Dashboard


Dashboard, accessible from the Dock (it's the gauge icon on the left), opens a collection of small programs, which Apple calls widgets. These appear on a transparent screen layer placed over your Desktop so you can access them quickly. Notice how the layer darkens the screen (Figure 8.14).

Figure 8.14. Dashboard is a new Mac OS X Tiger feature that overlays small utility applications on the Desktop. The Calculator, World Clock, Calendar, Phone Book, and Weather widgets are shown here.


The widgets themselves are small, useful applications that provide tools, such as a calculator or clock, or that access information, such as a weather forecast. Widgets are also available from other companies, some for free and others for sale. Visit www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/dashboard/ to see a list of available widgets. (Remember: All URLs in this book can be found as links at www.peachpit.com/coursey.)

Widgets can be set up by rolling your cursor over them and then clicking the small italic letter i that lights up. Clicking an empty part of the screen (instead of a widget) closes the Dashboard.

You can select the individual widgets displayed on the Dashboard from a collection that appears when you click the circled plus (+) sign in the lower-left corner of the Dashboard screen. This opens the Widget bar, a panel of widgets at the bottom of the Dashboard (Figure 8.15). You can drag multiple copies of an item onto the Dashboard if, for example, you need multiple world clocks or weather forecasts.

Figure 8.15. You can choose among a variety of applications, called widgets, which you can drag onto your Dashboard.


To remove a widget from the Dashboard desktop, open the plus (+) sign menu, which opens the widget collection and also places an X on each desktop widget. Clicking the X of an individual widget removes it from the Dashboard desktop. Clicking the X on the widget panel closes the panel. Or you can hold down Option and place your cursor over a widget; click the X that appears in the top-left corner of the widget.

The Dashboard is another new feature of Mac OS X Tiger.



The Mac mini Guidebook A practical, hands-on book for everyoneincluding Windows usersmoving to Apple's compact computer
The Mac mini Guidebook A practical, hands-on book for everyoneincluding Windows usersmoving to Apple's compact computer
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 146

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