Moving Folders to the Dock

Hi. I have a folder on my desktop that I'd like to access from the dock, I want to have the folder in the dock rather than on the desktop to save on real estate. I've tried dragging the folder to the dock, the folder appears there but is still also on the desktop, how do I get it to be available from the dock and not on the desktop? Thanks.

Hi Tymon, all folders or files you put in the Dock are aliases so the original item remains where it is. Store this folder in your Home, where you keep the rest of your data, then drag it to the Dock.
-mj
[email protected]

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The Fan option does not appear for folders in the dock.

The fan option does not appear on folders on the Dock. Stack option is checked, but all I get is grid list and automatic....running 10.5.2
any ideas?

Not that I know of. When on the side no fan for folders and no 3D look, which I prefer. Background of the Dock very dark so the white dot showing an app is open is easy to see and it all looks very sophisticated.
You might check with third party apps to see if anyone is changing that, but most people don't like the fan so I doubt if anyone is working to add it in.

Minor problem - I have 4 folders in the dock, but when I press on the icons for two of them, there is no choice of "display as folder" or "options". Can somebody tell me why not? Thanks!

I have four folders in the dock. Two are fine. The other two of them will not allow me to press on the stack's icons to view the commands "Display as Folder" or "Options". Can somebody help me out with this minor problem?
Thanks!

Are you right - clicking (control-clicking) them? The following should appear if you do that, and allow you to change the folder's appearance in the Dock:

How to auto-restore Smart Folders on the dock after reboot?

So I've created a smart folder that basically gathers all the applications that I use with the Adobe Creative Suite (i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.). For quick access, I drag the smart folder to the dock and I change the sort method to NAME and the view to LIST. And here's what I get as a result, which works very nicely:
http://imgur.com/EWUgm6w
The problem is, after I restrat my Mac, that smart folder on the dock gets completely messed up (the folder icon is changed and nothing pops up when I click on the icon) so I have to then delete the one that's on the dock, drag a new copy out and then change the sort and view methods to my preferences all over again. I was a bit surprised the first time I noticed this but after seeing the smart folder get messed after multiple restarts, I realized that there's something wrong.
My assumption is that the smart folder gets reprocessed on a reboot and though the original location where the smart folder is stored is fine when I go look at it, the shortcut that I place on the dock loses its functionality altogether.
I'm wondering if anyone has run into this on their end and found a good solution? If there was a script I could run when the computer started to automate the tasks that I have to do (remove old folder from dock, copy new one, change sort & view methods), that would be great -- but I don't know how to do this! Alternatively, if there's another way to achieve this pop up list without creating a folder manually and dragging 10 shortcuts into the folder, that would be great. I like the idea of keeping the list dynamic (hence the smart folders method) so that if anything changes, the updates would be reflected autmatically in the folder.

I have the same issue. Upon restarting, my two smart folders get a drawer-looking icon and don't function. I am able to right click to change settings, but nothing seems to get them to actually work.

Putting file folders on the Dock?

Hi,
I have a lot of icons on my Dock and would like to organize them in Folders and have the Folders appear on the Dock instead of the icons. Is there a way to do this? If not, could this be considered for a future feature?
Thanks,
Dan Uff

You can do this, just put the alias to the program(s) in the folder, then place the folder on the Dock, on the side of the divider that is closest to the Trash.
If you want to avoid this, you could get LaunchBar, which allows you to launch applications by typing the first few characters and then pressing Enter.
Mulder
If any of my answers helped solve your problem, please consider awarding some points. Why Reward Points?
iMac G4 700Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Smart folders in the Dock??

I, for a long time, have had the application folder in the bottom of the dock, so I can quickly open any application. However, I have a tendency to download lots of programs, and the menu becomes quite full.
When I recently upgraded to 10.4, I thought, I could just put a smart folder in the dock. Set the parameters to "an application" and "opened in last two weeks" and this would have only the programs that I often use.
However, when I put this smart folder in the dock and right click it, I don't get a pop-up list of what is inside, I only get a small menu...
Is there any way to get this pop-up menu like normal folders?
Thanks for the help!
Matthew

Unfortunately Tiger doesn't allow you to use smart folders in Dock.

All desktop folders, finder & the dock have disapeared, what can I do?

