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Behind the Dashboard

Pt. 7 of 10 | 3:10 |

Making the Move to Mac

Tuesday December 2, 2008

The Mac Dashboard is the approximate equivalent of the Sidebar that made its first appearance in Windows Vista. Where the Windows Sidebar uses downloadable "Gadgets," small applets that perform a variety of functions like getting news updates, showing the time and system performance and way more, the Mac Dashboard uses "Widgets" that accomplish the same thing.

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Show Notes

To activate the Dashboard:

- Click on the Dashboard icon in the Dock.

- To hide the Dashboard, click on the Dashboard icon in the Dock again.

Or

- Press F4 (on a newer Mac) or Fn + F12 (on an older Mac running OSX).

Or

- Use Expose to program your Dashboard preferences. You can customize the hotkey or mouse button that launches Dashboard or even set a "hot corner" of your desktop such that Dashboard is displayed when you mouse into a set corner.

Add or remove a Widget

- With Dashboard displayed, click on the small + icon in the bottom left of the Dashboard to browse through and add available Widgets.

- In this mode, you can also click on the small Xs that appear in the top-left corner of each Widget on your Dashboard to remove them.

- With the Dashboard displayed, you can drag and place your Widgets to wherever you want them.

- To hide the Dashboard, either click the Dock icon, press the same hotkey you used to launch the Dashboard or just click on the desktop.

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