Using Dashboard Widgets on the desktop
mck (0 pencils) | Thu, 2005-08-18 15:22
If you would like to use a Dashboard widget on the desktop, click and hold its icon in the Dashboard bar, and press F12. The widget will be transferred to your desktop with a gigantic ripple, and will float over everything on your desktop. It only stays there until the next time when Dashboard is used, after that, it disappears from the desktop. Nonetheless, it is useful for developers and people who want some information from a widget on the desktop for a bit, but only temporarily. While developing the Creativebits widget, we kept the widget on the desktop all the time, pressing Cmd-R to reload it to update changes in the code. Spiffy :-)
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Dude, this is awesome! BTW, for those who are using non-Apple keyboards, which I am, F11 does the trick also.
Noticed you have ColourMod selected there ;) Good choice!
ColourMod is sweet!
A friend of mine wrote a program called Colour Selector (www.telcontar.net) - maybe you should check it out for ideas on the next version of ColourMod, hmm Teevio? ;-)
Thanks! I will check this program out and consider what to add.
I`ve noticed that i can`t use dropdown menus when a widget is floating on the desktop. This means that i can`t configre certain widgets.
Yeah, that's just how it is. Good catch.
Is there a way to drag more than one to the Desktop in some way?
Btw: http://creativebits.org/mac_os_x/sticky_widgets_with_dashboard ;)
in the terminal if you type: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES you may have more than one on the desktop. to disable developer mode just type: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO
Thank you very much!
Yeah, enabling devmode is an option too, but I didn't include that technique here, because it has bugs. It's on Macintalk though for any1 interested.
This is relevant to something I was pondering on the Adobe U2U forums today.
Though I haven't yet searched, I wonder if there's a Glyph Palette Widget, or, if not, maybe I could put a bug in your ear about researching what it might take to author one?
It might be a much easier way of accessing those infrequently used characters than opening up the OS X Character Palette or Keyboard Viewer.
What are your thoughts on the feasibility of this?
I'll look into it, being a widget developer myself.
If you want to have the ability to put widgets on your desktop definitely, I suggest that you take a look at Amnesty Widget Browser. Amnesty Widget Browser is a utility for Mac OS X Tiger and Panther (10.3.9) that allows Dashboard widgets to live directly on your desktop via a convenient icon in your system menu bar.
http://www.mesadynamics.com/amnesty.htm