Why You Should Drag Folders Onto the MacOS Dock

Travel back in time to the Macworld Expo of 2000. Apple was a participant in this Mac love fest and it took advantage of the show to debut Mac OS X 10.0, codename Cheetah. Among the many new features in this huge leap from MacOS 9 was a taskbar along the bottom of the screen a la the Windows Taskbar. Except Apple called it the “Dock” and it was an instant hit.

An easy way to switch between running applications, it proved just as useful as a place to pin favorite programs too. Auto-hide let users have it free up the bottom of the display when not needed, and it was easy to allow users to resize it to match their desires and eyesight. All in all, one of many successes in this important operating system update in the evolution of the Mac experience.

Shortcuts: Drag a Folder | Display Options | Power Tricks

Twenty-four years later and it’s still a centerpiece of MacOS, but now it has some slick additional tricks. One of the most helpful is also something I see too few people utilize: Its ability to offer folder shortcuts with quite a few different display options. Once you try it, I promise you won’t go back. It’s that slick. Let’s have a closer look!

DRAG A FOLDER ONTO YOUR DOCK

To start, open up a Finder window and move up to your home directory. Be aware that by default Finder shows you the Desktop, so you have to move “above” that. For my account, it’s “taylor” and looks like this:

Can you see what I’ doing in the above image? Dragging a copy of my Presentations folder onto the Dock, right next to the trashcan icon. The Dock has automatically made space for the new icon and when I release the mouse / trackpad, it’s ready to use. Just as importantly, this is an alias, so the original folder remains in my home directory with no changes.

By default, folders are shown in what’s known as “Grid” format, sorted alphabetically. When I click on my Presentations folder, here’s what I see:

This is a really easy way to open up specific files – or subfolders! – with just a click or two, no Finder interaction needed. Smaller folders, of course, are a bit less overwhelming, but you can change things up too…

DOCK FOLDER DISPLAY OPTIONS

Instead of just clicking on the folder icon in the Dock, try a Control-click instead. This opens up a menu of useful options:

At the top you can choose what order you’d like things sorted – I usually have the contents of a Dock folder in Date Modified sort order so my most recent files are at the top, but you can experiment with other settings.

Did you notice that the icon on the Dock itself showed a few of the enclosed file icons? You can see it in the greyed out area above too, an orange rectangle. That’s “Stack” view for Display As. Switch to “Folder” and you’ll get a standard MacOS folder icon instead.

The most interesting of these settings, however, is View content as, with the choices of Fan, Grid, List, and Automatic. We’re currently viewing the Presentations folder in Grid format, but if I change it to Fan, check out what happens when it’s next clicked:

I have to be candid, I’m not much of a fan of Fan mode (pardon the pun!) but it might appeal to you so it’s worth checking out. One nice thing is that you get the full filenames which can be quite helpful.

The third option is List and while it might be the most utilitarian, it also might be the most boring too:

Then again, this might appeal to you. It’s certainly the easiest to understand, particularly if your folder has quite a disparate set of files and other content. Me? I’m going back to Grid.

MORE FUN WITH DOCK FOLDERS

While we’re looking at Grid display mode, it’s worth noting that the last entry in the Grid is a shortcut to open the folder in the Finder, as shown:

In typical Mac fashion, it’s clearly labeled “Open in Finder”. I use that shortcut quite a bit, actually.

If I switch from “Stack” to “Folder” view, the hover tip (when you have your cursor sitting on the icon) conveniently reveals the folder name:

Tried it and decided you don’t like folders in your Dock? You can either click and drag the folder up from the Dock to the center of your display or you can Control-click on it and choose Options from the resultant menu:

Finally, there are a small number of folders in MacOS that actually have unique icons, as you can see with my default folder pair in my own Dock (Applications and Downloads). I really love how the Applications folder works in the Dock:

This is my default way of launching apps and it really does make everything a breeze. I encourage you to check it out, just make sure you drag the Applications folder that contains your applications (it’s above your home folder), not the Applications folder that might appear in your own home folder.

And that’s it. I use the Dock endlessly and find it really helps me be maximally efficient and productive. Try adding a folder or two, let me know how it works for you!

Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about MacOS since the first release and have hundreds of helpful tutorials here on the site. Please check out my Mac help library for lots more useful content while you’re here!