In MacOS X, Finder windows get sucked into the dock. This is cute, but one reason I prefer the popup windows of Classic MacOS is the ability to constantly see the name of the folder a the tab along the bottom of the screen.

In MacOS X, you see only the folders lined up in the dock. Hovering the mouse cursor is the only way to distinguish their contents.

Perhaps most people do not use Classic Popup windows. To find out, this week's Polling Place asks, "Do/did you use Popup Folders in MacOS Classic?"

I used popup folders all the time in OS 9.

I do not miss them at all in OS X. I might use them if they were there, but I have adjusted to the new navigation in X. Between column view and folders in the dock, I am pretty happy.

That is not to say there is not room for improvement. For instance, I would like to see "left one column" and "right one column" buttons, as opposed to the browser-type "back" button. These would not open new columns, but would allow you to navigate any currently open columns. I hate how the window shows half of a column on the left edge when you use the arrow keys.

i used to store alias to almost every application on my computer in a tabbed folder. not only did it make it easy for me to launch my apps - i could also drag a file to the tab, make it expand, and then drop the file onto the application which i wanted to open the file with.
the only problem i have with the dock in osx is that the folders does not expand as i drag a file on top of them.

I effectively never used pop-up folders in MacOS 9, but I always have 4-6 folders in the dock in MacOS X (which I now use 99.9% of the time at home, and at work as soon as the performa 6400 is replaced with a mac capable of running MacOS X)

Each folder in the dock has a custom icon if it doesn't already have something that labels it
(my standard folders are... Applications, Applicatons (MacOS 9), , Documents, and Downloads

by default, the Applications folder has a custom icon already, same with the active user folder (it has that house icon), and the Documents folder for my user also has a default icon.

which leaves the Applications (MacOS 9), and Downloads folders that I have custom icons for.

if it wasn't for my cool icons for my hard drives, I wouldn't even have them showing on the desktop ;)

Yeah, i use them, a rather nifty peice of programing i must say.

I try to keep a neet desktop, with OS9, with an aqua scheme, and a thing called x-launch that keeps all of my stuff in (its like the bar in osx, well the closest thing ive ever seen, better than a dock!).

so i try to have minimal icons on my desktop (l0ooks better), so i keep the pop ups in the bottom left corn, for things like res edit, and useful stuff.

I used the pop-up folders in MacOS 9 all the time...

However,
I now use Drop Drawers X to do a much better job of what I did before. (handles resoultion changes much better)

I don't know how I managed to use my computer before I discovered popup windows.
I use them for access to folders that I use a lot or that take too much navigating to get to normally.
I have never done more than try out drop drawers or whatever it's called, and anyway, you probably have to pay(I don't know this for sure), and Popups are part of the Finder:) You don't have to have an extra app running all the time, they are just there!

The only problem that I see it with the fact that pop-ups only stick to the bottom of the screen, nowhere else. I think they should be available on the sides, the bottom and the top!

"the ability to constantly see the name of the folder a the tab along the bottom of the screen. "

Valid point, but I see another use for these cuties. The primary advantage of pop-up folders: Drag&Drop Springload Collapse:

I used to have a pop-up folder filled with different folder categories such as "Icons", "Graphics", "Apps", "Mp3s", etc, so when I downloaded files from the web I would just drag the files from the download folder to the pop-up folder to wherever category they belonged in. It was efficient and simple. The the pop-up would just collapse and remain there waiting for more files. Few clicks, full drag&drop and the best integration with spring-loaded folders.

I also had pop-up folders for App launching. Another major advantage. The dock does similarly well on this area, but there is a problem: little room.(I don't want 3 custom Docks occupying the whole screen, and Yes I know the Dock is supposed to only hold the most used and frequent items, but we all need those extra apps now and then... And we need them handy.)

Now, If you need to open a graphic file in diff apps like Photoshop, Graphic Converter, JPEG-viewer, etc how would you do it? My apps pop-up folder held roughly 50 apps (aliases). I was also able to drag and drop files over these aliases( no need for the tedious File --> Open and no need for browsing through the apps folder. ) Same is applied to Mp3 players, Console Emulation Apps, Icon editors, Web-browsers....

So how do you simulate this way of browsing in OS X?

