1) What is Dashboard ?
Dashboard, in my opinion is like having a virtual 2nd screen. Depending on how you setup Dashboards preferences, it can be invoked by a press of a key or by moving the mouse cursor into the corner of the screen: and hey presto the content of the screen is dimmed and the Dashboard appears showing your selected widgets see Fig 001. Once you have finished with your Widgets just press the same key again or move to the relevant corner on your screen or just click anywhere that isn't a Widget and the Dashboard dissapears taking along with it, all the Widgets. See Movie 001.
2) What are Widgets ?
Widgets at present come in three flavours. Information Widgets, Application Widgets and Accessory Widgets.
Information Widgets require access to the Internet, they will hook up to certain wevsites gather the information that you require and display it in a pleasing manner ! Remember, if you have no connection to the Internet they won't work !
Application Widgets work with Applications that are on your Mac ! As an example the iTunes Widget only works if you have iTunes installed, you can't just have the Widget ! The Widget is just a more compact way of accessing 'limited functions' from certain Apps, it's just easier !
Accessory Widgets are self contained little utilities/Apps that will provide various functions, such as clocks, calculators, notepads etc. Accessory Widgets are not dependant on Internet access or having the parent App installed !
3) Are Widgets safe ?
There has been a lot of discussions since the introduction of Tiger that Widgets could become an Achilles heel for Mac computers.
This is possibly true, there are numerous websites that are already showing users how someone could write a mallicious bit of code add it to a Widget and put it onto a website for some unsuspecting person to download and install. To make sure that you don't accidently download and install a "widget' without your knowledge, please turn off "Open Safe Files after Downloading" in Safari prefs. This way no Widgets will automatically get installed without your knowledge. Fig 2. If this is left on (the default) then when you download a .wdgt file it is automatically put into the Widget folder within your library foler within your user folder. Just as always whenever you download software be carefull, if it is from a website you know and trust then there shouldn't be any problems !
more tomorrow
Dashboard, in my opinion is like having a virtual 2nd screen. Depending on how you setup Dashboards preferences, it can be invoked by a press of a key or by moving the mouse cursor into the corner of the screen: and hey presto the content of the screen is dimmed and the Dashboard appears showing your selected widgets see Fig 001. Once you have finished with your Widgets just press the same key again or move to the relevant corner on your screen or just click anywhere that isn't a Widget and the Dashboard dissapears taking along with it, all the Widgets. See Movie 001.
2) What are Widgets ?
Widgets at present come in three flavours. Information Widgets, Application Widgets and Accessory Widgets.
Information Widgets require access to the Internet, they will hook up to certain wevsites gather the information that you require and display it in a pleasing manner ! Remember, if you have no connection to the Internet they won't work !
Application Widgets work with Applications that are on your Mac ! As an example the iTunes Widget only works if you have iTunes installed, you can't just have the Widget ! The Widget is just a more compact way of accessing 'limited functions' from certain Apps, it's just easier !
Accessory Widgets are self contained little utilities/Apps that will provide various functions, such as clocks, calculators, notepads etc. Accessory Widgets are not dependant on Internet access or having the parent App installed !
3) Are Widgets safe ?
There has been a lot of discussions since the introduction of Tiger that Widgets could become an Achilles heel for Mac computers.
This is possibly true, there are numerous websites that are already showing users how someone could write a mallicious bit of code add it to a Widget and put it onto a website for some unsuspecting person to download and install. To make sure that you don't accidently download and install a "widget' without your knowledge, please turn off "Open Safe Files after Downloading" in Safari prefs. This way no Widgets will automatically get installed without your knowledge. Fig 2. If this is left on (the default) then when you download a .wdgt file it is automatically put into the Widget folder within your library foler within your user folder. Just as always whenever you download software be carefull, if it is from a website you know and trust then there shouldn't be any problems !
more tomorrow
