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wr11 · Sep 15, 2005, 09:06 PM

Widget on Desktop
1: Open Dashboard with F12
2: Click and hold down on a widget
3: Use F12 to close dashboard
4: Un-click to let go of widget on the desktop

The Widget should now be on the desktop. I know this was possible before, but the widget would go back to the dashboard when you activated the dashboard again. Now it seems to stay on the desktop until you either close it (via option key) or put back in the dashboard (below)

Widget back to Dashboard
1: Click and hold down on widget
2: Activate dashboard with F12
3: Un-click to let go of widget on the dashboard
4: Close dashboard

Detrius · Sep 15, 2005, 09:37 PM

Doesn't work at all for me.

wr11 · 10:18 PM

It doesn't work on my laptop... but works fine on my desktop.

I've now tried it with most all of my widgets and they all will happily work while on the desktop.
I am not sure what to say, other than it works on my desktop machine.

Desktop = G4 1GHz, Retail Radeon 9800 Pro.
Laptop = 1GHz 12" Powerbook

They both have 10.4.2, but I think the desktop has a few more updates.

Can anyone else confirm that it works for them?

Uncle Skeleton · Sep 15, 2005, 10:41 PM

I tried stranding my dictionary and stickies widgets, and both work if I drag them from the dashboard toolbar (not if I drag existing ones around). And by "work" I mean they stay around, floating over other things until I invoke dashboard again. Stickies responds to mouse events but I can't actually write anything in it. Dictionary doesn't respond to anything, and I'm lucky the effect was ruined when I went back to dashboard to instantiate a new widget, otherwise I'd have the dictionary stuck there forever.

The above happened on both my radeon 9600 XT and my Radeon 7000 displays. 2x2.5 G5, 10.4.2

wr11 · Sep 15, 2005, 11:06 PM

I just tried it with the stickies widget...But I can edit them when they are on the desktop.

Too bad it seems to be a bug, because it's really handy to be able to pull widgets from the dashboard to the desktop. FYI they float on top of all windows when they're on the desktop.

Appleman · Sep 16, 2005, 05:47 AM

Doesn't work here

ShotgunEd · Sep 16, 2005, 06:59 AM

Previous threads mention that you need to type

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

into a terminal, logout and in again for this trick to work every time.

Just like it says in this topic - http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=255432

I'd post the timeline, but this isn't the lounge.

saddino · Sep 16, 2005, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by wr11

Too bad it seems to be a bug, because it's really handy to be able to pull widgets from the dashboard to the desktop. FYI they float on top of all windows when they're on the desktop.

Yep, if you want them on the desktop in a different layer you have to use Amnesty.

MindFad · Sep 16, 2005, 11:31 AM

Apple has advertised on their site about having the Widgets stay on the Desktop. But as mentioned, I can't get them to stay there either. Once Dashboard is activated again, it also goes back to that hidden layer. Besides that, Apple has still not fixed Widgets' drop menus to work while on the Desktop. They just don't work at all. Seems a bit of a silly bug to miss.

ApeInTheShell · Sep 16, 2005, 03:20 PM

Dashboard exists on a transparent layer that sets on top of the desktop but Apple has not advertised that users can drag widgets to the desktop itself. The point is convenient access via one button and therefore you do not have to move the widgets out of the way. The bug is people trying to reverse engineer this concept so they can have widgets on the desktop. Which is fine, but just one more way people like to hack something that just works.

legacyb4 · Sep 16, 2005, 04:28 PM

If you drag drop onto your desktop, what happens to CPU/memory usage? Does having one Widget on the Desktop make everything active?

I vaguely remember that once Dashboard is closed, memory consumption drops (or am I remember things incorrectly)?

wr11 · Sep 16, 2005, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by saddino

Yep, if you want them on the desktop in a different layer you have to use Amnesty.

Okay I am not using any special tool, and they are working on the desktop. They also stay when I show/hide the dashboard.

I was having any issue getting it to work today, and I found out that I have to click and move it a bit before hitting F12 to hide dashboard. If I just click and hit F12 it doesn't "come a long for the ride."

