Mac Dashboard keyboard shortcuts Aug24 '07

A tough reference to find is keyboard shortcuts within Mac OS X Dashboard. I'm not talking about launching Dashboard - everyone knows you can set "hot keys" or mouse corners to trigger that. I'm referring to keyboard shortcuts once your in Dashboard view.

Some would think a "dashboard" is for viewing only, so what actions would I need keyboard shortcuts for?

Here's a couple that might be useful:

Although it's not widely documented, these things can be accomplished with keyboard shortcuts, to some extent, without additional software or plug-ins involved.

Refreshing a widget

To refresh a specific widget, click on the widget once, and hit Command + R. You'll notice a very cool "swirl" effect, which almost looks like a hurricane on a radar screen:

Screenshot of OS X Dashboard

Every widget you refresh will perform this "swirl" action, and subsequently refresh the widget content.

If you're wondering what widget this was that I refreshed, it's the basic weather widget from Apple:

Screenshot of OS X Dashboard

Adding new widgets

If you manually click the "+" icon in the lower left corner of Dashboard view, your "widget toolbar" will appear along the bottom. Here you can add or remove widgets from display.

To open this "widget toolbar," you can also hit Command + "+". That's Command and the "+" key at the same time. Hitting it again will close the "widget toolbar."

Removing widgets

This is not so much a keyboard shortcut, but a keyboard adjustment. If you hold down the "Option" key while in Dashboard view, and hover over a widget, you can manually remove the widget by clicking the "X" in the upper left corner of the widget. The "X" only appears when you move the mouse over each widget. This is quicker than opening the "widget toolbar" first, and then removing.

Keyboard shortcuts needed

I'm making a list of additional shortcuts that would be useful:

Categories: Dashboard , Mac OS X , Tips , Widgets

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Good job! Thanks. ... Read more.

Thanks for the "Refresh" command. I just started using it. ... Read more.

Man i also put the windows om my Mac......I dont know hot to take screenshoot cause the Mac shortcut to for taking a screenshot aren t functional ... Read more.

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