Stack lets you easily organize all your files and folders on your Mac desktop. You can even use them in the Dock.
Has the Mac desktop ever become so cluttered with documents, folders, images, PDFs, and other files that finding a file is both time-consuming and laborious? Fortunately, the stack feature lets you quickly organize files with just a few clicks.
There are two ways to use the stack functionality on a Mac – on the desktop and on the Dock. Both will reduce visual clutter and make your documents more organized and accessible.
How do you use Stacks to keep the desktop and Dock in good order on the Mac and how do you use Stacks on the desktop
On the Mac, you use a stack to organize documents on your desktop by grouping them together by common features.
Simply hold down the Control key and click anywhere on the desktop, then select the “Use Stack” option from the menu. This will immediately group your documents by category or file type and organize them neatly on the right side of the screen.
If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can achieve the same effect by pressing Control + Cmd + O.
To change the sorting method, hold down the Control key again and click on the desktop and hover over Group Stacks By to see sorting options, such as By date or By document label.
To expand the stack to see its contents, simply click the stack icon. Of course, just double-click the file on the stack to open it.
To see the contents of the stack without opening the stack, hover your cursor over the stack icon, then swipe left or right with two fingers on the trackpad or with one finger on the Magic Mouse.
You can also customize the look of the stack on your desktop. From the View section of the desktop menu bar, select Show View Options. In the pop-up menu, you can change Settings such as icon size and stack spacing.
How do I use the stack in the DOCK
The second way to make use of Stacks is to use a folder on the Mac Dock. A common use for this feature is to add a Mac’s download folder to the Dock for easy access to recently downloaded files.
To do this, find “Download” in the Finder. Then drag and drop the entire folder to the right of the Dock divider.
By default, the icon for your Downloads folder will appear as a stack of documents, but you can change the icon to the original folder by holding down the Control key, clicking the Downloads folder in the Dock and selecting Show as > Fold.
Now, to change how you view a folder after you click on its contents, hold down the Control key and click on the folder in the Dock, then select options such as Grid or Fan under the View Content as heading. The Fan view is most commonly used for stacks in the Dock, but the Grid view allows you to view more files after you open it.
Of course, the Downloads folder is just a common example of implementing the Stacks feature on the Mac’s Dock. Of course, you can add any other folder to the Dock in the same way for quick access to the files it contains.
Using a stack is quick and easy to organize
The Stack feature on the Mac is a very useful tool. Not only does it reduce clutter, but it also makes it easy to categorize your documents so that you can quickly find them when you need them.
What’s more, computer files are neatly organized and easily accessible with just two clicks of the mouse or trackpad.