The OS X Dock is the main spot to launch commonly used applications on a Mac. However, folders can also be added to the Dock which will give you the quickest and simplest path to accessing files, without having to use Finder to manually browse to certain folder, document, and file locations. Aside from this, once a folder is added to the dock, it can be further customized in the form of a stack, fan, or grid. Learn more about adding folders to the dock in today’s post.
To add a folder to the Mac OS X Dock, start by launching Finder. With Finder open, you can navigate to the specific folder that you would like to add to the dock. Once you have chosen a folder, click and drag it to the dock until it snaps into place.
With the folder in the dock, clicking on it should open a quick folder view, where you can directly jump to apps, documents, or other folder contents. However, this too can be customized. Right-click on the folder in the dock. Once the context menu opens, you can choose Display as options and View content as options. The Display as options control how the folder appears in the dock. If you choose Folder, the folder will be displayed as follows:
If you set the Display as Stack, the folder will appear in the dock as follows:
Setting the View content settings controls how the folder reacts when you click on it. So, setting the Display as to Fan will promote this effect:
Alternatively, the Grid setting will produce this effect:
The list view is somewhat minimalistic, but works better for folders that contain several files.
Finally, the automatic setting will choose the best View content settings based on the contents of the folder.
That’s all there is to it for adding folders and stacks to the Dock in OS X and customizing preferences for those folders. Do you know of any other folder tricks for OS X? Leave a comment!
