This is a little trick you can do in the Finder under System 7. I call it "Superdrop."
In order for this to work you have to first turn on the "Always snap to grid" option in the Views control panel. Do that now if it's not already on.
Now take a look at the four icons provided. Each one depicts a small button, and if you look at the buttons carefully, you'll notice that they are placed in 4 positions relative to the overall icon grid: Upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right. Each of these custom icons is pasted onto an ordinary folder. You can double-click one of them to see this.
Now, click on the "button" in the icon called "Folder 2", and begin to drag it. Drag it over to the general vicinity of the "Folder 1" icon, but don't drop it yet. Notice that when the tip of your cursor is touching the "Folder 1" button, the button becomes dark. If you were to let go right now, Folder 2 would be placed inside Folder 1. This is not what you want to do. Instead, move your cursor so that it is just slightly to the right of the Folder 1 button, like this:
Now you can let go.
Hopefully, you'll now see the two little buttons sitting neatly next to each other. If you only see one button, it means that you dropped Folder 2 into Folder 1, and you have to double-click Folder 1 to get it out.
Now do the same with the other two button icons. Drop them onto the Folder 1 / Folder 2 conglomerate, but make sure they don't actually go inside the folders.
With any luck, you now have what appears to be a single large icon comprised of 4 little buttons arranged in a square like this:
This is a Superdrop.
If the usefulness of this is not readily apparent, read on.
Now click on any file or folder you have hanging around on your hard disk, and drag it over to the Superdrop. As your cursor passes over each little button, the button will darken and the name of the Superdrop will appear to change to the name of that particular folder. What you have here is four folders, all fully accessible, yet consuming the space of only one icon. Isn't the Mac wonderful?
Enterprising souls will soon realize the potential for making Superdrops out of application aliases, for quick launching or drag-and-drop convenience.
In any case, it's something I really like, and I you do too. But don't thank me. Thank Apple.
