This all sounds rather fishy to me, and I'm still not convinced there is any real benefit outside of OCD-ness.
Forbidding things in stocks is a terribly inefficient and clumsy way to control what your workshops make. I find it a bit shocking that everybody seems to do this, actually. You can do the same thing with two actions per workshop only with a really simple fort layout, in a more intuitive and much more productive way...
Ok, this post wins the thread. Seriously, why would you waste part of a single dwarf's time so that in seconds you can control what your dwarves build with, what they keep, what they dump/melt, etc? Instead you could .. [page-long description of an overcomplicated and extraordinarily player time-consuming and dwarf labor-intensive method to control item production follows]
Edit: not to disrespect GavJ's method, I can see how it has some advantages over mass forbidding via stocks; it does allow much more fine control over what each individual workshop uses. But in a thread that started with "why would I waste one dwarf's time keeping records?", it's hilarious that your solution would consume a lot more dwarf labor, e.g. hauling rocks to stockpiles and building this contraption. Not to mention the crucial part (for me at least), it'd take far more of the player's time to setup and constantly micromanage, and my time is more valuable than the time of my many useless haulers.
I'm not sure you really understand how the method works...
If you mass forbid everything except microcline, to make some microcline cabinets, it requires:
PLAYER EFFORT) clicking "forbid" on every non-economic stone in the list on the z menu (which, incidentally, you can do without any bookkeeper), or going to stocks and forbidding all stone (three keyboard actions), and then scrolling to microcline in the non-alphabetical list and allowing it (fourth).
DWARF EFFORT) your skilled mason then has to walk across your entire fort to wherever you happen to have a dump with microcline and haul every piece of microcline over to his workshop. Unless you have set up one nearby stock area with a whole bunch of stockpiles for every type of stone (which equals or exceeds my method's setup time)
SETUP) negligible digging wise, same as other method. As far as stockpiles, if you don't want your mason running halfway across your entire fort for every stone, you will have to set up your stockpiles custom-made for different stones anyway, thus same as other method.
If you use workshops with 3 doors, it requires:
PLAYER EFFORT) forbidding one door and unforbidding another (2 keyboard actions, and no menus). Faster and also more visually intuitive since you can just look at the room with the color you want and click that door.
DWARF EFFORT) Same exact amount of hauling has to get done, except this time, it is UNSKILLED dwarves hauling microcline from wherever it is to the spot right next to your mason, and the more valuable skilled dwarf spends more of his time (easily 4x more of his time if he is legendary and makes things nearly instantly) actually using his valuable skill.
SETUP TIME) I made that example i posted as an image in like 30 seconds of designations + 6 one-time stockpile designations, same as mass forbidding.
Plus the MASSIVE benefit of being able to produce multiple material-specific things in different workshops in different materials, which there is no way to do at all with mass-forbid. This benefit comes at zero extra cost to players or dwarves.
My method either equals or exceeds mass forbidding in every way: setup time, player effort per job, dwarf effort per job, flexibility, and skill efficiency.
Not to mention that the way he has it set up in those pictures doesn't actually prevent the dwarf from using the items in the central stockpile while he's supposedly limiting them to only the peripheral piles. The fact that the walking distance is longer doesn't matter, only the absolute distance. Not to mention that if he happens to have more stones above or below those, too, could be considered closer than any of his specific-stone piles.
I use it and it works... occasionally the dwarves will grab some random stone on their way from somewhere for the first item in the queue, but everything after that comes from the intended stockpile.
Perhaps absolute distance is used for the first one or something?
Either way, if you don't believe me, then it is trivial to make it absolute distance closest, too. Just build one of the custom material type stockpiles in the 3x3 directly above the workshop and one below, instead of right behind it like in the example with the doors on the stairwells. shrug.