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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock System 10.5
Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 7:30AM PST • Contributed by: manum
You can add a Recent Applications stack to the Dock. To do so, open Terminal and type this command: After that, type killall Dock to restart the Dock and see your new folder. The only thing is that I haven't found a way to have it show as a fan, it only shows in tile view. But it is already a nice trick.

[robg adds: Once the stack is created, control-click on it to reveal a contextual menu that lets you pick between recent applications, documents, servers, volumes, and items. Note that I've edited this hint to reflect the method shown by mithras in this comment to the Create a System Preferences stack hint.]
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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock | 56 comments | Create New Account
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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: blukens on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 7:59AM PST
Okay, I'm going to be totally vain here and take credit for that "defaults" command. It's definitely my Ars post that mithras is referring to. So, uh, go me?

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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: mantrid on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:12AM PST
Oh come on! If a feature exists. it's just a matter of discovering it, and there are only so many ways to execute a given command.

Your comment was posted Nov 4 (which "mithras" credited you with when posting Nov 5).

Considering this hint was submitted on Nov 1, I would say "manum" is ahead of you.

You know that Conan bit where the guy gets the stamp on his face?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: blukens on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:40AM PST
Hey, I'm just kidding around here. Clearly the real credit goes to manum, or whoever discovered the hack originally.

I just thought it was cool that my own slight contribution was kinda sorta used on the site. That's all. Sure, anyone who's familiar with "defaults" could have done the same thing, but I did spend a little time figuring it out. And if mithras can get credit for passing it along, I should get a little something, right? ;)

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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: robg on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:53AM PST
Credit granted :), and if this hint ends up winning the contest, well, I'm technically not sure what would happen ... we'd have to go to the judges on that one (saw an iMac in thirds?). I'm sure we'd figure something out!

regards,
-rob.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: JaxMyers on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:19AM PST
This is the best hint I've seen so far for Leopard! Is there any way to make two of these stacks, one for Apps and one for Documents?

I really like the fact that you can make a stack without having a folder of aliases sitting around. This is almost like the ability to make smart folder stacks which doesn't seem to work by the drag and drop method.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: blukens on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:22AM PST
You can make as many as you want. Just run the "defaults" command multiple times. Each time it's run, it adds a new icon to the dock. Then "killall Dock" to get the new ones to appear.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: 5chm31din6 on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 8:53AM PST
Okay, so how do we REMOVE it if we decide we don't like it?

---
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: sabi on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 9:09AM PST
Same way you remove anything else from the Dock, drag it out or pick "Remove from Dock" from the contextual menu.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: Whosawhatsis on Fri, Nov 23 2007 at 10:23AM PST
Dragging it out didn't work for me, but "Remove From Dock" works.

---
I was offered a penny for my thoughts, so I gave my two cents... I got ripped off.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: pwharff on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 9:06AM PST
Wonderful Hint! Does anyone know how to sort this, more specifically I want to sort so my most recently used App is the first icon.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: vincentvw on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 9:16AM PST
Just a note, because I didn't get it at first. The default view is "recent applications," to change it to documents, servers, favourite items or volumes, right-click on the dock-icon and tick the option.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: 5chm31din6 on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 9:16AM PST
Oh, duh. I had an uncaffeinated moment. I guess I thought the Terminal command made it persistent. Of course, dragging it was too obvious for me today. :) Thanks!

---
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: pwharff on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 12:05PM PST
No worries mate, we ALL have those days.


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: zane on Wed, Nov 14 2007 at 3:47PM PST
Mentioned in Mithras' link comment, the number of recent items shown in the stack is reflected by your System Preferences/Appearance setting, which governs Apple Menu's Recent Items. That is, changing this preference will change both your Apple Menu and Dock stack recent items.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: mmouse on Thu, Nov 15 2007 at 10:32AM PST
Great tip -- anyone know where it is getting the items for the "favorite items" list? It's not the Favorites folder in ~/Library...

