Although its gewgaw has wear off since Tiger was first release , Dashboard is still a pop feature of Mac OS X 10.4 . However , one of the most frequent postulation we get here at Macworld — even today , nearly a year after Tiger was released — is for a way of life to get Dashboard widgets to runoutside ofDashboard .
Last drop , Dori Smith explained how to get a widget to float above the Desktop , but that process required that you enable Dashboard developer modality and then manually drag widgets in and out of Dashboard . A simpler — though more expensive — approach shot is to use Mesa Dynamics ’ $ 20Amnesty 1.2.2 ( ) .
Last May , I briefly mentioned the then - beta version of Amnesty ; however , the public-service corporation has come a longsighted style since then . In short , when Amnesty is running , a Modern Amnesty fare appears in the menu bar , listing all available Dashboard widgets . opt a appliance from the card opens it on your silver screen — without activating Dashboard . Each widget remains onscreen until you shut it ( by again choosing it from the Amnesty menu ) . Via the widget ’s setting duologue — approachable by Control / right - clicking the widget and choose Configure from the leave menu — you decide whether the widget floats above all program , acts as a stock program windowpane , or becomes part of your screen background . you may also tailor-make the widget ’s opacity , or even set it to brush aside black eye clicks — utile to head off accidentally clicking release on an “ informational ” widget while it ’s on the screen .
But perhaps the cool feature of Amnesty is that you may resize widgets individually . Got a clock widget that you really like but that ’s just too small on your 30 - inch Cinema Display ? Amnesty ’s appliance configurations dialogue let you increase the sizing of the widget by up to 50 % . Got a useful widget that ’s fall dupe to the “ my developer does n’t understand that a Widget should n’t take up the whole Dashboard ” plague ? Amnesty can dilute its size of it in half . you could even rotate widgets — not always useful , but always interesting .
you could also hide widgets singly or , via the Amnesty menu , conceal all thingumajig at the same time . A related feature lets you make group of widgets that can be opened and close at once via the Amnesty menu or keyboard shortcuts . And by downloading the company ’s freeAmnesty Screen Saver , you may use a floating interpretation of any doohickey as your screen saver .
( If you have thingumajig that you want to use via Amnesty but do n’t need cluttering up your Dashboard dockage , Amnesty offers its own folder [ ~/Library / program Support / Amnesty / Widgets ] for storing Amnesty - only whatchamacallit . )
Finally , another significant welfare of Amnesty is that it allows Macs run Panther ( Mac OS X 10.3)—which does n’t let in Dashboard — to unravel Dashboard widgets . Not all widgets work under Panther , but enough do that it ’s a skillful option for those who have n’t upgrade to Tiger .
$ 20 seems a flake steep to me for a Dashboard / thingumabob enhancer . But if you ’ve been looking for a mode to get more out of your widgets , Amnesty may just be worth the Jackson — it get well-nigh everything right .
Amnesty works with Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later . And , yes , I am aware of Konfabulator ð
