How to organize the macos mojave desktop into stacks

One of the best new features offered in macOS Mojave 10.14, in addition to the dark mode, is the Batteries function, thanks to which our desktop will always be clean and organized, automatically, regardless of the number of files that we have deposited in it. The new function will be especially useful for those users who are used to saving many files on your desktop because with Batteries , all those files will be organized in small heaps, thus eliminating chaos and clutter. Let's see how it works.

Use Stacks and say goodbye to chaos on the macOS Mojave desktop

If you are one of those who cannot stand it and thanks to the public beta you already have macOS Mojave installed on your Mac, just as I did almost the first day, Stacks is one of the features that you will like the most along with the dark mode. Unfortunately, it is only available for the desktop, but hopefully soon Apple will also expand it to individual folders because it would be wonderful. Apple defines what Pilas is:

Pilas clears your desktop by putting together files that are related to each other. Group them by type and you will see how your images, documents, spreadsheets, PDF and others are arranged. You can also do it by date to classify your work from different periods. And if you tag your files with project metadata, such as customer names, stacks will allow you to manage different projects more efficiently. Hover over a stack to scroll through all the files, or click to expand the content and open what you need. Organizing is no longer what it was.

Enable and disable batteries

This feature is not activated by default in macOS Mojave, so you must enable it yourself. But rest assured, you only need a couple of clicks: right-click on the desktop and select "Use batteries" from the menu that appears on the screen.

Once you have activated the function you will see how quickly and automatically all the files you have on your desktop are organized into stacks according to the type of file. Some stacks will include documents, others will include pdf files, images will form another stack, as well as screenshots (in a separate stack), and so on.

MacOS Mojave Desktop Before Enabling Stacks | IMAGE: MacRumors

MacOS Mojave desktop after enabling Stacks | IMAGE: MacRumors

If for some reason that my imperfect mind cannot understand, you want to abandon this option and return to a traditional and complete view of all your files on the desktop, simply right-click on the desktop again and uncheck the option "Use Batteries".

Viewing files in a stack

To see all the files that are included in any of the stacks created on your desktop, simply click on the stack in question, and it will expand, allowing you to see the files at the same time that it shows a small arrow so you can know at all times the stack you are viewing. With the stack expanded, if you click on a file, it will open in the corresponding application (for example, a pdf document will open in Preview, unless you have previously chosen to change the default app to open this type of file).

Expanded stack on macOS Mojave desktop | IMAGE: MacRumors

When you're done, click the stack again to close it and make it an organized stack.

And if you want to open all the stacks at once to see what they all contain, keep the Option key pressed while clicking on any of the stacks, and they will all open at once. To close them all simultaneously, repeat the same action.