The 2007 release of OS 10.5 (Leopard) brought Stacks capability to the Dock. A stack is a folder “aliased” into the folder/file side of the dock. The folder remains in its original location. Click on the stack to expand it, then you “single click” on a desired item in the folder; the result is as if you had double-clicked on the item. If the stack folder has sub-folders one merely slides the cursor over the sub-folder to dig down into the structure.
Computer work seems to obey the 80/20 rule. 80% of activity is with 20% of the documents. Instead of moving your working files from their “home folder” and returning them I recommend that you first create a folder in Documents titled “Quick Launch” (QL) or similar. Then drag that folder into the files & folders area of your Dock. Finally, create and drag aliases of your active working files into the QL folder.
The pay off! Click the QL folder in the dock. It will open and display the set of aliases you have created. Click on the alias of the document you want to work on. Apple will start the appropriate application and open the document. When you save the file it is still where it belongs.
Similar techniques (explained in detail in the complete article) can be utilized to remove the Congo line of non-running applications from the Dock. Every application is just 2 clicks away.
This is an excerpt from a longer article that can be accessed here.
Jerry King is president of the Naples MacFriends User Group (NMUG), founded to help Macintosh users get the most out of their computers. NMUG is open to residents and seasonal visitors. Click here for more information.