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| Show Notes |
Show Date: April, 1st, 2006:
Today we are talking with Ambrosia software about the Easy Envelopes widget. The widget allows you to print envelopes from the dashboard. We
also talk about 3 tricks that allow you to make dashboard more functional.
Ambrosia Software
Easy Envelope Review
Easy Envelopes Main Page
Introduction: Talking about some cool widget tips
1) When you are in dashboard hold down the option Key and put
your mouse over the widget of your choice. You will notice the
close inset will be shown. Now you can close your widgets without
loading the entire widget bar.
2) You can run widgets outside of Dashboard in a mode called
"Developer Mode" This makes it easier to develop widgets without
having to switch to the dashboard when testing or debugging. To
enable this open the Terminal and type
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES and press Return.
1..Activate Dashboard by pressing F12 (or whatever key you've assigned to Dashboard).
2.Begin dragging the widget.
3.Press F12 again, before letting up on the mouse button.
4Drop the widget wherever you want it.
You can do the same thing in reverse to drag the widget back onto the Dashboard. Also of interest: while a widget is frontmost, you can press Command-R to reload it. (This may be necessary if a widget is buggy and gets messed up somehow.) There's even a nifty Core Image-based twirl effect to accompany the reload.
2) If you run a lab of Macs in a school, you may not want the students wasting all their work time on the Asteroids video game widget or watching the (I am not making this up) Goblet of Fire movie release date countdown Widget. If you'd like to disable Dashboard, for either RAM usage or other reasons, here's how to do it. It requires a trip to the Terminal, in /Applications/Utilities, but it's not too hard to do.
Open Terminal, and then type this command, followed by the Return key:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
This tells the system that you no longer wish to have Dashboard available. However, the Dashboard task is actually ÒownedÓ by the Dock, so to make your changes take effect, you need to restart the Dock. The easiest way to do that is to type this command into the Terminal (and press Return when done):
killall Dock
After the Dock restarts, hit F12 and you'll seeÉnothing at all. If you run Activity Monitor, you also won't find any Dashboard widgets in the list of tasks, even if you had several open when you ran the above command. Dashboard has been eliminated from your system, and won't return until you tell it to do so. You can do just that by opening Terminal again, and typing this command:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
Once again, you'll have to use the killall Dock command to make the changes take effect. Once you do, though, you'll find that Dashboard is back as usual and any widgets you had opened on the Dashboard will still be open.
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Show Date: March, 14th, 2006:
Today we finish our series of talks on Apple classes. We review one of the most important classes that Apple has to offer which is the Apple Scroll area and Scrollbar classes. These classes not only add style but add functionality to any widget. We also countdown our top three widgets of this month and talk about widget contests on the internet. If your interested in contributing to the show please do so by emailing jon@jonbrown.org.
Show Links
Scroll Area Class Instructions
Ebay Watcher Widget
Go Go Red Ball Widget
Blogger Widget
Dashboard Widget Contest
Dashboard Widget Review (Go Go Redball, Blogger and Ebay Widgets)
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Show Date: December, 30th, 2005:
These are the show notes and links for the second show. We discussed
different websites that you can go to that offer tutorials for widget
creation. Also a list of websites to submit your widgets too once
you have finished them. The show covered common mistakes made for
a beginner creating their first widget.
List of Tutorials
Hello Widget Tutorial Modified
A list of Tutorials
Using RSS in your widget
Widgets and XML
GUI Elements
Developing Widgets
Widget Design
Video Tutorial
Folder Tree Widget
Getting Started with your Widget
Submit your Widget
Widget Developer
Widget Tracker
Dashboard Widgets
Apple Developer Section
Handy Widgets
Dashboard Line Up
Dashboard Exchange
Dashboard Exposed
Dashboard Share
Widget World
Show Date: January, 1st, 2006:
These are the show notes and links for the third episode of the show. We talked about the news from Apple, and the new core duo, processor from intel and its effects on dashboard widgets, and also the new widgets that came with the newest update to Tiger. We also talked about javascript classes and how they are used to create the flip transition, animation in the widget.
Show Links
WCode WSYWIG Widget Editor!
Konfabulator --> Yahoo Widgets
Intel Duo News
New Widgets in Tiger
Flip Javascript Class
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