•Drop Drawers?, but it has some weird finder behaviors. Plus, tabs don't collapse as pop-up folders do. You have to manually collapse them.
•DragThing... this doesnt solve anything.
•Learns new ways.... ( some one tell me how to do these things with the same level of efficiency)

I believe when and if spring-loaded folders come back to MacOSX, we'll regain some of what pop-up folders offered. Until then...... zip

Miguel D'Amico

I hear ya man. I loved pop-up menus. I'd have a few down there set to view as buttons and it was infinitely better than the dock or the launcher.

I don't know what to do about storing files easily - I did that too. It was so nice to just drop them onto the little tabs at the bottom of my screen.

But as for launching apps, go with LaunchBar. This is just TOO cool. You set it up to scan certain areas of your hard drive for certain types of files/folders/apps (fully customizeable). Then with either a keyboard command or through a menu extra you start to type part of the name of the file/folder/app you want and it pops up a list of the closest matches. You can type the first couple letters, the last couple, some in the middle, letters that aren't even next to eachother (like "aw" for AppleWorks). And it remembers how often you use them. Like if I type just "a" it will bring up Audion first, even though AppleWorks and Amadeus and such are alphabetically first. And it supports drag and drop. In my opinion, it's MUCH more efficient than popup folders or even apps in the dock. I hardly use my dock at all except for minimizing things

Just put an apps folder in your dock.

"Just put an apps folder in your dock. "

you don't get my point....

pop-up folders and folder action scripts are great. although i haven't really used them that much over the past years, they have/had great potential in many situations. i used to use them a lot at work for different tasks... deleting temporary files, moving files/folders, resizing images, etc. now i split my computing time between OS 9.1 and 10.1.4 and miss the lack of pop-ups when in X. i also hate that the app switching toggle combo is command-tab. does this annoy anyone else? it conflicts with quark's tool palette switching! so i often just revert back to 9.1. grrr...

I used pop-up folders for a while, but gave up on them when I got DropDrawers. They are MUCH more customizable, and allow me to put clippings and other resources in drawers. Also, I can type the name and press return to launch from a drawer. You can even put AppleScripts directly into a drawer.

Pop-up folders are one thing I don't miss at all in Mac OS X. What I really miss are functional Open/Save dialog boxes. I'm really tired of how poorly they work in Mac OS X. You can't use the keyboard at all.

As tabs at the bottom, AppleScript considers folders "open" and will process files dropped into them via folder action scripts. I use one as a drop box to upload files to a server, and another as my email download folder, with garbage attachments like .exe, .vcf, and .html moved automagically to the Trash. I have little interest in X until it can do this (among other things).

I used popup windows but I used them more like launchers for freaquently used files and folders. Now in the OS X dock I feal I can do almost the same thing. I think Drop drowers is a nice utility for popup windows, and there is an OS X version. I used it for a while in OS 9.

personally I agree with all the pop up suggestions.
they are very useful indeed. They can be used for quick desk tidy jobs and as download sorters and yes, as launchers. This is the only place on the whole computer that I actually assign buttons rather than icons or list views, makes them work even better for all of the above. Yes I always wanted to put them on the sides but this is quite a difficult hack, for a newbie.
They are especially good for things dragged from browser windows,.. puts them away immediately.
I find that these are better than many of the fancy docks etc.... besides they don't cost any extra.

nope i dont use them.

one reason is the fact that they never kept
their appearance - after restart they were normal
open finder windows again : (

i also dont use tabs, or any of the
application switchers or launchers around.

i am the applemenue guy, who put aliases
of all his apps and several important "work"
( = files) folders in the applemenue.

I did use the Pop up menus a bit in OS 9, but have personally found that the dock is a great tool for storing my pic.s, doc.s, frequent apps.

I love being able hide everything on my desktop into my dock. I can quickly open, drop, fish/find, directly from the dock. The added benefit of the dock is that you can create app. launching folders in the dock. The dock allows for menus for quick easy selection and drop folders for quickly storing items.

The only thing I would want added in OS X is the spring loaded folders from 9. It was so handy to be able to click - drag - spring open a folder - spring open a subfolder - and drop.

mars.

Pop-up windows rule.

Items are far too small to easily identify when minimized into the dock, rendering this function completely useless and an overall hinderance.

Pop-up windows allow easy identification, quick access, and significantly improved/speedier gateway to important and freuqently used files.