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gordo19 · 02:53 PM

Each widget could have a preference to be on the dashboard level or to be available be on the main desktop level

No use having stickies, if you cant see them all the time, thats why we stuck them to our screen in the first place

And it would be nice to have, for example, the weather always visible.

Certain thing are great to come and find when you need them such as Calculators, Yell or translators etc..

Edit

Here is how to do it:

Activate Dashboard, click the little X thing in the lower left hand corner of your screen - choose a Widget and begin to drag it to you desktop - While still holding the Widg activate Expose (F12) Now release your Widget -- It's on your desktop!!!

But next tiem you start dashboard, it will go back to dashboard and not desktop so.....................

Go to Terminal and do:

defaults write com.apple.Dashboard devmode YES

Log out, log in

now try this again

Activate Dashboard, click the little X thing in the lower left hand corner of your screen - choose a Widget and begin to drag it to you desktop - While still holding the Widg activate Expose (F12) Now release your Widget -- It's on your desktop!!!

Can't believe Apple left this feature off the pref box, its looks to be a development setting, but is actually an ideal way or working

hakstooy · May 1, 2005, 12:01 AM

Aww man, now I have a dead dictionary Widget in the middle of my desktop.

DevNine · May 1, 2005, 12:11 AM

"While still holding the Widg activate Expose (F12) Now release your Widget -- It's on your desktop!!!"

Emmm F12 is assigned to which expose function ?

saddino · May 1, 2005, 12:22 AM

Download the Amnesty public beta next week and you'll be able to have multiple widgets on your desktop, living outside of Dashboard.

stevesnj · May 1, 2005, 12:33 AM

I feel your pain http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=253998

Kerrigan · May 1, 2005, 01:02 AM

There is a knock-off of Dashboard made by this little company called Konfabulator, and all of its widgets are kept on the desktop.

Yes, I'm just kidding.. I know that Apple completely screwed Konfab

3R1C · May 1, 2005, 02:25 AM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

There is a knock-off of Dashboard made by this little company called Konfabulator, and all of its widgets are kept on the desktop.

Yes, I'm just kidding.. I know that Apple completely screwed Konfab

Yeah they did. they didnt even give the konfab team a reach around.

piracy · May 1, 2005, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by 3R1C

Yeah they did. they didnt even give the konfab team a reach around.

http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/da...s_konfabulator

TETENAL · May 1, 2005, 11:53 AM

piracy, I dare to disagree with that blogger.

nonhuman · May 1, 2005, 12:03 PM

Yeah, that's totally how I want Dashboard to work. I want to have the weather widget on my Desktop, and maybe some world clocks as I am regularly making calls to multiple other time zones for work. Cool.

JLL · May 1, 2005, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Yeah, that's totally how I want Dashboard to work. I want to have the weather widget on my Desktop, and maybe some world clocks as I am regularly making calls to multiple other time zones for work. Cool.

Which means you have to hide every window to see them? I like Dashboard much more that Konfabulator.

jasong · May 1, 2005, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

piracy, I dare to disagree with that blogger.

Ooooohhhhh . . . I triple dog dare you to agree

ambush · May 1, 2005, 12:54 PM

Instead of logging out: type "killall Dock" in terminal.

hldan · May 1, 2005, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by JLL

Which means you have to hide every window to see them? I like Dashboard much more that Konfabulator.

Ditto, Konfabulator is cool but I always hated shrinking my web browser just to view them. Even worse, trying putting the widgets on top got in the way of my browser or any applicatons. Dashboard does it the right way. Most of the widgets don't need to be seen continously. You have a clock on the Apple tool bar anyway.

analogika · May 1, 2005, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by hldan

Ditto, Konfabulator is cool but I always hated shrinking my web browser just to view them. Even worse, trying putting the widgets on top got in the way of my browser or any applicatons. Dashboard does it the right way. Most of the widgets don't need to be seen continously. You have a clock on the Apple tool bar anyway.

Exactly.

nonhuman · May 1, 2005, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by JLL

Which means you have to hide every window to see them? I like Dashboard much more that Konfabulator.

My normal window layout leaves some of the desktop exposed. It would be nice if I could put some widgets there so that I can see them at a glance without interrupting my workflow. World time would be particularly useful because I often make calls to the East Coast, UK, Australia, Singapore, &c and I have to take into account whether or not business hours are over there or not. Sure I could do the math, which is how I do it now, but it would be nice to be able to just have one or two clocks visible all the time so I don't have to.

ender2002 · May 1, 2005, 03:30 PM

i wish the itunes controller could be usable. there must be a four second lag between pause / play. ugh
2x 1.25 gighz g4

cgc · May 1, 2005, 03:41 PM

It'd be nice to have options to use Apple's Konpose knockoff (aka Dashboard via F12) and/or gadgets on the desktop, backmost, frontmost, etc. or any combination thereof (e.g. some gadgets in F12 and others on desktop).

mdc · May 1, 2005, 03:51 PM

my personal opinion is that dashboard has the right idea about being its own layer that only appears when you need it.

i really can't understand the need to see 2 world clocks and the weather constantly. is it really that difficult to assign a screen corner or press f12 to see the time or weather?
the weather on the desktop all the time really perplexes me since it's the weather. it stays pretty constant for most of the day. look out the window.

but it would be cool for dashboard to have the option, since everyone is different and i don't see why apple couldn't give the option since it does seem that some people want it.

nonhuman · May 1, 2005, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by mdc

but it would be cool for dashboard to have the option, since everyone is different and i don't see why apple couldn't give the option since it does seem that some people want it.

