Leopard: Changing Dock Stacks to Folders

· by · Tips

Not everyone is hip with the changes Apple made to the Dock in Mac OS X 10.5. Stacks, for example, became one of those love-it-or-hate-it features, and it sure seems like there are plenty of people that hate it. Now that Leopardis 10.5.2 update is out, however, you can choose to switch back to Dock folders if you like.


Stack icons change when you add new items to their folder.

To change an icon from Stack view to the more familiar Folder view in the Dock, do this:

  • Click and hold on a Stack itemis icon.
  • Choose Display as Folder from the pop-up contextual menu.


Choose Folder to change from Stack to Folder view.

Changing from Stacks to Folder view can be handy if you look for Dock items based on the icon and not location. Since Stacks show the top most or most recent item, the icon representing the Stack can change several times a day depending on how often you add new files to the folder it represents.


Folder icons always stay the same.

You can set Stack of Folder views on a folder-by-folder basis, which means you can mix and match Stacks and Folders depending on your needs. Thatis handy if you want to use Stacks as a visual cue to see when a new item has been added to a folder.

If you want to make your Dock folders act even more like they did in Tiger, check out my Quick Tip on changing from the Stack-style pop-up display to a hierarchical pop-up menu view.

[Thanks to TMO reader Hill Jason for pointing the Folder view feature out.]

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Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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