Just about a year ago @ace ran a “Do You Use It?” survey on Widgets use.
I responded at the time that I use them in iOS. Like over 50% of Mac users, though, I know what they are but I didn’t use them on Mac.
Why? They live in the Notification Center, and the default way to get at them is to find the Time display in the Menu Bar, then click it (single click and don’t linger). I couldn’t be bothered.
But now there are much more useful widgets available, especially crossing over from iPhone. In my case, BusyCal, Agenda, Ring, Ecobee, and a grocery list app would all be useful “info sipping” widgets. The latter three apps are only on iOS, so there’s that.
MacOS does offer a way to define a keyboard shortcut for Widgets, but you first have to accept mentally that you’re really viewing Notification Center. Here it is, in Sonoma:
Note that I’m using “F19”, which is in the upper-right corner on my Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. That key doesn’t exist on non-extended keyboards, but something similar in that general position would be intuitive. (You can usually override another default definition if you’re not using that key, and ultimately you can always restore the defaults)
Having the Notification Center available at a tap (rather than mousing/sliding and clicking) is making Widgets much more useful for me. Give it a try!
Yes, me too, but I’m still on Sonoma so not yet enjoying that little enhancement. Personally I like having them out of sight until I pop them over. Do they get obscured behind other windows when they are on the desktop?
…or, actually, I can as I just fiddled with it some more. And yes, a widget on the Desktop is in the background, so any and all open windows cover it up. I suppose this option would be more useful to someone using Spaces; you could set up a given Space to have certain Widgets in certain positions along with the app windows also in certain positions.
I use stage manager and have a couple of widgets to the left top and bottom that show almost all of the time. It works fine for me, though one is the weather, and I have several other ways to see that data (including on my watch), and the battery, which is also in the upper-right corner (though much harder to see). Otherwise I don’t find widgets all that useful.
When Mac desktop widgets were introduced in Sonoma, I wrote a note on Tidbits Talk about how I simulate the Dashboard using widgets:
It still works for me in Sequoia. I currently have it displaying the following widgets:
World clock (4 clocks)
News headlines
Photo Memory thumbnail
Fantastical Calendar
Apple Weather
AQI widget from Breathable
Battery Status
Deliveries status from Deliveries
I missed your previous note, so of course I looked at that setting. The “Show Items In Stage Manager” box is not checked, nor is the “Stage Manager” toggle turned “on”. Now I don’t recall whether that’s how things started out or if I had that happen the first time I started up after upgrading and immediately turned it off altogether!
Any part of this post that looks like I’m catching up with the rest of the world? Well, I guess you should believe what you see.
I should add that I find it jarring to tap, click, or nudge something and see all my windows “scram” in response. I do like the way Mission Control is implemented, and use it often.
You’ve sparked a little wondering in me. Is some kind of Apple lexicon in existence? Kind of like “Mactracker,” but for all the terms that Apple has appropriated and redefined over the years?
That could be a fun crowd-sourced project with a useful result.
