wish there were a more efficient way of using them.
    Also - did Digg just relapse a day? It seems like I've seen all of the stories under this one earlier.
  • ploke, on 11/13/2007, -0/+33but now when you open the stack the icon has its own place, which looks stupid. The worst part is that when in fan mode the icon is the first icon you can click on.
    In the dock it looks excellent though
  • inactive, on 11/12/2007, -1/+22Why didn't Apple do this from the start?!?!?! This makes so much more sense; its both eycandy, and funtional.
  • AQUANETA, on 11/11/2007, -2/+20it breaks in 13 years
  • asquare, on 11/13/2007, -0/+16Same here. The stories seem to be ones from earlier this week.
  • ChromaVita, on 11/11/2007, -2/+17Wow those look great.
  • wentwj, on 11/11/2007, -0/+10A stacks a stack, but the point is right now it's IMPOSSIBLE to differentiate your stacks unless you remember the exact order. Some graphical way that tells me this stack of folders is my Documents, and this stack of folders id my Downloads, is VERY helpful
  • REBELinBLUE, on 11/11/2007, -0/+10Unfortunately that doesn't work, not does SetFile -a V WhateverIcon it hides it in the dock as well as finder and the stack view. I'm playing around to see if I can find a default in com.apple.dock to allow hidden files to be shown in the dock, but so far no luck
  • Firehed, on 11/12/2007, -3/+12Speak for yourself. While the stacks icons could use a permanent solution along these lines (though I can't claim it's been a problem for me, seeing as I don't have a half-dozen stacks), I quite like the look of the new menu bar. They should have _options_ so the holier-than-thou types like yourself don't ruin it for everyone.
  • yanked, on 11/11/2007, -0/+8The file name has spaces before and afterwards. So for the Downloads icon, you would type:

    touch -mt 202001010101.01 " Download "
  • dansmeek, on 11/11/2007, -2/+91987 called. It wants it's Y2K scare tactic back :P
  • REBELinBLUE, on 11/12/2007, -1/+8Or you could wrap your mind around that fact that other people might not like the way it works currently and preferred it the way Apple originally had it in some of the developer builds.
  • crazybrit, on 11/11/2007, -0/+7what the ***** are you talking about?
  • ThankTheCheese, on 11/11/2007, -0/+6http://www.duggmirror.com/apple/Fixing_OS_X_Leopar ...
  • DephexTwin, on 11/13/2007, -0/+5HOLY *****... I DIDN'T GET IT BEFORE. THANKS. YOU BLEW MY MIND.
  • AquaOSX, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5Not perfect, but fairly brilliant. Now, if only Apple will build something like this into the dock, give us a stack option to "view as menu," and let us enable the 2D dock via a preference panel. Little 3rd party fixes are great and all, but I'd like to see these solutions incorporated into the OS for free.
  • REBELinBLUE, on 11/13/2007, -0/+5I've just realised a problem with this. If you have it set to date modified rather than date added the download stack won't work correctly. Safari saves the file with the modified date the server sends in the header, and so the latest download won't always appear at the front (or just behind the tray icon). For example I just downloaded PhpDocumentor which has a last modified date of "Monday, 23 July 2007" and so it doesn't appear in the downloads stack fan view at all because it is older than other downloads. :( Can't seem to find a way to set the "added" date on the icon rather than the modified date, I'm assuming this is some HFS attribute as I don't think the touch command can do that
  • tiltedfish, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5Actually, after spending twenty minutes with it, I have to admit that having the icon as the first thing isn't the worst thing in the world. It's a really pretty animation effect and it makes sure that you know what stack is open (because, once again, Apple gives you no damned visual indicator of which stack is open unless you've memorized the contents of all the stacks)
  • burstaneurysm, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6I hate stacks. I want list view back!
  • thejokell, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5I wonder if there is a way to rename it to ".WhateverIcon" (to hide the icon from the system) but keep the icon as the stack picture... If so I haven't been able to do it.
  • macdude20, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4It doesn't show up if you hide it.
  • ChromaVita, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4I'm sure someone will create an application to add these and make them not show up in stacks. If not, Apple might do something about it.
  • beeballr, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5Great find! The new dock is still growing on me, but this definitely helps. Also, you can have the stacks sort by name since the icons have a space at the beginning and end of the folder name. Of course the only drawback with this... is if you name your files with spaces in the beginning. Lastly, I had to log out (reboot for single users) and back in for the changes to take effect.
  • totorototoro, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5I'm just waiting for Candybar to replace those default folders :p
  • avatarpalin, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5*FIX* for the Application dock folder we all used to have being turned into a stack that just doesn't work for more than 20 apps

    1:Make an Alias of the applications folder, put it anywhere you want I made a folder called aliases in my home folder for I think this won't be the only folder I will do this with.
    2: Drag that alias to the dock right side of the runway strip, and presto .. You have your old folder that will open in the finder window like before..