---
--mmouse

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: hedgeman on Thu, Nov 15 2007 at 11:48AM PST
It's taking them from the "Places" list in your Finder sidebar, which used to be favorites in Tiger.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: smyklar on Sun, Nov 25 2007 at 7:53AM PST
Try here:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: panamajack on Thu, Nov 15 2007 at 5:56PM PST
Fantastic tip ! Is there any way to add one of those nifty 3D folder icons to lie persistently on top of the "stack" (realizing that it isn't a normal "folder").




[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: brucelabruce on Sun, Nov 18 2007 at 10:56AM PST
I'd like to know if this is possible too, otherwise we're still lumbered with the confusing ever changing stacks icons...

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: JaxMyers on Fri, Nov 16 2007 at 9:43AM PST
Does anybody know if there is a way to not include certain items like printers or the "installer" app. Basically things I would never need to access form the dock. That way I would have room for a few more useful applications. As it is, it's pretty useful though.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: diskostu on Fri, Nov 16 2007 at 11:11AM PST
I used a similar command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "fan-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "fan-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

So I replaced "tile" by "fan". After "killall Dock", my Dock was gone, even after a clean reboot. Any idea? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: diskostu on Fri, Nov 16 2007 at 11:14AM PST
Ah, I figured it out by myself. In case anyone has the same problem, just type

defaults delete com.apple.dock persistent-others

and the Dock should appear again.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: soulbarn on Fri, Nov 16 2007 at 3:06PM PST
Ack! My dock (and cmd-tab) vanished after trying out the tip. and the solution posted (defaults delete com.apple.dock persistent-others) doesn't work! What to do?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: soulbarn on Fri, Nov 16 2007 at 3:33PM PST
A restart brought the dock back. But not with the recent items stack. I'm going to try again...

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: shockthealien on Fri, Feb 5 2010 at 6:54AM PST
The same happened to me but a restart didnt bring it back.

I tried to use some newer code from lower down the thread but when I do "killall dock" it says "No matching processes belonging to you were found"

No I have no dock or dashboard or expose or alt+tab or active corners...

Please help


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: antiorario on Sat, Nov 17 2007 at 2:46AM PST
So I replaced "tile" by "fan". After "killall Dock", my Dock was gone, even after a clean reboot. Any idea? Any help is greatly appreciated.
My suggestion would be to either reset the dock by erasing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Dock.plist or pick an older version of it using Time Machine, then doing a killall Dock in Terminal.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: antiorario on Sat, Nov 17 2007 at 2:51AM PST
Great hint, but I noticed a funny thing: using a localization of Mac OS X other than English, the context menu gets properly localized, while the stack title doesn't. I wonder why...

On a side note, I created two of these special stacks (I had tried just to see if it was possible), so I don't have to switch back and forth between recent apps and recent documents. Seems to work well.

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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: jpb0104 on Sat, Nov 17 2007 at 10:50AM PST
Ok nobody answered the question whether we can put two different ones on our dock?

Another question: The list of recent documents leaves deleted items in that list? That shouldn't happen right?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: Netzach on Sat, Nov 17 2007 at 3:23PM PST
It works. I have right now both Recent Applications and Recent Documents in my dock.

---
//Intelligence has it's boundaries, but stupidity is unlimited.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: BoxsterFan on Thu, Nov 29 2007 at 5:19AM PST
After using this for a while I now have two fDesktop folders in my Favorite Items list. I have deleted and re-created the favorites stack, but this persists. Is there any way to correct this?


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: WDFlores on Fri, Nov 30 2007 at 7:28PM PST
Hello,

This happened to me as well. I tried all the voodoo I knew to reset it including flushing out the caches, deleting preference files, etc., but to no avail. And then...

I realized that the multiple Desktop entries occurred under Places in the sidebar of Open File dialogs as well.

To reset everything: I just dragged all those Places items out (from a Safari Open File dialog); dragged out same items from the sidebar of an open Finder Window; then added them again via the Finder's sidebar preferences sheet (clicking on the checkboxes for Home, Desktop, Applications, and Documents).

- WDF



[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: Jyrki on Tue, Dec 4 2007 at 8:20AM PST

To move Recent Applications Stack to the left part of the dock, replace persistent-others with persistent-apps, like this:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'
and after that killall Dock

-jyrki



[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: robogobo on Tue, Dec 4 2007 at 2:36PM PST
really great hint. This is the closest thing to the way Stacks was supposed to work.


