In this week ’s Dashboard roundup , I cover ways to keep your Widgets up to date , see your iTunes stats , quickly discover fraction / decimal equivalents , and preview snippets of HTML . And , of course , there ’s a Widget “ why?”of the week .
Widget Update (; free ) . If you ’re reading this column , probability are you ’re a fan of widgets , and you ’ve in all probability got more than a few installed . To check that you ’re always running the latest version , assure out Widget Update . After configure Widget Update via its options screen ( for example , you may tell it which update web site it should check : Apple , Dashboard Widgets , Mac Update , and/or VersionTracker ) , click the refresh button and Widget Update will compare the versions of all your installed widgets against the latest interpretation as cover by the update site(s ) . Those widgets that are out of date are number along with version details . fall into place the orange site name next to a version opens your entanglement internet browser to that widget ’s page on the situation so you’re able to download the newer version .
iTunes Stats (; free ) . Ever marvel how many vocal you ’ve listened to in iTunes ? Or how much clock time you ’ve drop mind ? iTunes Stats gives you all that and more : entire number of song , entire play reckoning , average plays per track , even the total hours you ’ve mind . you could also see how many tracks have never been listen to , how many have n’t been rated , and other interesting choice morsel . ( click an applicable number shows its percent . For example , 24 % of my iTunes Library has n’t yet been rat — I’ve get some work to do . ) for sure , some of this information could be pick using various Smart Playlists and a spreadsheet , but it ’s neat to have it all right there at a glance . And iTunes Stats update whenever Dashboard is display ( or you could click its refresh button to update it at any time ) .
Decimator (; free ) . I ’ve generally shy off from widgets that do n’t “ do ” anything — for instance , gismo that are just an icon . But I ’m willing to overlook this limitation if the message displayed by a still whatsis is utile , and that ’s the case with Decimator , which is simply a table of common fraction and their decimal equivalent ( for deterrent example , 7/16 = .4375 ) . Silly ? Perhaps to some , but I ’ve known enough designers and product people ( and even architects and engineers ) who regularly use a calculating machine or theme table to find these equivalents to realize that Decimator could be quite handy : Just press a button and up pops Dashboard with the board in clear view . And if you press a value in the board , its decimal value is re-create to the Clipboard for easy pasting .
SnippetComposer (; free ) . There are many great tools on the Mac for creating HTML document . But sometimes I just want to promptly type up a snip of HTML for paste elsewhere — for lesson , for a web log or a Web assembly — and see how it ’s going to look . SnippetComposer lets me do just that , displaying a lively preview of the HTML forthwith below it ; clicking the C push button copies the computer code to the Clipboard for pasting . However , this is still very much a 1.0 merchandise : You ca n’t resize the Widget , so it ’s not great for longer batch of hypertext markup language , and it does n’t presently support figure of speech tags ( likely because of the size restriction — an image would use up the intact preview boxwood ) . I ’d also care to see support for plebeian Web forum tag end such as [ i ] , [ b ] , and [ uniform resource locator ] . But SnippetComposer still useful for its intend determination : speedily typing up short snippets of HTML . Hopefully it will pluck up more handy feature as the developer releases Modern versions .
Widget “ Why ? ” of the Week
Each week , I give a good - natured poke at a contraption that makes me intend , “ Why was this necessary ? ” This week ’s “ why ” goes toLocationWidget , which lets you apace swop between web Locations via Dashboard . That actually sounds like a convenient feature , except for one affair : you could already do the same thing with fewer action , and without having to put forward Dashboard , via the Apple Menu ’s Location hierarchical menu . One of my personal rules for what makes a in force widget is that it helps you do something more easily or more handily than you’re able to do otherwise , so if a widget is less commodious than OS X ’s own functionality , it ’s prime “ why ” fodder . ( There ’s also the fact that the widget is too small to display all but the shortest Location names . )