Anyways, I am enjoying this functionality. I think perhaps as an above poster noted the "defaults" command... I may have done that in the past, but I am not sure.

cla · Sep 16, 2005, 07:07 PM

Works for me to - no hacks or defaults writes.

saddino · Sep 16, 2005, 07:23 PM

Originally Posted by wr11

Okay I am not using any special tool, and they are working on the desktop.

Correct, on the desktop floating over everything. For clarification: I only mentioned Amnesty as the alternative if you don't want them floating, but instead perhaps, embedded inside your desktop or in your regular Expose document layer.

kent m · Sep 16, 2005, 09:16 PM

Ah, that's damned annoying - the Almost Cool Trick... I was all set to be pleased as punch but I'm just let down.

This trick does work for me when I drag the widget items out of the 'Widget Dock' but the items don't lodge into the Desktop - they stay Always On Top of All Other Windows, making them Continually Obtrusive And Annoying - there's no way to get rid of them. Or am I missing something?

If they lodged into the Desktop, so I could reveal them using Exposé, then that would be cool and something I would find really useful, but I (for one) see absolutely no use for this trick.

Thanks for pointing it out though. I always enjoy in the hidden little tricks in the os.

kent m · Sep 16, 2005, 09:30 PM

and... Once on the Desktop, outside of Dashboard... how do you get rid of them? I'm left with an Orange Calculator floating over everything that won't go away...

I've tried

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO

but the Calc just stays... floating over everything in it's great big shiny Orangeness...

Help!

TheSpaz · 11:11 PM

Click the Calculator.... don't let go... then press F12... then it's safe to let go. There you go... I helped. I'm not a totally idiot afterall!

Edit: I am assuming you activated developer mode and put the calculator on your desktop and now you can't close it. Just like I said above... click and drag calculator and then activate Dashboard and drop it back into Dashboard... pretty simple. I hope this helped.

pyn · Sep 16, 2005, 10:38 PM

you need to activate developer mode

kent m · Sep 17, 2005, 02:45 AM

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

Click the Calculator.... don't let go... then press F12... then it's safe to let go. There you go... I helped. I'm not a totally idiot afterall!

Edit: I am assuming you activated developer mode and put the calculator on your desktop and now you can't close it. Just like I said above... click and drag calculator and then activate Dashboard and drop it back into Dashboard... pretty simple. I hope this helped.

Yeah, I'm sorry, that was a knee-jerk response from me earlier...

The thing that finally fixed this problem was actually trashing the Calc Widget from the Library files... that was about the only thing I could come up with that would do it. The activating Dashboard didn't seem to work... guess I was doing it wrong and finally just went for the guts of the problem.

Thanks for your help,
KM

ShotgunEd · Sep 19, 2005, 05:33 AM

Not having tried this i wouldn't know, but, I'd reckon that activating dashboard and holding option would show the close button for the calculator. This should work, even if the widget is floating.

The discussion about amnesty mentioned that the widgets that you make float in dashboard do indeed float over everything, whereas amnesty gives those widgets their own layer.

kent m · Sep 19, 2005, 05:38 AM

Originally Posted by ShotgunEd

Not having tried this i wouldn't know, but, I'd reckon that activating dashboard and holding option would show the close button for the calculator. This should work, even if the widget is floating.

The discussion about amnesty mentioned that the widgets that you make float in dashboard do indeed float over everything, whereas amnesty gives those widgets their own layer.

I finally just trashed the Calculator widget file from the Library. Too orange, anyway.

With Amnesty the Widgets just seemed to always ride on top of everything else, same as in the Cool Dashboard Trick...

ShotgunEd · Sep 19, 2005, 05:56 AM

There are options for each amnesty widget that allows you to select where they reside, either stuck to the desktop or on a floating layer.

Amnesty was great when i was using it with 10.3.9. Some widgets didn't display 100% but that was bad widget coding rather than any fault of amnesty.

Telusman · Sep 19, 2005, 08:15 AM

I don't have developer mode enabled but it works for me. Interesting.

saddino · Sep 19, 2005, 09:27 AM

Originally Posted by kent m

With Amnesty the Widgets just seemed to always ride on top of everything else, same as in the Cool Dashboard Trick...