  • uberamd, on 11/12/2007, -1/+5to fix the problem people are having with text file creation, rename the file from " Download " to "Download" then do the touch command.
  • pixelperfect, on 11/13/2007, -0/+3Notice the two spaces in " Download "? Obviously not ...
  • Overcyn, on 11/11/2007, -1/+4hmmm. i cant get it to work. when i try to change the date of the downloads icon it creates a plain text file of same name and specified date. can anyone help?

    the icons look awesome though. the embossed folders from apple are freakin impossible to differentiate.
  • dansmeek, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3well the solution you describe is identical (almost) to this solution. Except that *this* solution has real pretty icons that show not only the "Application" icon, but also the first file in the folder.
  • uberamd, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3The files are originally named "[SPACE]Download[SPACE]" (obviously it isnt really [SPACE] but an actual space), so remove the extra spaces and then do the touch command and it works like a charm.
  • Desimat0r, on 11/12/2007, -2/+5Those with Leopard, try making the file 'hidden', and then see if it appears in the stack.
  • theprokaryote, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3This is fantastic, I love it. A beautiful solution that Apple should have implemented themselves from the start.
  • AquaOSX, on 11/11/2007, -1/+4Well, then change the modification date so it breaks in 130 years. Or possibly 1300 years.
  • Firehed, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3I think that was an idiotically roundabout way of saying that he didn't run the "touch" command and as a result, his torrent downloads are going in front of the icon.

    And OP, you don't "visit" TPB. You either do or you don't. Perhaps after hypothetically visiting, certain files might experience that behavior? Perhaps you should download something other than a torrent file in order to realize that it either works with everything (you ran the terminal command) or nothing (you didn't).
  • Faasnat, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3Stacks does make things somewhat more convenient. Though, there have been complaints on the icon used in the Dock to represent the stack (how it changes, etc).

    Personally, I prefer having it behave much like how folders did in the old Tiger version of OS X.
  • rojano17, on 11/11/2007, -1/+4ridiculous and unnecessary pretty much describes the new dock and menu bar looks plus stacks
  • cglisson, on 11/11/2007, -1/+3To those not finding the other icons, the initial unzippped file is a folder not the icon. Double click that and you'll get the full Hi-Res icons. I think this is brilliant!
  • judofyr, on 11/13/2007, -0/+2Why digging him down? It was a good suggestion!
  • t86y, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2Very new to terminal, wondering if you all could help me out on this. I am not exactly sure what to type in to Terminal to get this all to work. I have tried to type in the command on the link, but can't get it the same way as the link shows it.
  • buddhistMonkey, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2And a period to the beginning of its name. Of course, once you do, you'll need a utility or the terminal to view the file.
  • Nuak, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2Those folders are different from mine's. More bright, maybe from an iconset?
  • REBELinBLUE, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2By putting a . at the beginning of the name or using /Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V foldername

    However, it hides the icon in the dock also :(
  • stalefries, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2That's what the new Guest account feature is for.
  • nillion42, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2I has trouble running the terminal touch command as it was on that site. However adding double quotes seemed to do the trick. Because the folder names have single space at the beginning and end of the name, do something like this:
    touch -mt 202001010101.01 " Downloads "
  • hackerssidekick, on 11/13/2007, -1/+3Notice the space in " Download"? Obviously not ...
  • danasghar, on 11/11/2007, -1/+3first icon is great....except when its porn and someone else is using your machine....
  • crazybrit, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2what the ***** are you talking about?
  • NeoRicen, on 11/11/2007, -0/+2The stacks icon should be just a folder that appears to open (like when you drag something over a folder) when clicked and the contents fan out. The downloads stack could even have a badge on the folder showing how many downloaded unopened files are there.
  • andburn1, on 11/11/2007, -2/+3What do you mean, fix it? When I download a video, it goes in my downloads stack, and when I want to watch it, it's easier to get to it. If you don't like semi-pointless eye-candy, then a Mac isn't for you. You don't HAVE to use stacks, it doesn't hurt the rest of the OS. I also happen to like the menu bar - the transparency, if that's what you mean, helps - for me at least - with the cluttered and claustrophobic feelings I get regarding my desktop. Speak for yourself, please, absolutes and generalizations are for those with deficient brainpower.
  • kindwarrior, on 11/11/2007, -0/+1I like the idea (it solves a problem) but the Hack is a Kludge; There needs to be a more robust way to apply the icons. Frankly Stacks on the desktop (and tossing) still make a lot of sense to me; Stacks on the Dock??? weren't we better off with a popup menu? Of course I still hate the dock and would rather have tabbed drawers on the edge of the screen (the way it worked in OS 8 & 9)
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 103 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.