Make a Dashboard Full of Widgets Useful Again [OS X Tips]

By

Mission Control

The first thing I disliked about Mac OS X Lion was the way it changed the Dashboard display. It’s nice to be able to see behind the widgets to the stuff I’m working on in the background. Especially if I’m using a widget like the Calculator, or the Weather, or the Conversion widget to see how much that import from Europe might cost me in US dollars.

Mac OS X Lion, however, puts the Dashboard into it’s own separate space, complete with opaque background that looks like an odd mix of linen theme and bubble wrap. Or maybe a non-skid floor tile from a spaceship? I dunno. Regardless, not being able to see through the background was an issue, until now. I no longer have to launch the stand alone Calculator app to do a quick sum, and can go back to enabling the Dashboard, using the Calculator widget, and dismissing it just as quickly.

It’s as simple as popping into System Preferences, clicking on the Mission Control preference pane icon, and then de-selecting the “Show Dashboard as a space” checkbox. Viola! Back to the way it SHOULD work.

The Dashboard will no longer be seen in the Mission Control layout, however, so be sure to enable your favorite key combination near the bottom of the preference panel. I set mine to Shift-F4.

[Source: TechRadar]

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