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Leopard: hard disks no longer welcome in the Dock (updated)

One of my favorite Mac tips, which I shared on TUAW ages ago, won't be making the transition to Leopard. According to David Pogue you can no longer drag your Mac's Hard Disk into the Dock. I'm not sure why Apple thinks that Stacks and a speedier Spotlight can replace the ease of use that this trick offers up, but I'm hoping that it will make a triumphant return in 10.5.1.

David also highlights some other features that didn't make it into his full Leopard review.

Update: Several commenters say Pogue is flat out wrong about this. I don't have Leopard yet so I can't say for sure who is right, but it would be silly of Apple to have removed this feature.

Update 2: It would seem that Pogue was right and I just misread what he wrote. You can drag a hard disk into the Dock, but right clicking on it (or any folder) won't bring up that lovely menu you see to the right. Everything turns into a Stack in the Dock, which is decidedly less helpful if you ask me.

One of my favorite Mac tips, which I shared on TUAW ages ago, won't be making the transition to Leopard. According to David Pogue you can...
 

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Roberto

Putting an Alias of your drives works fine!

November 08 2007 at 12:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
D. Law

Install dragthing to get your Folder Contents view back.

October 29 2007 at 2:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dennis

Good 'ol Butler to the rescue. I just hope it's 10.5 compatible.

October 26 2007 at 10:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bearxor

Simon, I agree with you about Quicksilver. Never been a big fan.

However, I think you're a bit harsh in your second paragraph. We've all misinterpreted things other people have written in our lives and the original article has been updated to clarify.

And yes, it is considerably less helpful.

October 26 2007 at 10:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Joe

I'll take the stack/grid view over the folder list if it is faster - I have my Applications folder in the dock, and it's slow. Slow to the point that I don't really use it anymore.

October 26 2007 at 9:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Simon Arch

Ugh...always with the Quicksilver evangelicals. Why can't you folks get it through your heads: not everyone finds Quicksilver useful, and that's okay! It works for you, but not for me. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with ME, okay? thanks.

And here's another voice confirming that yes, when you drag a hard drive to the dock it gets turned into a stack. So what Pogue ACTUALLY said was correct, and someone misrepresented what he said. I'm not one for criticising the TUAW kiddies for their content, but here's one where you really should have fact-checked before posting.

October 26 2007 at 12:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
patrick

I can confirm this as not being true. When you drag your hard disk into the dock it shows up as a stack :-)

October 25 2007 at 9:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bearxor

You're misunderstanding his comment, Scott. The quote is:

"There’s no way to make the Dock show the complete list of folder contents anymore; nor can you stick your hard drive’s icon in the Dock and have complete, drill-down, hierarchical access to your entire computer, as you could before."

He is technically correct with this. You can open it in finder with a command-click (which he mentions) and you can browse the top level with stacks, but you can't go to your applications directory from the Macintosh HD shortcut. You can click the Applications item in the grid and it will then open Applications in finder. But you can't simply browse the list now without opening a finder window.

There's absolutely nothing incorrect in what he said, only in the way it was interpreted ;)

October 25 2007 at 8:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bearxor

I just tried it. As said above, it adds it as a folder and treats it like a stack. You can not right-click it to show the contents. You can do command-click, but this is unacceptable.

Apple needs to put in the 'Show as list' option.

On another note, if the dock is on the side, instead of the bottom, every stack displays as a grid. It seems fan only works if the dock is in the bottom.

October 25 2007 at 8:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric Lubin

for everyone who still wants to be able to click on a folder icon in the dock to view the folder, just hold down command while clicking and it will resort to the folder

October 25 2007 at 8:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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