Chapter 11: Working with the Dashboard Widgets
In This Chapter
Accessing the Dashboard
Managing widgets
The widgets included with OS X
Since 2005's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Macintosh users have been able to run lightweight applications called widgets.
These widgets are available through the Dashboard application, which you can easily access by pressing Control+← or using the four-finger left-swipe gesture. When you are using widgets, you cannot also use applications and utilities at the same time; instead, you must leave the Dashboard to use applications and utilities. (To go back to the Finder from the Dashboard, press Control+→ or use the four-finger right-swipe gesture.)
Figure 11.1 shows the Dashboard window, which overlays your entire screen when open. By default, four widgets show up in the Dashboard: Calculator, Calendar, Weather, and World Clock.
Note
You can change the keyboard shortcut for opening and closing the Dashboard, as well as set up a “hot corner” on your Mac's screen to open and close it by using the Mission Control system preference, as described in Chapter 27.
Although four widgets display by default in the Dashboard, OS X comes with 16. (I survey these widgets later in this chapter.) To access them, click the large + icon button at the bottom left of the Dashboard window to have all 16 icons appear in what Apple calls the widget browser. (It looks very much like the Launchpad, covered in Chapter 7, but with a dark patterned background instead of a white ...