I was downloading a widget (acorn) & all my folders disappeared, then spaces, then the dock after about 5 minutes. After a restart firefox was there but nothing else. The desktop folders are there when browse in gmail, but it freezes & quits when try to open them. I see that other people have had similar problems, but cannot find many answers.. Will I need to get another Leopard install disc, as no longer have it?? Mac ownership seems very lonely at times!

could be failing hard drive or corrupted files, in any case as the first step
you'd have to try to start up from another source - external hard drive with the compatible OS on it or from the OS install CD/DVD
Message was edited by: arnie

Moving folders to the root of the mailbox

Is there a way to move a folder from being a subfolder back to the root of the mailbox. I have accidentally moved one of my root folders into another root folder making it a subfolder. I can change it on the exchange server through the web interface, but this takes them out of Alphabetical order.

In Mail? Yes. Just click and hold the folder, and drag it up to between two top-level folders you get a "lollipop" place indicator that has the circle just left of those top-level folder icons.
Then you can move it down the list again to the right position. You might need to collapse the folder trees temporarily to place it exactly where you wish.

How can I change the highlight color of grid view folders in the dock?

Using OSX 10.10 Yosemite, the highlight color for a folder in Grid view is barely noticeable.
Can you spot the highlighted icon below?
I've grown accustom to clicking the applications folder in the doc then typing a few letters to get me close to the app I want- now it takes an extra few seconds for me to visually find the icon that got highlighted.
Is there a way to change the highlight color here?

I would open up the grid spacing slightly so everything does not run together. In System Preferences > General, try setting Highlight color: Red. This won't change the grey selection background around the icon, but it will turn the background behind the icon text to red. That stands out. However, the collateral effect is that text you select in this editor, and other OS X applications, will now have a red background too. Changing colors will require a killall Finder in the Terminal. Actually set mine to #ffff00 which is a vivid yellow, which is more practical when selecting text in a document.

Organizing the Dock with folders possible? Or do you have better idea?

My dock is loaded. And yes I use the apps in it. But I do see similar groupings of items (Utilities, Music, Photo/Video, Email & Web). Is there a way to get folders in the dock so I can group these similar applications? Or a (hopefully) freeware application that allows folders in the dock?

My favorite is LaunchBar. You just invoke it with a keystroke and then just type the first two or three letters in the name of the file, application or folder you want to open and you have a logical list of candidates that you can scroll through. Usually the first selected one on the list is the one you want, so you just hit return and the item with open for you on a nice clean desktop.
I hardly ever use the Dock anymore. In fact it is a source of irritation that I wish I could make go away!
Griff

Restoring downloads/documents folder to the dock?

can anybody suggest how i might restore the downloads and documents folders to the dock? i accidentally removed them. and now, of course, i want them back. as they are not apps, i don't know how to get them back in the dock. many, many thanks.

This is easy.
Open up a Finder window and go to your Home directory (this is the one that bears your account name in the sidebar on the left of the Finder window.
Locate the Downloads and the Documents folders.
Now look at the Dock itself. Near the Trash you will find the Dock Divider Bar. Applications go on one side of that -- the side away from the Trash -- and folders and minimized windows go on the other side -- the side near the Trash.
Now just click and drag each of these two folders, Downloads and Documents, into the portion of the Dock on the side of the divider bar near the Trash.
The original folder will stay where it was and a new icon (a pointer to the folder) will appear in the Dock. Since this is a folder you just put in the Dock, it will automatically be shown as a "Stack" view.
To remove an item from the Dock, click and drag it away from the Dock. The icon will go "poof" and vanish. The "real" item, the thing the Dock pointer pointed to, will not be altered.
You can also click and drag icons around within the Dock to get them into the order you prefer. Just keep them on the correct side of the Dock Divider bar.
--Bob

Can't add files or file aliases to the dock

I can't add files or file aliases to the dock. All the help viewer says about this is this issue?
"If you can't add icons to your Dock, your administrator may be preventing you from doing so."
I am the administrator of this computer, as it turns out. What is the solution to

Hi Wagnerian, Welcome to Apple Discusswions.
When adding files or folders to the Dock, they must go to the right side of the hairline (the same side that Trash is on).
If this what you are doing and it still doesn't work navigate to /Users/YourHome/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and delete that file. then log out and back in or restart. (You'll have to reset your Dock the way you like it)
-mj
[email protected]

Navigable Pop-Up Folder Feature in the Dock Removed in Leopard!