Exactly. That's all I want. Definitely the way it works now makes sense for some widgets. Having a dictionary just sit there on your desktop would be dumb. Of course why you wouldn't just use Dictionary.app instead of the widget, i don't know.

piracy · May 1, 2005, 06:14 PM

Guys.

Relax.

There WILL be a third party tool, probably several, that lets you do Konfabulator-like things all day long, to your heart's content, with Dashboard widgets. Tiger has been out for less than 2 days. At least wait until a week from now, 'k?

turtle777 · May 2, 2005, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by gordo19

Dashbord - Don't you wish......

... that Dashboard would work as well as Konfabulator ?

YES, YES, YES !

Darn it Apple, why did you have to learn from M$ how to make bad knock-offs ?

-t

foamy · May 2, 2005, 12:24 PM

Is there are way to add 3rd party widgets to the dashboard bar?

Is there a way to refresh widget content? E.g. I have the yahoo traffic widget and the only way I can get new info is to close it, find the .wdgt file (see #1 above) and relaunch it.

piracy · May 2, 2005, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by foamy

Is there are way to add 3rd party widgets to the dashboard bar?

Yes. Just put it in /Library/Widgets or ~/Library/Widgets.

You will have to log out and back in, or do a 'killall Dock', to see the change take effect on the Dashboard shelf.

Is there a way to refresh widget content? E.g. I have the yahoo traffic widget and the only way I can get new info is to close it, find the .wdgt file (see #1 above) and relaunch it.

Yes. With the widget selected, press cmd-R.

Mithras · May 2, 2005, 12:49 PM

Originally Posted by piracy

Yes. Just put it in /Library/Widgets or ~/Library/Widgets.

You will have to log out and back in, or do a 'killall Dock', to see the change take effect on the Dashboard shelf.

Or, double-click it in the Finder, and it will be copied to ~/Library/Widgets, and activated in the Dashboard. (You then have to confirm that you want to use it.)

foamy · May 2, 2005, 01:02 PM

Thanks guys!

I *should* have thought to cmd-R for refresh.... duh.

piracy · May 3, 2005, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by piracy

Guys.

Relax.

There WILL be a third party tool, probably several, that lets you do Konfabulator-like things all day long, to your heart's content, with Dashboard widgets. Tiger has been out for less than 2 days. At least wait until a week from now, 'k?

And, as I said:

http://www.mesadynamics.com/amnesty.htm

Amnesty Widget Browser is a utility for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger that allows Dashboard widgets to live directly on your Desktop via a convenient icon in your system menu bar.

Widgets loaded in Amnesty Widget Browser run completely independent of Apple's Dashboard environment, maintain their own preferences and feature additional properties such as window depth and opacity.

For widgets junkies, Amnesty Widget Browser is a great way to try out third-party widgets without restarting Dashboard. And for widget developers, Amnesty Widget Browser makes a perfect rapid testing environment* (instead of loading widgets in Safari).

Amnesty Widget Browser is slated for final release Q3 2005 but is available today as a public beta. Download your copy today and see if your favorite widgets are up to taking flight.

BZ · May 3, 2005, 01:12 PM

Ok.. going against the grain.

I don't WANT all those (or any) gadgets on my desktop. I don't want my desktop moving or shaking or updating, that is why I have apps.

Dashboard is easy to get to (put in on my 7th mouse button) and so if I need to check stuff, it is a quick click away.

BZ

piracy · May 3, 2005, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by BZ

Dashboard is easy to get to (put in on my 7th mouse button)

Okay. Does anyone else find irony in this statement?

JLL · May 3, 2005, 02:46 PM

Originally Posted by piracy

Okay. Does anyone else find irony in this statement?

Perhaps, but I think my 8-button mouse makes my day easier.

Randman · May 3, 2005, 02:49 PM

Don't you wish Dashboard was spelled right in the headline. I know it's anal but it makes me cringe everytime I see it.

mitchell_pgh · May 3, 2005, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by hldan

Ditto, Konfabulator is cool but I always hated shrinking my web browser just to view them. Even worse, trying putting the widgets on top got in the way of my browser or any applicatons. Dashboard does it the right way. Most of the widgets don't need to be seen continously. You have a clock on the Apple tool bar anyway.

Bingo... the idea is they are only seconds away... what's the point if I need to shrink windows or minimize?

I think Apple took it to the next level.

mitchell_pgh · May 3, 2005, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by piracy

Okay. Does anyone else find irony in this statement?

No, it's a geek thing... Dashboard is only one F12 away.

Randman · May 3, 2005, 03:32 PM

It's easier to do with a larger screen, of course. Safari allows bookmarklets. I have one for a full screen on my PB17 ( I hide the dock and use F10). I also have 2 that go full depth but are shorter (where I find comfortable for most web pages) and go to the left and right side of the page. Very handy when you're surfing and working on something else (or when you want to see what's on your screen).
WindowShadeX is also nice since you can just double click on get the OS9 goodness of a windowshaded item.

Dashboard is cool but there can still be effective uses for konfabulator.

BZ · May 3, 2005, 03:46 PM

It is actually what Apple calls the button. For me, it is the "top" button on my MX518.

BZ

ApeInTheShell · May 3, 2005, 04:08 PM

Pssst......if you look in the dictionary the words "gadget" and "widget" mean the same thing.
just a reminder

mrgaskell · May 3, 2005, 05:32 PM

First off, Konfabulator came out with Kompose' AFTER Dashboard was announced, so I see it as them ripping off Apple.

Second, Konfabulator sucked as far as performance was concerned. Especially if you had a widget that checked the 'net for info. It would try to refresh over and over and over, tying up resources.

And third, the idea itself was not original to Konfabulator, that is why they didn't sue, only bitched that somebody knocked them off of their money making venture with a better product.

...or I could be wrong.