OK, so I’m a sucker for things that make my life easier. $10 or $20 here for helper apps that make organizing my applications on my laptop easier-Hey, No problem! Frankly, I want easier but after every major upgrade I generally have problems with the old existing shell app. So, when I saw that Mac OS X Leopard introduced ‘Stacks’ for their dock, I was thrilled (at least in a computer geek sort of a way). No DockExtender or HimmelBar, my existing shell applications, to find my apps!!! I knew this was something I would be able to use without major upgrade hassles.
So, the first thing I set out to do was to organize my applications (on paper) into logical groupings. I created 9 categories – System, Games, Learning, Design, Media, Programming, Creative Writing, Internet Comms, and Business Apps. I then proceeded, as depicted in Figure 1, to create aliases for all the apps.
In Figure 2, I created a folder called ShortcutFolders in my home directory. In the ShortcutFolders directory, I created a sub-directory for each one of the categories that I had identified. So all my aliases were dropped and categorized into each sub-directory. I then changed the name of each alias, deleting the “alias” tag that was there.
I then dragged each of the subdirectories onto the Desktop Dock, as shown in Figure 3a. The folder icon will disappear shortly thereafter, as depicted in 3b, leaving the icon of the first alias on the Dock. To make it look really nice, you can right-click on the icons on the dock and choose grid layout rather than the default fan layout.
The end result, in Figure 4, is a very well organized folder that pops up in a stacked box waiting for you to choose the icon of your tasking.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3a
Figure 3b
Figure 4
