How To Add Widgets To Mac Desktops

In This Episode: How To Add Dashboard Widgets To Your Mac Desktops Using OS X Mavericks.

Sometimes it's convenient to have certain Dashboard Widgets on your Desktop or Desktops instead of having to navigate to the Dashboard Space.

TRANSCRIPT:

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Sometimes it's convenient to have certain Dashboard Widgets on your Desktop or Desktops instead of having to navigate to the Dashboard Space.

Well…with a couple of simple Terminal Commands, you are able to do just that.

First…Launch Terminal and type the following commands exactly as shown here or in the description below:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
And the ‘killall Dock’ command to re-launch the Dock, which is associated with the Dashboard.

Next, in the Mission Control Settings, found by Launching ‘System Preferences’, Uncheck ‘Show Dashboard as a Space’ and if you wish, you can assign a New Function key to launch Dashboard...in my case I’ve chosen F5….the Default is F12.

With that all done…It’s time for the Fun Stuff.

Start by pressing Function Key F5 or F12 to Launch Dashboard.

Now, It’s Important to note that whenever you add a Widget to a Desktop, it has to be a New Instance, not any Existing ones. For example, the Existing Widgets that I had on my Dashboard before entering the Terminal Commands was these and therefore are not used.

With that out of the way...it's time to add a New Instance of say the Calendar Widget to Desktop 1…simply click on the Plus Sign here and click on the Calendar Widget.

Now...click and Drag on the Calendar Widget and while still dragging…Press and release F5 and position the Widget where you want…then release the mouse and viola...the Calendar Widget is on Desktop 1.

Let’s Do one more…to Desktop 2, where a Numbers Project is currently running, we’ll add the Calculator and Stocks Widgets…Let’s not forget…as this is another Desktop, New Instances of Widgets as to be added to the Dashboard.

Therefore…let’s goto Desktop 2 and once again Press F5 or F12 function key to Launch Dashboard and click on the Plus Sign to Select New Instances for the Calculator and Stocks Widgets as shown.

Again; click and start dragging the calculator widget, while still dragging Press and Release F5 and position the Widget where you wish, then release the mouse. Repeat for the Stocks Widget.

To remove a Widget on any of the Desktops, click and start dragging the widget and while still dragging Press and Release F5…Repeat for all widget you want to remove.

And Finally, to revert to the original state of the Dashboard, Launch Terminal and enter the same commands as before…replacing YES with NO or simply cut and paste as shown, and once again don’t forget to relaunch the Dock.

And that's all there is to it.

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By the way, if you do add an exiting Widget to the Desktop, the widget is not visible. The only way to see it is by re-typing the terminal commands typed before by replacing YES with NO and …after relaunching the Dock with the ‘killall Dock’ command, the widget will be visible. You then have to re-type the Terminal commands with the Yes command and relaunch the Dock then as shown on the video, remove the Widget back to the Dashboard. As you can see, this can become  a bit troublesome by not adding a New Instance of the Widgets to each Desktops.