Other Sites
Apple includes a selection of basic widgets with the Tiger install, including a Calculator, a Current Weather Readout for your local area, a Stock Ticker, a Calendar, a Clock, and nine others, but there are literally hundreds more widgets you can get, many of them free, from third-party developers.
Indeed, it is very easy to go a bit ape and start installing a large numbers of widgets, which are small files, quick to download, and simple to install. Just double click on the icon of the the compressed widget file, and it will appear on your Dashboard with a dialog asking if you want to keep or discard it.
The problem is that you can find your Dashboard filling up very quickly, so some organizational strategies are in order.
Moving widgets around is easy; just click on the widget and drag it wherever you wish. You can also close the widgets by pressing the option key while mousing across the widget surface interface. A circle button will appear in the top left corner, which, when clicked on, will make the widget disappear. Alternatively, if you keep the Widget Bar open, all widgets open will display close buttons.
p
To show the Widget Bar, click the circular "plus" button at the lower left corner of the Dashboard, and the Widget Bar will appear at the bottom of the screen, is plain icons for all of your installed widgets, open or closed. If you have a lot of widgets, the Widget Bar may have to scroll to display them all.
Widgets appear in the Widget Bar in alphabetical order by default, but clicking the "manage widgets" button (which appears when the Widget Bar is displayed) will summon a dialog that allows you to sort them by date instead.
You can also rearrange widgets manually if you wish by opening your Library Widgets Folder and renaming widgets, which may also be deleted by removing them from the Widgets Folder to the Trash.
When opening closed widgets from the Widget Bar, if you just click on the icon, the widget will appear in the center of the dashboard and usually have to be dragged to the desired location. You can also just drag the icon directly to the desired location.
You can toggle the Widget Bar open and closed by pressing Command > =.
To refresh information in a widget, highlight it with a click and press Command R. The widget will twist-scramble itself and then reappear with the upgraded data. If your data comes from the Internet, you will of course have to be online for this to work.
You can open multiple copies of the same widget (for instance if you want to monitor the time in more than one city) by just clicking its icon, several times in the Widget Bar.
For an entertaining diversion, hold the shift key down while you open the Dashboard (I found that this only works when using the keystroke) and watched the widgets appear in 3-D motion.
Charles W. Moore
Tags: Blogs ď Hands On Mac ď Hot Topics ď News ď
