I can’t take complete credit for this–some of the information in this tip is thanks to “A New Mac Tip a Day. However, the icons used and the method for getting them is unique to this tip.
I have personally always liked a “uniform” look to the old contextual folders I used to keep in the right hand side of my dock in Tiger. As long as each folder is identifiable, it gives the dock a cleaner look–especially when you compare it to the current “stacks” mentality of Leopard.
To complete this trick, you need to understand the concept that whatever item is sorted at the top of a stack will act as the displaying icon of that stack in the dock–a fact that is obviously annoying and counter-intuitive. This tip will use that to our advantage, though!
1) Let’s begin by choosing one stack icon to change. Let’s go with “Applications” for now. If you open your main HD directory, the applications folder has the nice clean blue “applications” folder. Right click on that folder and choose “get info.” The familiar info pane pops up for our Applications folder.
2) In the info pane, go up to the top to click and highlight the Application folder icon. Copy it.
3) Now create a new folder on your desktop.
4) Right-click on this newly created folder, bringing up the info pane once again. This time, go up to the top of the pane, click once on the icon to highlight it, and PASTE the Application icon you copied in step 2.
5) Now you have a folder with an “Application” folder look to it on your desktop. Here’s where the fun part comes in: Rename the folder to “0Applications_Label” — or something similar, as long as the number “0″ is the firs character in the name.
6) Drag this newly renamed folder into your Application folder or Stack (either way is fine, as long as it’s in there!).
7) Right click on the Applications stack in your dock, and make sure to sort the contents by “name.”
And that’s it! Now you have a nice new “Applications folder” in your dock, and no matter what the contents are, you will always see the Application folder icon there.
Repeat these steps for any stacks you keep in the right hand side of the dock. I did it for 3 other folders: My “Home” folder, my “Downloads” folder, and a personal “To Be Sorted” folder I use daily. In each case, I made a new folder, added identifiable icons, renamed each (“0Downloads_Label,” etc.), and put them in their respective stacks. The result is below:
magnified:
So far, the only drawback is that you can still see some “lower leve” stacking of icons within each stack, but that’s ok. It looks better, and works better!
The only thing missing is contextual browsing! 
November 12th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Hey my images went missing
I’m not sure what happened!
November 12th, 2007 at 10:30 am
better?
November 12th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Ha! yes
Thanks!
November 12th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Hey, I made this customization too. The only thing with folders it’s that they’re not tall enough to hide entirely object’s icon behind and they exceed the bottom. I personally used wide icons to prevent this.
You can see some examples here: http://web.mac.com/letnic/SITOUEBE/DOCKZ.html
November 12th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Niclet, you are 100% right– That’s what I meant by the “lower level icons” still being a bit visible. However, I know this might sound a little kooky, but I actually don’t mind it as much because it actually looks like stuff “Inside” the folder, rather than “behind it.”
Your custom icons are very cool! Any idea why there is still some “peeking through” on yours, though? Maybe it’s ‘Stacks’ fighting back!
November 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Well I started to made those icons with some David Lanham’s (©) “Agua Extras vol 1 Mac” and “Agua System Mac” (http://www.iconfactory.com) gorgeous icons as a base and rearranged them for my personal use only. This said, the way Stacks behave with the false perspective, gave me also the idea of an open cardboard box icon, all icon tips showing on the top! What do you think?
November 12th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
This is a nice work around and I have seen it prior to seeing it on this site. It does work and works decent. The only issue I see with this is the fact that Apple forces us to use work arounds like this rather than including the seemingly simple functionality of changing the icons as we would any others.
November 12th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I’m going to fiddle with this hack tonight if I get some time. It’s cool.
Joseph, agree about Apple and workarounds. Perhaps after some feedback they can allow this kind of functionality in an update, who knows!
November 12th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Check out these icon replacements for the folders. Makes the stacks look really nice.
November 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Hey blaze, cool icons! I think my only *minor* issue might be that the combination of transparency and shortness (height) might allow too much of the messy stacks to show through in my dock. lol
Other than that, they are really well done.
November 13th, 2007 at 3:19 am
if you want to keep them sorted by date, create an applescript that takes the folder with a custom icon, and then modifies it with the current date and time. Then, enable folder actions for the desktop, and use this applescript as the folder action, so that every time a new item is placed on the desktop (or wherever you want it to act) the iconed folder is updated, and so still appears at the front.
November 13th, 2007 at 5:29 am
Thanks for the link Blaze, they’re nice icons. That was exactly the idea of an open box I meant, but these are very well done! However, you’re right rockmsockm: although it’s a minor *issue* the shortness and the transparency is not very convenient (for me). I rather prefer them opaque with only the top sides transparent, IMO.
November 14th, 2007 at 2:11 am
Don’t want to sound harsh, but this ‘tip’ is getting a bit old allready, really.
