Filed under: Hacks, Tips and tricks, Terminal Tips, TUAW Tips, Leopard
TUAW Tip: Highlight items in gridded stacks
When you've got a bunch of files from a Stack displayed in Grid View, it can be hard to spot the particular one you're looking for, especially if many of them look identical (such a collection of text files or word processor documents).
Luckily, there's a highlight you can switch on, that puts a whiter background around the file you're mousing over. It makes it slightly easier to ensure you click on the correct file.
The highlight appears normally if you use the arrow keys to move around a Grid, or if you type Command and the first letter of one of the files displayed. But this trick switches it on permanently, so that it is always in action whether or not you use these keyboard shortcuts.
Read on for all the commands.
Switching the highlight on and off is easy. You can either type a short pair of commands command into Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean yes
killall Dock
killall Dock
(Repeat that with "no" instead of "yes" to put things back the way they were.)
Or, if you'd rather stay away from Terminal, use Alcor's Secrets prefpane to switch it on and off (go to Dock, and check "Hightlight stack items on hover"). Secrets does come with some warnings that you could break things terribly if you're not careful, which is true. But you'll be careful, won't you?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
itchytooth said 10:53AM on 7-17-2008
This is a great effing tip!
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IrishDomer08 said 10:54AM on 7-17-2008
That didn't work for me...
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DaveR said 11:00AM on 7-17-2008
Make sure you write it exactly if you're retyping and not copy-and-pasting. I typed it as "hilite" when it's actually "hilte" the first time. Once fixed, it worked..
Rafe H. said 10:57AM on 7-17-2008
I really want to be able to quickview items in a stack. Any ideas how I can do this?
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Zoli said 11:04AM on 7-17-2008
Count me in for this request too!
SinnMan said 10:57AM on 7-17-2008
This is an awesome tip. I love it. My applications folder is huge and this makes it much easier.
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Chris said 11:02AM on 7-17-2008
Also, if you click on your stack and then hit the Spacebar it will highlight the first item in the stack with this highlight. You can then arrow through the stack.
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djfred said 11:03AM on 7-17-2008
Great tip. Thanks.
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David said 11:21AM on 7-17-2008
Now THAT'S a great tip! I was just thinking last week how frustrating it is when I have tons of stuff in my Downloads folder. Now I can find stuff!
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Big John said 12:07PM on 7-17-2008
You don't have to press Command to use the type-to-highlight. Just open the Stack and start typing straight away.
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Henry P said 1:51PM on 7-17-2008
hey, what is the app that you use to get the dock off center
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Giles Turnbull said 3:41PM on 7-17-2008
There are several ways of doing it. The aforementioned Secrets prefpane is one of them. Also apps like Tweak Freak and the like.
Eric said 5:43PM on 7-17-2008
I have two Stacks I use regularly, and they contain mostly text files... I have never had trouble clicking on the correct one.
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M E said 4:36PM on 7-18-2008
Amen Eric
fini said 2:58AM on 7-19-2008
Awesome tip, I couldn't get the terminal command to work, but Secrets did it perfectly. I'm actually kind of mad now, I bought that last Mac Heist Bundle and it gave me Mac Pilot, which pretty much is exactly the same as Secrets, o well I guess the other two apps in the bundle made up for it, even though I will probably never use Lineform.
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Lachlan Hunt said 4:49AM on 8-22-2008
There is a terrible delay with the highlight following the mouse that makes this unusable. I don't recommend turning it on.
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