Custom Stack Appearance Modifications

March 10, 2009 · 8 comments

Here are 3 quick ways to customize your Stacks appearance.

Custom Stack Overlay Icons

stacks with overlays

There is an easy way to take the default appearance of your dock stacks and optimize them for elegance and clarity. All you need are some icons like the ones below.

Download yours here

Once you have the icons you would like to use, name them according to the stack they represent and add a space before the name. This way the stack overlay will stay at the top of the stack.

Than just drop them into your folders. So the download icon goes in the downloads folder. You will want to edit the name of the stack icon and put a space before name. This way the icon will always stay at the top of the stack.

Adding Draw frame (Leopard Only)

recent-apps-stack.png

To do, go grab a free copy of SuperDocker. As you know from reading the other custom Dock and Stack posts, this application is great for easily and safely customizing the Dock and Stacks. So once you open up SuperDocker, navigate the “Stack” settings tab and there you will find a check box to add a draw frame. And your done!

stack draw frame.png

Removing Stack Background Grid (Leopard Only)

no stack background.png

  1. Fire up Finder
  2. Navigate to Macintosh HD/System/Library/Core Services
  3. Look for Dock and control-click on it
  4. Choose Show Package Contents from its contextual menu and then go inside Contents → Resources Back up and delete from that folder all of image files prefixed with “stackbackground-”
  5. Use your Terminal to restart Dock by executing command line: killall Dock

Changing Stack Background Color (Leopard Only)

stack-custom-color1.png

Fire up SuperDocker again and in the “Stacks” there is an option to change the color or the background grid. I now it’s complicated, just breathe ok. :)

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Jenny September 25, 2009 at 12:47 pm

hmm… attractive.

Kirk November 10, 2009 at 9:18 pm

I downloaded SuperDocker and tried to add the draw frame to my stacks, but even with the setting checked and a notification that it was successful, nothing changes when I highlight items. I assume this is because SuperDocker is configured for Leopard and not Snow Leopard? Oh well, great post. I like a lot of the ideas here.

Kirk November 12, 2009 at 4:34 pm

I never got it to work with SuperDocker, but I was able to run the terminal script in another one of your posts to get the effect..

Caleb Pike November 12, 2009 at 4:41 pm

Great! Yeah what funny is that most of the functions of Super Docker still do work with Snow Leopard, I still use it for a couple other features.

Kirk November 12, 2009 at 5:39 pm

I just tried removing the Stack Background Grid by the method listed above (deleting the images with the stackbackgroun- prefix). What ended up happening was whenever a stack’s view setting was set to Grid and I clicked on it, the stack would not open and the dock would restart (every time I clicked it). Switching the view setting to List allowed me to view the stack just fine, but switching it back to Grid causes the same problem to occur. I kept a backup of all files I deleted, and the Grid View functioned normally when I replaced the png images. Is there any other method to achieve the same effect?

thecustommac thecustommac November 12, 2009 at 3:51 pm

[New Post] Custom Stack Appearance Modifications http://www.thecustommac.com/custom-stack...
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Caleb Pike November 12, 2009 at 5:56 pm

My guess is no because while super docker works somewhat with Snow Leopard its really programmed for Leopard. Sorry. But do check out this view if you have not already:

http://www.thecustommac.com/secret-stack-list-view-mod/

Its pretty killer.

Zack June 14, 2010 at 7:20 pm

can removing the stack backround ever be undone?

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