[John_Holder]

This will be obvious to many but newcomers to Mac OS X, especially former OS 9 users who miss the Apple menu may find this tip useful and may have missed it when it has appeared before by others.
Also, there are a number of very useful dock organization utilities out there that do the same thing (and lots more) described in this tip, but this is something you can do with Mac OS X built-in capabilities.
Create a folder in your Documents folder (or wherever else you'd like) and call it Apple Menu (or whatever else you'd like.)
Place within the Apple Menu folder aliases to your favorite applications, documents etc. You probably will want to create subfolders within the Apple Menu called Applications, Documents etc. and place the aliases in their respective subfolders.
Now drag the Apple Menu folder to the Dock (you have to drag it to the right of the divider line, where the Trash Can is.) Now you have Apple Menu style access to your favorite "things" without taking up a lot of space in your Dock. When you click on the Apple Menu folder in the Dock and hold the mouse down (it's important that you hold the mouse down, don't just do a single click) a list of your "things" in your Apple Menu will appear from which you can choose. If you choose an alias to an application, that application will launch; if it's an alias to a document that document will open in its respective application.
If you've created subfolders in your Apple Menu they will appear and you can choose from the items within them by tracking the mouse over one of the subfolders (and any subfolders they may contain, there is no limit to how deeply you can nest the subfolders.)
One of the "things" you can put in your Apple Menu are bookmarks to your favorite websites. Just drag the current URL in your browser's window to your Apple Menu folder. This may seem redundant (because it is) as you probably already have bookmarks organized in your browser but I find it useful to keep certain bookmarks in my Apple Menu so I can browse to them directly from my desktop.
If you want to edit the contents of your Apple Menu just click once on it (don't hold the mouse down) and it will open up in a Finder window.
Again, this tip was not meant to be a great revelation, but it's been awhile since it's been described and I hope someone finds it useful. Happy New Year!

[Earthling7]

Thanks!
This is exactly what we, ex Win-losers need to see. A confirmation that OSX really is 1000% better than that crash-prone, virus-infested, teletubbie interface from Redmond /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ...

[maclust]

Thanks a lot, what a great tip!
I hope people post more such items.
Much appreciated.

[jkthompson01]

Awesome... but can you assign an icon to folders? I'd like to have an iLife folder on my dock with the iLife icon.

[lkalliance]

Yes you can.
(1) Create your folder.
(2) Assign the icon to that folder. If you've got the icon living somewhere, copy it. If it's the icon of some other app or file or folder, that's easiest: select the source item, choose "Get Info", select and copy the icon in the upper left of the Info window, then do a "Get Info" on your new folder, select the generic folder icon in the Info window and paste. Voil!
(3) Then drag your folder to the Dock as instructed by Mr. Holder.
The dock icon (AND the real source folder for it) will have the new icon. Just make sure you assign the icon to the folder BEFORE you add it to the Dock. If it's already in the Dock when you assign the icon, you can remove it from the Dock and then add it back in.

[jkthompson01]

Thank you. It worked. How can I make the icon transparent? I copied an iLife icon I found on Google Image Search, but it has a white background.

[lkalliance]

I would do it in Photoshop. I'd not be surprised if there were a cheaper and quicker way to do it with a shareware app, but I don't know it off the top of my head I'm afraid. Perhaps someone will come along and suggest something.
Another way to go would be to try to find a custom-made icon that also suits your needs, and is already in icon format with transparent background. One site you might find useful for this is XIcons.com.
Good luck!