Filed under: Mac 101
Mac 101: faster widget management
If you make any kind of extensive use of the OS X Dashboard, you probably close as many widgets as you open. Usually, that means hitting the plus sign at the lower left of the screen to reveal the widget bar, clicking the "X" on the widget you want to remove, and then closing the widget bar. Seems like there should be a faster way, right? Tipster Nass has a solution for you.
Next time you want to close a widget, just hold down the option key (?) while your mouse is over it. You'll see the "X" button on the current widget and can close all the widgets you want without ever having to open the widget bar. Sure, it's only a couple of seconds saved, but if you shuffle widgets as often as I do, that could add up to entire minutes being added back on to your life.
This being Mac 101, I'll also mention that ?-= will pop up the widget bar instantly without having to reach for the mouse, and ?-[left arrow] and ?-[right arrow] will scroll the bar. But you already knew that, having diligently read every page of the OS X help file, right?
Thanks, Nass!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Schramm said 7:05PM on 3-10-2008
To me, it is, and will always be, the Apple Key. Or better yet, the %uF8FF key.
Shame that doesn't work on TUAW.
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Adam said 7:13PM on 3-10-2008
Eeeh, but this time we talked about the "alt"-key...
Brett Terpstra said 8:04PM on 3-10-2008
... Sorry, had to try.
A. Jay said 7:14PM on 3-10-2008
Funny, I have been using this since dashboard came out!! I guess I read too much of the Help file! By the way, ⌘-[arrow left/right] scrolls the bar not ⌘-. Also try to unlock your iPhone by touch and hold the the arrow sliding it just a bit, keep holding that finger down, and tap the end of the unlock bar....the iPhone is now unlocked!! Hope that makes sense...try it out!!
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Brett Terpstra said 7:57PM on 3-10-2008
Sorry, the editor stripped my arrows out (but not my "command" symbols, for some reason). Fixed with good 'ol plain text. Thanks for the catch!
Brett Terpstra said 7:58PM on 3-10-2008
Wow, apostrophe on the wrong side of ol'. Bad day, I guess.
CL said 7:19PM on 3-10-2008
wow...I didn't know this one, very useful tip, thanks!
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Darren said 7:25PM on 3-10-2008
very cool tips! what widget is that? looks very interesting... some type of player or remote?
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Brett Terpstra said 8:00PM on 3-10-2008
It's a countdown timer w/alarm, nice for quick and dirty egg timing. I can't recall the link, but it's in the Apple Downloads.
George said 10:31PM on 3-10-2008
It's called 'Minutes', I just downloaded it the other day and it's quite slick:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24218/minutes
Maxintech said 7:41PM on 3-10-2008
Excelent tip for ⌘-=
Someone known the shortcut to avoid click on "Manage Widgets..." button?
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smacklin said 9:59PM on 3-10-2008
Just beware that if you have Command - arrow keys set for navigating spaces, they will not work to scrolling widgets.
tendo said 8:37PM on 3-10-2008
I'd rather have a dashboard widget that opens a new dashboard that launches front row. now there's some improvement!
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Peter Zich said 9:11PM on 3-10-2008
There are some widgets out there that sorta make multiple widget selections, they work by holding onto various copies of the two dashboard plists in the home folder's Library/Preferences/. As for opening Front Row that's easy enough.
tendo said 9:22PM on 3-10-2008
oh, I was totally being sarcastic, I dont use the dashboard at all. It's actually the first thing I disable when I install the OS again.
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Zoli said 9:38PM on 3-10-2008
I submitted this tip to you guys like 6 months ago! Nice to see you read your tips section.
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tophat said 11:45PM on 3-10-2008
Some needed refinement to a great piece of software.
urltea.com/2td
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jwilliek said 2:31PM on 3-11-2008
you know, I was just thinking about this the other day. did you read my mind, TUAW?
duh, hold the option key, why didn't I think of that? I could've had a V8.
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robogobo said 9:00PM on 3-11-2008
another tip. command-R reloads the active widget.
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