DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I discovered something pertaining to stacking in Lightroom, which I thought I'd share with other LR users. I attempted to stack some photos, and when I right-clicked to reach the stacking menus, they weren't there. I went to the Photo > Stacking pull down, and the stacking choices were grayed out. What I eventually discovered was that I was in the All Photograph section of the catalog. When I went to the individual directory where the photos reside, the stacking choices were restored.

Speaking of stacking, I have some questions pertaining to the topic:
1. Sometimes when I select a group of photos and click on Group Into Stack, it also collapses the stack. Sometimes not. Why?
2. Is there a quick way to designate the photo that's at the top of the stack? I thought it might be controlled by the order the photos were selected, but this doesn't work consistently. I end up using the Move Down in Stack feature to get the one I want to the top.
3. More generally, what would be great would be the ability to identify the photos in a stack, which photo should be on top, and collapse the stack, all in one command. I don't suppose this is possible, is it?

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I always use auto stacking with my editing, when I create a panoramic shot out of 3 or 5 (or more images) the resulting stack ends up with the created panoramic shot at the end of the stack, easy to drag the image in library mode to the front of the stack though (top).

Linary Loc: UK

Q2 Highlight the image you want to be top of the stack, then shift+click or control+click on the other images - the top image will be highlighted "brighter" than the others, then Group in Stack.

Workflow:
Select the images as described, then Control+G to create the stack then S (just the keyboard letter S) to toggle the stack from expanded to collapsed or vice versa.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Thanks! Great suggestions.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Thanks, Don.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

My suggestion to you is to forget Lightroom and/or Photoshop for stacking. Use Zerene or Helicon instead, they both work much better, quicker, and easier. Not sure about Helicon, but Zerene offers a free one-month trial.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

We're not talking about the same topic here. When I want to do focus stacking, I use Helicon Focus. Here, we're talking about stacking several photos into a group, so that, in the Lightroom Grid view, only one of those photos is immediately visible. They're nested, if you will. Imagine you took 5 shots for HDR, then created the HDR shot. You could stack the HDR shot on top of the other 5, so only the top shot showed in Grid view. It makes looking through the photos much faster.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Sorry, I misunderstood. I'm using Zerene but I'd be interested to know how you like Helicon. I'm very interested in the Helicon FB Tube but cannot find any info from actual users.
JackM