More on Dashboard Widgets

More on Dashboard Widgets
Mac Tip #213/21-September-2005

Previously I wrote about the widgets available if you use Tiger. One widget that’s installed by default is the weather widget.

Connect to the Internet then click on the Widget bar to open the weather widget.

Views of the weather widget.

Now hover your mouse over the bottom right corner and a small letter i will appear. Click that i and the widget will spin around to show you the back.

Type the name of your town or city (or one nearby) and press the Return key (that’s the trick).

After a few moments the widget should show that it has validated that place name. It may also show a small pop-up with several possible place names and allow you to choose the correct one.

Set your preferences for using Celsius or Fahrenheit and whether or not to display a 6 day forecast, then click the Done button.

One of the things I like about the weather widget is its display of the moon or sun, raindrops and so on, depending on the time of day and state of the weather at the moment.

Click on the sun, moon, raindrops etc to reduce or enlarge the widget’s window and display or hide the 6 day forecast.

You can open as many weather widgets as you like, just by clicking them on the widget bar. My screenshot shows that I had one open for Auckland and another for Wellington.

Hold down the Option key and a black circle containing a white X becomes visible at top left. Click the X to close the widget.

With the weather widget you can click on the placename on the front of the widget to visit the web page from which the widget draws its information.

Now that you’ve learned some details about using the weather widget try some of the others which come with Tiger or download some new ones and try them out: www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard.

Look for a small i symbol (not all widgets have one, and it may only be visible if you move your mouse over it) which will allow you to set preferences.

My favourite widgets

• Battery status
• Dictionary
• Sudoku
• Weather
• Wikipedia