Dashboard - a bunch of helpers
Previously we looked at Exposé and how it helps to quickly find running applications. Today, we will look at another great tool of Mac OS X .
The Dashboard is a space for a collection of mini applications serving one specific purpose, like showing you the time, weather forecasts, translate text, and so on. You will see, that there is something for everyone. Engage!
Basic usage
Dashboard is always running in the background, to display it click its icon in the Dock or simply press the F12 key.
Dashboard is displayed, overlaying your desktop. The mini programs running in Dashboard are called Widgets and you see a bunch of them right now, such as a calculator, a weather forecast, a clock and a calendar.
So, without opening any application, just by pressing the F12 key, you can display a lot of information and hide it as quickly as you brought it up.
That is nice and all, you might say, but if I want to know what the weather is like, I look out of the window I don’t need it on my computer. Well, these widgets are not the only ones available, in fact there are so many more….and many more.
Adding Widgets
To see what’s available just click the plus-icon in the lower right corner to bring up a list of installed widgets.
This brings up a bar of available widgets. If you find one, you are interested in, just click it to add it your Dashboard. Let’s try it with the Address Book widget.
We used Address Book before, so we already have some information in it. The purpose of this widget is to display the information which is stored in Address Book.
To rearrange your widgets, just drag them around on the Dashboard as you want.
Now, let’s perform a search for a contact from our Address Book, say John. You see, as you type, your contacts are searched. Just click on one of the search results to open the Address Book card of that contact.
You see all entered information of that contact. As you move the mouse cursor over the different data, you see that you can click it. Try it out!
Clicking the phone number displays it big on your screen, clicking the address takes you straight to Google Maps, displaying the location, and so on. Very handy!
Adding more Widgets
As said before, there are many more widgets than those. When you have the bar at the lower end of the screen with the available widgets open, click the arrow on its left or right side to see the other installed widgets.
But there are so many more widgets, just click on the Manage Widgets button in the lower right corner.
A list of all installed widgets is displayed. More important, below the list there is a button called More Widgets. Do we want to click it? Oh, yeah! It takes you directly to the huge widget repository at Apple.
Select a widget from the Top Widgets list, the Widget browser or the Staff picks list.
Installing a Widget
As an example, let’s select the Google Gmail widget. It displays your the new messages in your Gmail-Inbox right on your Dashboard. So you don’t need to go and log in all the time, just to see if you have any new messages. You have your unread messages right there - all the time.
The widget is inside the “Email & Messaging” category, you can look for it yourself or just click here to open up its description. Click the Download button to download the widget.
After the download is done, the Widget Installer will automatically ask you if you want install the widget.
Clicking Install will bring up Dashboard and the new widget, waiting to be configured. Enter your Email address and your password. Click Done and enjoy your unread Gmail emails on your Dashboard!
Click on any message to open it in your web browser or Inbox or Compose to, well, go to your Inbox or compose a new message.
Configuring a widget
Almost every widget has some settings to configure (as email and password for the Gmail widget before).
They are located on the “backside” of it. To access it, move your mouse of a widget and locate the small “i” icon in one of the widget’s corners.
Removing a widget
To remove a widget from your Dashboard, click on the plus sign in the lower right corner.
Doing so, you will see, that at the top left corner of every widget an x-symbol comes up. Click it to remove a widget from your Dashboard.
To completely delete a widget from your hard drive, do the following:
- click the plus sign
- click on Manage Widgets
- locate the widget on the list and click the delete button on the right side
- Confirm and the widget is moved to the Trash.
That’s everything for now. Explore the big range of widgets available, add some to your Dashboard and be happy about a little help from your new found friends.
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Tags: Dashboard, expose, widgets
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