That's only the default. Control-click (or right-click) any widget running in Amnetsy and select "Configure" from the popup menu that appears to adjust its window layer, opacity, etc.

macforray · Sep 19, 2005, 08:30 PM

Tried it on a few of my Widgets. Doesn't work.

New Mac Mini 8/4/05.

Appleman · Sep 20, 2005, 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by TheSpaz

.... I'm not a totally idiot afterall!.....

1. Yes you are according to experiences with earlier postings of you...
2. It does NOT work. Punto.

If you change your regular car to have 500 hp, 50 inch wheels, no windows (hm, actually sound good!) etc. and then tell us your Ford Mondeo can do this and that without telling us about the modifications, yes I think you are an idiot.
But nevermind, you probably are going into length of days to prove that it is possible (IF) and trying to explain why you are not an idiot, so proving you are...

Lee33 · Sep 20, 2005, 08:27 AM

I vote for Amnesty. All that F12 stuff seems like a lot of trouble to go through when Amnesty lets you turn widgets on and off the desktop with one mouse click.

Just a thought.

TheSpaz · Sep 20, 2005, 03:32 PM

Open up the widget manager in Dashboard and uncheck the stuck widget... I don't know why you people are having so much trouble. Try not using Amnesty.

- - e r i k - - · Sep 22, 2005, 12:15 AM

This has worked for me since the developer versions and continues to work with no special tricks involved at all. Just click, drag and hold the widget from the bar and deactivate Dashboard. No idea why this should be different in different installs of Tiger. I suspect user error.

MARINEOSX · 02:11 AM

no it is not user error. It is dashboard in developer mode. any one can activate or deactivate easily here is the command.

IN TERMINAL!!!! type this exactly: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

after this type enter.
You will then have to restart the dock so type: killall Dock

and it will restart the dock wich restarts dashboard so that it will work. this is very case sensitive so make sure it is exactly what I put or it won't work. If you want to turn it off you replace YES with NO. After you do this you may need to logout and then log back in. to accomplish this show dashboard then select the widget you want click and drag but continue to hold it and push F12 or whatever you have dashboard set on and it will stay on your desktop. you do the same thing to put it back into dashboard.

MARINEOSX · Sep 22, 2005, 02:20 AM

here is another cool trick if you don't already know select a widget that you need to reset like a game or what ever. press Command R. Cool visual and helpful.

MindFad · Sep 22, 2005, 02:33 AM

Command-R-ing a Widget: awexome!

I had no idea.

- - e r i k - - · Sep 26, 2005, 05:21 AM

Originally Posted by MARINEOSX

no it is not user error. It is dashboard in developer mode. any one can activate or deactivate easily here is the command.

IN TERMINAL!!!! type this exactly: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

after this type enter.
You will then have to restart the dock so type: killall Dock

and it will restart the dock wich restarts dashboard so that it will work. this is very case sensitive so make sure it is exactly what I put or it won't work. If you want to turn it off you replace YES with NO. After you do this you may need to logout and then log back in. to accomplish this show dashboard then select the widget you want click and drag but continue to hold it and push F12 or whatever you have dashboard set on and it will stay on your desktop. you do the same thing to put it back into dashboard.

Code:
defaults read com.apple.dashboard devmode
2005-09-26 19:20:25.469 defaults[1449] 
The domain/default pair of (com.apple.dashboard, devmode) does not exist

Doesn't seem to be related to devmode on my macs.

P · Sep 26, 2005, 12:21 PM

Neat trick. On my machine, a mostly standard installation iMac G5, it works with the devmode setting set but not without it.

DeathMan · Sep 29, 2005, 01:46 AM

I don't get why you would want to do this anyway.

P · Sep 29, 2005, 05:15 AM

To keep an eye on a widget constantly. On a widescreen monitor, I usually have enough space on the right between where the browser window ends and the Dock begins - I can put all sorts of indicators there. Not the regular search widgets, but one that updates constantly with new info, say sports scores or a news ticker or something.