Set Your Widgets Free!

· by · Tips

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 isnit taking over your whole Desktop, all you have to do is liberate it. Hereis 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.


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Jeff Gamet

Jeff Gamet

Jeff is the Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and co-host of the Apple Context Machine podcast. He is the author of "The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X" from Peachpit Press, and writes for several design-related publications. Jeff has presented at events such as Macworld Expo, the RSA Conference, and the Mac Computer Expo. In all his spare time, he also co-hosts the We Have Communicators podcast, and makes guest appearances on several other podcasts, too. Jeff dreams in HD.

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