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Set Your Widgets Free!

TMO Quick Tip - Set Your Widgets Free!

by , 7:30 AM EDT, April 21st, 2006

Widgets come in all sizes, shapes, and levels of usefulness. Some are great little diversions, like the iPilkington widget, and some are amazingly useful, like Decimator. If you have a favorite widget that you want available even when Dashboard isn't taking over your whole Desktop, all you have to do is liberate it. Here's how:

  • Press the F12 key to display the Dashboard layer.
  • Click the plus symbol in the lower left corner of your display to open the widget drawer.
  • Click and drag the widget you want on your Desktop out of the drawer.
  • Before releasing the mouse button, press and release the F12 key.


A Dashboard-free widget.

Once your widget is free of Dashboard, it floats above every window on your Desktop. You can even move it around, just like any other application window. To remove the widget from your Desktop, just press the F12 key again.

You are limited to only one widget on your Desktop at a time, so if you want more visible, take a look at Amnesty Widget Browser from Mesa Dynamics. It lets you display several widgets on your Desktop, and also lets you change their opacity, rotate them, and set their window level to desktop, standard, or floating. It costs US$19.95, and a free time-limited demo is available.


if you have ideas for Mac related tips that you think other TMO readers might find helpful.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Guest
Subject: Activate the Debug feature for Dashboard

I forgot what the command is in Terminal, but do a search and you'll find a specific command for this. If you enter the command for the Debug feature in Terminal, you can drag as many widgets onto your desktop as you want, and it wont cost you one red cent.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Activate the Debug feature for Dashboard (part II)

I did the search... here it is:

Open the Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Log out, then log back in and bring up your Dashboard.

Drag a widget and hit F12 while dragging the widget. You can do this with multiple widgets!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Only gets you so far

But even with this, you can't select the level they're on, so it's pretty useless for me to have them floating over all my applications.

Close Name:iJack Posts: 313 Joined: 13 Jun 2001
Subject: Worse than that...

..if you want a widget on your desktop like the clock, you can't change settings like the time zone. Some work, some don't.

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