Yes, I know that I've omitted any questions regarding use of the right side of the Dock, probably because I use mine very little, so don't know what questions (RE Stacks, etc.) might be relevant.
Stacks vastly enhanced the Dock's utility for me. Since 10.5 introduced them, i always have these four Stacks on the bottom of my (right-side) Dock:
• frequent folders
• frequent apps
• frequent files
• frequent searches
They are all configured thusly: "
Display as folder (so i can use a distinctive icon to quickly identify the stack)" and "
View content as grid" (for nice big icons to click or easily navigate via letter or arrow keys)"
Sure, i use Spark (and FastScripts) for shortcut keys to many things... but there are only a limited number of letters (and numbers) to use for
ctrl-shift-shortcut launching. (That's probably why so many loved Quicksilver -- e.g., type ps for PhotoShop). But Stacks really made the Dock a more useful "launcher" (i.e., including dozens of frequent folders, docs and searches) for my money.
--
BTW... for anyone wanting to try that, here's my approach:
While the "searches" stack is simply made by dropping the ~/Library/Saved Searches folder on the dock... the folders, apps and docs stacks are all synthesized by creating folders full of aliases (a la Launcher from System 7.5). Here's an abbreviated peek into the hierarchy:
myStacks/
links_to_apps/
Dictionary@
LittleSnitch@
:
:
links_to_files/
Sven Porst on Time Machine.rtfd@
process substitution tricks.rtf@
:
:
links_to_folders/
macosxhints@
var-Tmp-@
:
:
The names ending with / are folders (so it's one folder there with three subfolders). The names ending with @ are aliases (actually i use Unix symlinks to save
tons of space, but they don't "self-heal" like Finder aliases do). The "myStacks" parent folder could go anywhere (though somewhere in the home folder is advisable). We could even hide it by starting its name with a period.
Finally, give each of the three "links_to_*" subfolders a distinctive icon and drag them to the dock (individually). Populate with aliases as needed.