Dashboard
From WikiMac, Everyone's Mac Knowledgebase
- This article is the main article for a category of the same name: See also: Category:Dashboard.
Dashboard is a mini-applications layer for Mac OS X (as of Mac OS X 10.4) based on HTML, Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript which has been widely compared to Konfabulator.
In a nutshell, Dashboard is a platform for fastcoded mini-applications like calculators, weather-feeds, news-feeds, graphical clocks and similar applications.
Dashboard has been widely compared to Konfabulator. Similar software includes gDesklets and SuperKaramba. The feature was once billed as an extension of Exposé.
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[edit] Use
Dashboard is set by default to be activated and dismissed by using the F12 key. This trigger can be changed in the Dashboard & Expose System Preferences preference in favour of another F-key or activation only when the mouse enters a specific corner of the screen, with or without an additional modifier key held down.
[edit] Development
On August 2, 2005, Apple announced that over 1,000 widgets were available for Dashboard.
[edit] Customization
Most widgets are customisable by the user; preferences are shown on the "back" of the widgets (see the i icon) and are made visible by an animation. This is one of many animations associated with Dashboard, which are triggered by actions such as calling up Dashboard, new widgets being added, Dashboard disappearing, and the use of some widgets. Some consider these animations taxing and superfluous, though with standard contemporary Apple video hardware and Quartz graphics acceleration, sufficient computing power to render them in real time is available. Apple Computer, the creator of Mac OS X, has a history and reputation of favoring such visual elements over computational efficiency in its designs.
[edit] Kinds of Widgets
Internally, there are three kinds of widgets [1]:
- Accessory Widgets — Standalone widgets (e.g. clock)
- Application Widget — A miniature extension of a program on your computer (e.g. iTunes controller)
- Information Widgets — displays information from the Internet. (e.g. Flight Information)
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources and References
[edit] External links
- Apple's Dashboard Page
- Apple's Dashboard Developer page
- Apple's Dashboard Widget download page
- Apple's Dashboard video
- Dashboard Lineup
- Dashboard Exchange
- Dashboard Station — developer information in Japanese and collection of widgets for Japanese people.
- Wikipedia Widget
- dashboardwidgets.com Dashboard community page unaffiliated with Apple
