Dashboard

Widgets and things

A few years ago, Apple introduced the Dashboard part of OS X. Although I myself don’t use Dashboard, it’s an amazingly useful tool for people to make use of. Simply click F4 (on new computers) or F12 (on older Macs) and you should see “Widgets” fade onto your screen. The Widgets that come as standard cover many things, such as the Weather, Clocks, Address Books and such. The idea behind Dashboard is to allow you to do something quick (like write a note, or check the Weather) and get straight back to work.

Once Dashboard is activated, you can click on the + sign in the bottom left. This will allow you to remove Widgets that are already on the Dashboard, or add new ones from the bottom row of Widgets. If you visit Apple’s Dashboard Page you will see that there is a huge number of Widgets that you can download.

I think it’s a great way to get little tasks done, without getting in your way while you work. I would recommend that you don’t flood your Dashboard with hundreds of Widgets (as my students tend to do) but a select few will get you working much more efficiently.