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: robogobo on Tue, Dec 4 2007 at 2:49PM PST
If I choose "Recent Servers", I get a blank Dock icon, and all the volumes inside also have blank icons. Anyone else see this?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: LMP on Sat, Dec 8 2007 at 9:04AM PST
Yes. I have the same behavior.

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10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: magnamous on Wed, Mar 4 2009 at 10:17PM PST
I get a blank dock icon no matter which of the "recent" items I choose. The two "favorites" items work...

10.5.6

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: magnamous on Wed, Mar 4 2009 at 10:22PM PST
I just figured it out. I had "recent items" all turned off in System Preferences. Turn them back on and the blank tiles start becoming populated. (Silly me.)

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: robogobo on Sun, Dec 9 2007 at 9:06AM PST
"Favorties" is not accurate- the Favorite Volumes actually whatever is currently under Devices in the sidebar, NOT the same as Favorite Servers. This confused me for a while, as I was adding unmounted volumes to the Favorite Servers list and not seeing them in the Dock folder. Only mounted volumes will show in this folder.

The same applies to Favorite Items. This is actually Sidebar Places. I assume this reflects pre-release Sidebar terminology.

This is a bummer, since I'm still looking for a way to have unmounted volumes in the Dock mount and open in a stack. Aliases don't work. I'm still not sure why Apple made this stuff so inconvenient.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: meatleg on Sun, Jan 6 2008 at 7:55AM PST
if only there was a way to add the clever dock stack icons provided by optica-optica
http://optica-optima.blogspot.com/2007/11/drawers-icon-1.html
that would rock even harder

[ Reply to This | # ]
Drawers Icon
Authored by: solipsism on Fri, Jan 18 2008 at 7:56AM PST
Is there anyway to add a Drawers icon to these so they make a little more sense in the Dock?

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is there a way to make icon previews show up?
Authored by: dlgraves on Sat, Jan 19 2008 at 4:35PM PST
Not sure if it's just me, but using this hint for a "recent documents" stack shows only the generic icon, not Leopard's document preview icons... any way to fix?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: macfreek57 on Tue, Jan 22 2008 at 8:30PM PST
I made this handy (and simple) AppleScript to make adding Recent Items stacks to the dock easier. It displays a dialog that asks if you want a Recent Items stack, which you can accept or reject, then executes the proper terminal command and kills the dock. It even gives you the option of which side you'd like it on. Enjoy. 
set dialogText to "Would you like to add a Recent Items icon to your Dock?"
set appSideScript to "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }';killall Dock"
set docSideScript to "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }';killall Dock"

display dialog dialogText buttons {"No Thanks", "Yes! Left Side, Please!", "Yes! Right Side, Please!"} default button 1

if button returned of result is "Yes! Left Side, Please!" then
	do shell script appSideScript
else
	if button returned of result is "Yes! Right Side, Please!" then
		do shell script docSideScript
	end if
end if
Edited on Wed, Feb 3 2010 at 9:13PM PST by robg


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: xhints_ on Fri, Jan 25 2008 at 1:44PM PST
You have too many quotes – you put a string inside a string which really doesn't work.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: dj60 on Thu, Jan 31 2008 at 9:54AM PST
New to all of this scripting.. when compling this code I'll get an error msg..

set appSideScript to "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }' ';killall Dock"

On this line I'll get the msg "Syntax Error Expected end of line, etc. but found identifier" Using the apple scripting tool, the word "tile" here is highlighted. { "tile-data" = { "list-type" ...........

where did i go wrong?


