This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
When using stacks from the dock have you ever used grid view? Personally I prefer this layout. Upon rolling the mouse over any of the icons or folders nothing is highlighted therefore relying on me to be able to follow the mouse pointer.
A simple Terminal command can make this process far easier.
To locate Terminal simply navigate to Applications > Utilities and within the Utilities folder you will locate Terminal.
Then simply enter the following then press the return key:
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean yes
Then enter the following then press the return key:
killall Dock
Upon successful entry your stacks view will look like this:
As you can see from the image above if you look at mail it is now highlighted making the selection far easier to identify without the need to follow the mouse pointer.
Should you wish to return to the default settings then you can simply launch Terminal again and enter the following, then press the return key on your keyboard:
defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilite-stack -boolean no
Then enter the following, then press the return key:
killall Dock
Upon successful entry you will notice that the stack view will return to the default settings and the icon your mouse is currently rolled over will not longer be highlighted.
Warning: Terminal commands have the ability to change the running operation of your Mac. Please copy and paste the Terminal command as shown directly from the article. Mistakes in keystokes can cause your Mac to perform differently and may in-fact result in a loss of data. It is advised that you only use the Terminal if you feel comfortable with the command line interface. If you are ever unsure please consult your local tech support person.