Comments on: AutoStacks Redux: Making Leopard work another way…

By: VeryVito

VeryVito — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 04:29:35 +0000

Hi Dorian, please see comments 8 through 10 above, as it seems you may be experiencing the same issue. The stacks created by AutoStacks are, like any other Stack, nothing more than a folder, and all regular Finder rules apply.

As for DragThing… Well, that’s a whole different thing altogether.

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By: Dorian Mattar

Dorian Mattar — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:04:24 +0000

Never mind, I guess doing it the old fashion way is the only way. Works for me. You guys should look into DragThing. It creates aliases that are tracked in the event you move the original. The aliases also don’t carry the damn arrow. You can also right click on the alias and get your old fashion hierarchy, plus other cool things. I still like the Doc better, so I guess I’ll keep wishing for DragThing’s functionality in the Doc.

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By: Dorian Mattar

Dorian Mattar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:21:39 +0000

Not working for me. It moves the files every time I add an app to it. The first one is an alias, but all consequent ones are not.

Thanks,

Dorian

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By: VeryVito

VeryVito — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:58:00 +0000

No problem. For some reason, my brain never remembers the drag-and-drop shortcut, regardless. I tend to use the CMD-L too, no matter how many times I immediately think “Dang, I shoulda just…” afterwards.

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By: Matt Hiebert

Matt Hiebert — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:51:50 +0000

Hey, thanks for the quick response. That’s actually genius! I didn’t know about that little shortcut. Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. I had been doing command-l then dragging the alias. You’ve saved me a step… but more than that, making aliases in that way is just a ton smoother. Thanks!!

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By: VeryVito

VeryVito — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:42:20 +0000

Thanks, Matt. AutoStacks only assists in the creation of a Stack; after that, all regular rules apply — and unfortunately, this is the default behavior of Stacks. However, holding CMD and OPTION while dragging files in the Finder will always result in an alias rather than a moved or copied file, so you can always create aliases this way.

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By: Matt Hiebert

Matt Hiebert — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:09:42 +0000

Great little app!!! I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who was disappointed with the implementation of stacks in leopard! Thanks for putting this together.

I might have missed something though. When I select the “make aliases” preference, it’s all good when I make a new autostack… it makes the aliases for me. But when I *later drag a new file onto the stack, it moves the real file rather than creating an alias. Is there any way to customize this so that it will continue to create aliases when I add new items to the existing autostack?

I did the little tweak to the script that was posted (changing the “–”) but the stacks continue to behave in this way.

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By: Olivier Jacquemard

Olivier Jacquemard — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:43:39 +0000

Hello,

i change the script to let add files or folders progressively :
…
set bToCreate to false as boolean
…
try
make new folder at stackFolder with properties {name:timeStr}
set bToCreate to true
on error
set bToCreate to false
end try
…
if bToCreate then
copy folder iconFile to ” ” in folder newStackFolder
end if
…
if bToCreate then
do shell script “defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘” & plistStart & POSIX path of newStackFolder & plistEnd & “‘”
do shell script “killall -HUP Dock”
– This will set the Modification Date of the IconOverlay file so it remains on top of the Stack
do shell script “touch -mt 202001010101.01 \”" & POSIX path of iconFile & “\”"
activate
else
do shell script “killall -HUP Dock”
activate
end if

If this can help…

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By: VeryVito

VeryVito — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:09:21 +0000

Ha! You obviously haven’t seen the number of files that congregate on my desktop.

It’s interesting the many different ways different people choose to get their work done.

I tend to work using “piles” in real life as well as on my computer: Basically, I use my desktop as a quick-access holding area as I work on dozens of files pertaining to a single project while it begins to take form: photos, artwork, text copy, requirements docs and code-in-progress (i.e., just like the actual top of my workdesk). Once things start to take shape (or become unmanageable), I can now select the relevant files, drag them to the dock, and voila: a new stack containing all the files and folders I’ve created for a single project. And now my desktop’s clear and ready for another marathon development session — but the project’s files are always within quick reach in their new Stack.

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By: KD

KD — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:36:58 +0000

I use stacks for grouping together documents and applications. For example, I have stacks labeled iLife (that includes iWork also), Developer and Internet. A stack called documents contains often used documents. With this, my Dock contains only 8 application icons!

Using stacks for just removing stuff from the desktop is underusing them

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