Thanks
dj

[ Reply to This | # ]
Script update
Authored by: xhints_ on Mon, Feb 11 2008 at 12:08PM PST
Here's a neater version that works: 
global abutton

set cbutton to "Cancel" -- cancel button
set abutton to "Applications Section" -- app side button
set dbutton to "Documents Section" -- docs side button

display dialog "Add a Recent Items stack to the Dock?
This will temporarily disable both the Dock and Dashboard" buttons {cbutton, abutton, dbutton} default button 3
set rbutton to the button returned of the result
if rbutton ≠ cbutton then addStack(rbutton)


on addStack(button)
	if button = abutton then
		set side to "apps"
	else
		set side to "others"
	end if
	do shell script ("defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-" & side & " -array-add '{ \"tile-data\" = { \"list-type\" = 1; }; \"tile-type\" = \"recents-tile\"; }';killall Dock")
end addStack
Edited on Wed, Feb 3 2010 at 9:13PM PST by robg


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: macfreek57 on Mon, Feb 4 2008 at 2:42PM PST
Very sorry. The site removes the appropriate backslashes when I copy and paste the text. Let's try again. 
set dialogText to "Would you like to add a Recent Items icon to your Dock?"
set appSideScript to "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{ \"tile-data\" = { \"list-type\" = 1; }; \"tile-type\" = \"recents-tile\"; }';killall Dock"
set docSideScript to "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ \"tile-data\" = {\"list-type\" = 1; }; \"tile-type\" = \"recents-tile\"; }';killall Dock"

display dialog dialogText buttons {"No Thanks", "Yes! Left Side, Please!", "Yes! Right Side, Please!"} default button 1

if button returned of result is "Yes! Left Side, Please!" then
	do shell script appSideScript
else
	if button returned of result is "Yes! Right Side, Please!" then
		do shell script docSideScript
	end if
end if
Edited on Wed, Feb 3 2010 at 9:14PM PST by robg


[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: macfreek57 on Mon, Feb 4 2008 at 2:44PM PST
Sorry about that. I've reposted the script and doubled the forward slashes which were being removed by the site. It should work now.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Add a smart folder to Stacks
Authored by: badolina on Tue, Feb 5 2008 at 1:35PM PST
Hi,
This is all nice and good. However, far from being satisfactory.
Recent items includes many items I do not care about. I would rather have recent items from my Documents folder or any other folder. That's what smart folders are for.

However, there is no way to add a smart folder (or any other folder) to Stacks. It will create a folder, but will not open up like it should be doing. Is there any way I miss to do that?

[ Reply to This | # ]
Working in 10.5.2?
Authored by: unfletch on Mon, Feb 11 2008 at 9:34PM PST
I think today's 10.5.2 update may have killed this hint. Can anyone confirm?

I had the recent things stack in 10.5.1, removed it a couple of weeks ago, updated to 10.5.2 today, and now I can't seem to get the stack to reappear with the defaults command in the article.

[ Reply to This | # ]
Working in 10.5.2?
Authored by: jdb8167 on Tue, Feb 26 2008 at 11:30AM PST
Works for me in 10.5.2. Try deleting all your persistent-others as per the hints above. That will delete all your stacks and docked folders though.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: richmundslut on Sat, Mar 29 2008 at 6:31AM PDT
Is there a way to only include applications which are not already in the dock?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: dandj on Mon, Mar 31 2008 at 4:04AM PDT
Make a folder containing aliases of the applications you want and drag it to the dock. It will become a stack.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: mthomasdo on Tue, Apr 1 2008 at 7:24PM PDT
How about a way to have a "most commonly used applications" stack?

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: finnson4 on Fri, Apr 11 2008 at 4:46PM PDT
Has anyone found a way to make the stack show up as a fan instead of the default grid? I really like this tip, but I would like to use the fan option instead.

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: ryan.axiom on Fri, Apr 25 2008 at 1:06PM PDT
I believe it will be impossible to make this a fan. The key for the fan property is the "showas" key and you can assign a value to it (usually 1 is fan, 2 grid, 3 list and 4 is automatic), but that value has no effect on the display style for the recents stack.
You can experiment with this on your own, but the dock automatically overwrites your changes eliminating the entire showas key for the stack you are looking at after being killed and closing the text document editor that I was using.

You can view the text of the dock plist by opening yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist You can use either the preference editor or your favorite notepad program. If you are using the text editor I would search for the name of a stack near the recents stack and it will help you find it.

Good luck

[ Reply to This | # ]
10.5: Add a 'recent things' stack to the Dock
Authored by: stitch626 on Sun, May 11 2008 at 3:59PM PDT
Hi, anyway to have something similar but with running things????
thanks

[ Reply to This | # ]

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