It’s a good tip, I am happily using it myself with the same icons Blaze pointed to, but I fail to see what’s unique about ‘the icons used and the method for getting them’…
Come on, they are the default icons for these folders, and the way you copied them to another folder is just the standard way to copy icons that’s been known and documented for a long time (even by Apple themselves).
Having said that, I didn’t come here to nitpick, I do want to contribute;
allmost everywhere I read about this tip people are using names starting with a zero. This makes for ugly names in my opinion, but luckily that can easily be avoided.
Just begin your name with a space, like ” Aplications” of just use only a space as a name. It will have the same effect, but look much nicer when your stack is shown as a grid or fan, or otherwise in the finder.
Hope this helpes someone, and lets hope Apple comes up with a more elegant solution for this…
November 14th, 2007 at 5:46 am
The OS has been out for 18 days–so no tip is “old,” really. lol
BTW, you may have misread the the statement, “the method for getting the icons and the icons themselves is unique to this tip.” It was only meant to differentiate it ONLY from from the tip given at “a new mac tip a day,” nothing else
Also, just so you know, you’d be shocked to know how many users do not know the “standard way to copy mac icons.” There are people on Apple support forums who still don’t know how to do it. It was included for clarity’s sake only.
Anyhow, the tip/idea was not present anywhere on this site. It would be silly not to include it on a site titled “leopard tricks” even if someone may have read a iteration of it somewhere else
November 14th, 2007 at 6:04 am
everyone relax and take a deep breath
any tip or trick is good, doesn’t matter how old it is, the more the merrier.
sredlums, i like the idea of using spaces in the names instead of zero’s, nice one!
November 14th, 2007 at 8:28 am
@rockmsockm:
I guess I did sound harsh afterall, so sorry for that. I am really absorbing all the info and tips I can get on Leopard, but ofcourse I should realize that most other people do have other things to do :-/ Anyway, maintaining a site like this must be a lot of work, and it’s your site, so you should do exactly as you please with it and post what you want. It’s appreciated by me, and I am sure many others. Keep up the good work!
@James:
Glad you like my suggestion. Another idea is to use a • in front of a name (by using ‘Option + 8′). That will put it in front also, just like a zero or a space will.
I use these dots a lot, for folders that I have made myself, and that are ‘permanent’. I do that for a few reasons; these are my most important folders, so the dot puts them on top in column-view. The are also more recognisable, making it easier to distinguish between my own permanent folders and other folders that can either be temporary folder made by me, or by an app or that are part of the system.
Anybody else doing this?
November 14th, 2007 at 9:23 am
sredlums, actually I run the site, rockmsockm submit’s tips and tricks (as do a bunch of other people) feel free to register and start submitting! Anyone is welcome to submit a tip or trick!
November 14th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Sredlums, YES I too use the good old •!!!!! have been since the dawn of OS 8 (or 7). Still use it in iTunes, Finder, and other apps.
I recommend • to all.. it’s under-rated!!! :• )
November 14th, 2007 at 9:48 am
James II, you crack me up
hehe
November 14th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Sredlums, no problemo! BTW, I’m flattered to hear someone thinks I run this site
But I sadly can’t take credit for that! lol… to be honest, I just wanted you to know that I was aware I wasn’t ‘re-inventing the wheel’ before I submitted that tip, but I always try to write assuming people might know very little about the OS 
Anyhow, I forgot all about • ! My apologies to •…
November 17th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Problem with the solution is its sorted by name. I have a better solution that keeps it sorted by date. I changed the year in the system preferences to 2018 or perhaps 2100 instead of 2007, open the icon I want then save it as. I then simply drag this icon into the downloads folder and walla! it will always stay on top until 2018!
November 27th, 2007 at 7:13 am
is there any way to make the folder 0Applications_Label invisible so its not seen in your stack and the apps folder and same with downloads and documents
November 27th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Hmmm, interesting question… That might actually sabotage’ the trick in a way. Stacks uses the first VISIBLE item in the folder as it’s display icon, so I wonder if making it “invisible” might cause trouble.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Nice tutorial! But I just discovered that this problem with Leopard has been fixed with the release of 10.5.2. See: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071102051313346
October 31st, 2008 at 3:00 am
Hey, dunno if it’s been included in a new update but nowadays you can simply ctrl-click the stack and select “Display as > Folder” and it’ll display as just the folder Icon!
December 8th, 2008 at 5:21 am
Amazing trick! It is like magic. I tried so hard to make my dock like this before reading your article, but I failed… Anyway, thanks a lot.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:06 am
[...] dock (where minimized applications go), and you can’t define an icon for them, without some trickery. And even then, the icons don’t look the way I would like them too. Stacks have some real [...]
July 19th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Nice tips thanks. Works!