*MODERATORS PLEASE MAKE THIS POST STICKY SO WE CAN CUT DOWN ON THE NUMBER OF DUPLICATE THREADS!!!*
The way dock icons worked in Tiger with a menu-list like hierarchy is no longer a feature of Leopard! Yes, navigable pop-up folders in the Dock are gone— you can no longer click-and-hold on a docked folder to pop up a navigable menu showing that folders contents, including navigable sub-folders.
If you don't like this (like a lot of people) - please provide feedback to Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

And as long as it's not sticky, I'll reply here to bump it up, since that "feature" was the reason I'm now back on 10.4.10.
Yes, it's that bad. I could probably find a workaround like a 3rd party app launcher (instead of my Start-menu-like folder with subfolders and aliases to apps), but the "feature" itself (stacking the content on top of the folder icon) is so incredibly idiotic, you have to ask yourself what drugs they had to take to let this abomination go GM. Yes, indeed, it must be drugs. There's no other explanation.
It doesn't even look pretty! There were changes and additions since Jaguar where you were wondering what actual use that could have, but at least you could always say, ok, it looks nice and flashy and could impress possible switchers, but that one is only confusing and totally useless.
So please:
1) Bring back the previous behavior of showing a hierarchical view of the folder by right click/click-and-hold
2) add some feedback to the new stack views, like some mouseover effect so that you know that you can click now
3) add folder browsing to the new views as well, like another "bow of icons" (must be that lame pun on "row" that inspired that weird fan view) popping up to the left or right of the "root fan" or something, and in that grid view, just open another grid with the subfolder contents on top. Call it stacking the grids.
See? I just pulled those ideas out of you-know-where, and I'm sure they would work fine. Apple was working 2.5 years on this and it feels like some early prototype. Apple's leadership regarding UIs is clearly gone, at least on the desktop. I'm terribly disappointed they continue to release one UI abomination after another and still feeling great about it.
Again people, if you feel the same, post it here as well:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Streamlining the dock

I have many icons on my dock, and I do use them. I have two questions:
1. With a lot of icons on my dock, I do have it hidden, would that be cause for the dock to take a long time to appear when I move my mouse to activate it?
and
2. Is there any way I can combine icons in the dock to specific areas? I have many icons that I use for photography, as well as other icons I use in other areas, can I combine the photography icons into one category, and do the same with other icons in their categories, to cut down on the number of visible icons? I would want to be able to access the categories from the dock.
Thank you.

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities!
I think you would enjoy DragThing. You can set up docks like this: http://txrx.me/a/appdock.png
Another thing you could do for your categories is make a folder in your Home folder called Application Shortcuts.
Inside that folder, put your categories (Photography, etc.)
Then put aliases to the applications in those folders.
Now, drag each of those folders to the Dock (to the right of the separator). You can then control-click the stack to set the view up however you like.
You still will have the dock icons for the running applications, though, but you can just use the dock as an application switcher and use the stacks you create as launchers.
For me, I use the DragThing dock I linked above as a launcher, and this as a switcher: http://txrx.me/a/appswitcher.png (also in DragThing).
FWIW, these two docks duplicate the behavior of the Launcher and the Tear-Away application menu in OS 9.
Regards,
Ryan
Edit: Ah, there is a delay in showing the dock when it is hidden away, but I don't think it really corresponds to how many items are there.

Home folder has Applications icon in the Dock

When I open the finder, my home directory is depicted with the "Home" icon (looks like a littel house) in the side-bar.
However, when I drag it to the Dock, it instead acquires the Applications icon (looks like the letter A) in the Dock. The net effect is that I have two folders in the Dock that look like Application folders -- very confusing.
Similarly, folders that I have given my own icons to appear properly (as their icons) in the sidebar of the finder, but when I drag them to the Dock, they just appear as blank folders.
Is there a fix or workaround?
I'm on Mac OS X 10.6.8.
Thanks,
-W.

Oof. I see the problem.
I was displaying as Stack, so the icon displayed in the Dock was that of the first item in the folder
When I displayed instead as Folder, it came out right.

Moving Folders to the Dock

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