Using Dashboard in OS X Leopard

Dashboard is a collection of mini-applications called Widgets that provide information such as displaying the time and date, checking weather reports, providing stock reports, monitoring the temperature of your Mac, local movie offerings, currency conversion, translating foreign languages and much, much more.  Each Widget can operate only within the Dashboard window.  To display the Dashboard, press the F12 key or click the Dashboard icon on the Dock. 

You can view a list of the active Widgets by displaying the Widget Bar.  To display the Widget Bar, click the  icon  that is displayed on the lower left of your screen or press the Command + = keyboard shortcut.  From the Widget Bar, you can add a Widget to your Dashboard  window by clicking on its icon  You can even add more than one copy of the same Widget by just clicking its icon more than once in the Widget Bar.

To view a list of all available Widgets, click the Manage Widgets button that displays whenever you have the Widget Bar displayed.  To remove a Widget from the Widget Bar. uncheck the box next to the Widget Name in the Manage Widgets window.  From the Manage Widgets window, you can even download additional Widgets from Apple’s Web site by clicking the More Widgets button.

Many Widgets contain options that you can set.  For example, the Local Weather Widget allows you to specify a City and State.  To view a Widget’s options, click on the small i that appears on the lower right hand corner of the Widget when you move your mouse pointer over it.

To Use Dashboard

1. Click the Dashboard icon on the Dock  or Press the F12 key.
2. To display the Widget Bar, click the  icon  on the lower left hand side of your screen or Press the Command + = keyboard shortcut
3. To add a Widget to the Dashboard screen, click its icon on the Icon Bar.
4. To add or remove Widgets from the Widget Bar (and Dashboard screen), click the Manage Widgets button and check or uncheck the box next to the Widget’s name.
5. To set additional Widget options, click on the i on the right hand corner of the Widget when you move your mouse pointer over it.
6. To delete a Widget, drag its icon from the Widget Bar to the Trash.
7. Press F12 to close the Dashboard.

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Tagged as: Leopard, Macintosh Tips, OS X Tips