Leopard: DIY Web widgets
TMO Quick Tip - Leopard: DIY Web widgets
by , 7:30 AM EDT, November 2nd, 2007
Dashboard widgets in Mac OS X 10.4 gave us a cool way to keep track of information online. Unless you had a little programming skill, however, you couldn't create your own custom widgets. Mac OS X 10.5 changes that.
If you want to create your own Dashboard widget to monitor a specific Web site, Leopard's Safari 3 makes it easy. Here's what to do:
- Launch Safari. It should be hiding in your Dock and also in your Applications folder.
- Open a Web site that has something you want to monitor. I decided to make my own Apple stock watch widget from TMO's apple stock quote feature.
- Click the Open this page in Dashboard button.
- Select the part of the Web page you want to monitor. The highlight box includes handles, so you can resize it to include all of the content you want. I kept my highlight box small since I only needed the stock quote part from the TMO site.
- Click the Add button.
![]() Click Safari's Dashboard button to create your own widget. |
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![]() Highlight the part of the Web page you want in your widget. |
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Dashboard will automatically launch and display the widget you just created. You can customize the widget boarder by clicking the info button in your widget's lower right corner.
![]() One home grown AAPL stock widget. |
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Be sure to select Web site parts that include information that changes, otherwise your widget will be pretty boring. I chose regularly updated stock information, but I could have also chosen the TMO Hot Topics section, or maybe a regularly updated video from another Web site.
Also, Safari's Web widgets aren't designed to be modified, just easy to create. If you want to design highly customized widgets, take a look at the Xcode development tools that ship with Mac OS X installer discs. You'll find everything you need -- including sample code -- to build your own widgets.
Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.
if you have tips or tricks to share, or Mac-related questions you want answered.
Observer Comments
Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:46 pm Subject: In the case of pop-ups
I was going to make a widget for our local highway conditions that show speeds, accidents and that sort of stuff. However, the page is a pop-up form a TV news website that does not have a menu bar and hence no widget button. Under the main Safari File Menu I found an item for making widgets, works just like button.
Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:52 pm Subject: Re: In the case of pop-ups
QuoteSir Harry Flashman wrote:
I was going to make a widget for our local highway conditions that show speeds, accidents and that sort of stuff. However, the page is a pop-up form a TV news website that does not have a menu bar and hence no widget button. Under the main Safari File Menu I found an item for making widgets, works just like button.
In most browsers, you can force an address bar on a pop-up window. I don't use Leopard, but try the View menu--see if there is an option to show the address bar (or whatever it's called in Safari 3). (The "menu bar" is at the top of the screen; it's not associated with a window.)
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