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Dashboard Feature Eliminated in macOS Catalina
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Literally use the Dashboard everyday and have never had an interest in Notifications, mostly because I find it more intrusive and fiddly than Dashboard (that's right, I said it). Still, the ability to overlay everything on the screen with a Dashboard (or switch quickly to a different screen if that's your thing) is so useful. Almost all of my Stickies are kept on it allowing me to access them with a quick press of the Touchbar rather than switching back and forth between windows. The calculator is far more convenient than bringing up the app. The Dictionary is used regularly while writing my PhD thesis and just generally. And the currency converter is really useful for me since I have bank accounts in the US and New Zealand.
Honestly, this latest blow, which to many is merely nothing to them, is now the #1 reason why I won't be switching to Catalina. The update thus far offers me nothing of interest but removes a lot of features I use regularly. I'm good. Santa Catalina is not waiting for me. I think I'll remain in the desert.
Honestly, this latest blow, which to many is merely nothing to them, is now the #1 reason why I won't be switching to Catalina. The update thus far offers me nothing of interest but removes a lot of features I use regularly. I'm good. Santa Catalina is not waiting for me. I think I'll remain in the desert.
Funny enough, I turn on DND for literally a whole day to avoid notification on Mac altogether except the last minute. The world is so much better without all of the notifications.
Same as people rejoice when iTunes is killed this year. They either never use it or not use it enough.
Legacy and history are deemed to be forgotten and destroyed by new generations.
I actually WANT iPad has something similar to launchpad so I can quickly launch another app as slide view without going to the home screen.
- One glance
- Calendar
- Weather
- World Clock
- CPU stats
- Room for a picture
- No scrolling needed.
Seriously, very small number of people use Dashboard. No one makes widgets for Dashboard anymore. It's a good decision to remove it.
I don't mind when Apple removes something like this that has started to be obviously phased out years ago. I just don't like when they remove something that everyone's still actively using, in order to "force" people to change how they do things from one day to another: such as Safari Extensions suddenly no longer working after a Safari update, or 32 bit apps that will simply not work in Catalina. Instead of wait for things to become obsolete and remove them once hardly anyone uses them, they often like to remove stuff that is still actively in use. I still have dozens of modern 32 bit apps that I use daily, and I know it's the developer's fault that they weren't updated, but sometimes you have to pay to upgrade to the new version, or some developers are simply lazy, and so it becomes the user's problem.
Thank you for introducing me to the word ‘duplicative’. Now I just need an opportunity to use it...
There you go!
Have not used it in a decade. Condolences for those who still use it, Apple seems to take more than it gives these days. More apps on the 32 bit apocalypse.
I just hope they don’t kill off Hot Corners.
It’s so tucked away in the screensaver tools now that I feel it’s only a matter of time until they remove it.
It’s so tucked away in the screensaver tools now that I feel it’s only a matter of time until they remove it.
HELP !
I use this every day multiple times: three finger swipe left to swipe to the Dashboard screen, where I have the weather of my 8 favourite places, clocks for 3 different time zones, my currency converter with 15 currencies open, and the dictionary.
What do you recommend as replacement?
I use this every day multiple times: three finger swipe left to swipe to the Dashboard screen, where I have the weather of my 8 favourite places, clocks for 3 different time zones, my currency converter with 15 currencies open, and the dictionary.
What do you recommend as replacement?
Dashboard widgets can be made by anyone with knowledge in HTML and Javascript, making a notification center widget needs other knowledge and the App Store only has a bunch of widgets compared to the dashboard widgets, that are in the hundreds.
Also, try to have more widgets in the notification center, a scroll is guaranteed.
I can access dashboard without any click, amnd the real estate is much bigger, I have two screens, and I have several widgets.
I also have made several widgets to fit my needs.
Notification center is not a good alternative, I really don't undestand why they would kill dashboard, I knew it would disappear one day, they've been hidding dashboard more and more, so it was a matter of time.
I really don't like what Apple is doing, dashboard is just a small drop in this ocean; a lot is degrading compared to what was some years ago, Mojave is full of bugs (I need to restart some times so that the "application X is not open" error disappears (not to mention other stupid bugs)).
I love the Mac and MacOS, I've been using Macs since 1989 and will hopefully continue to use, but why should we make so many "detours" in our methods just to acommodate the way Apple would like you to follow?
Just by comparing the area of the whole screen (usable by Dashboard) and the small strip of the screen (usable by Notification Centre, it is clear (to anyone in his/her right mind) that you can fit substantially less (useful) information on the NC than on Dashboard.
Moreover, you can arrange the dashboard widgets in such a way that you still see relevant pieces of running apps that can contain information you may want to use in Dashboard.
Also, the calendar view is much superior in Dashboard (you can see more events as they are listed as text only). Of course you cannot fit sticky notes, dictionary, thesaurus, etc. on the small and useless notification center.
Incredibly stupid and arrogant decision to remove something super useful to (at least some) people. People not using Dashboard will not benefit in any way by hurting other people's needs & I don't quite understand their happiness when Dashboard users' needs are hurt.
Dashboard was definitely cool and useful. It will be missed ? Notification Center ? Not so much. It looks that Apple had peaked with MacOSX 10.6.8.
Since the dashboard Key on the Apple Keyboards was gone, I used a dedicated desktop and assigned stickies, calendar etc. with "open at Login" to it.
Functionwise the "dedicated desktop" approach does its job.
Designwise ... there is lots of room to improve that ;-)
Functionwise the "dedicated desktop" approach does its job.
Designwise ... there is lots of room to improve that ;-)
This sucks!!! I use Dashboard all the time , Calculator , Unit converter , Calendar , iStat , Dictionary . All in a much better (IMHO) package than the intrusive Notifications.
I too still use Dashboard every day. No scrolling required! There is no substitute if you are a power user multitasker. Ambrosia's easy envelope printer, and PNGPong used to be handy. I had a beat counter for music at one time. I used to use a chunk of local weather radar from Safari in a widget, but that broke eventually. Still use Dashboard for unit conversions, contacts, calendar, calculator, stock monitoring, Thesaurus....iStat was great in there too. Hmm. Do I want Catalina at all?
I use Dashboard lots In fact 3 times today i have used the calendar alone, not to look at appointments but to quickly with a 3 finger swipe see what day a specific date is, i also have 6 notes on that screen too. When i first moved to Mac back in 2011 i loved this feature coming from Windows and now its being taken away! I seriously do not understand why, on iOS you swipe to the right and you get a widgets screen , if MacOS and iOS are becoming more unified why is the 3 finger swipe to the right on a Mac to get to widgets being removed when its only just been added to iOS, why was it allowed to rot? The notifications bar is not as good hence i continued with what worked better.
In fact 3 times today i have used the calendar alone, not to look at appointments but to quickly with a 3 finger swipe see what day a specific date is, i also have 6 notes on that screen too. When i first moved to Mac back in 2011 i loved this feature coming from Windows and now its being taken away! I seriously do not understand why, on iOS you swipe to the right and you get a widgets screen , if MacOS and iOS are becoming more unified why is the 3 finger swipe to the right on a Mac to get to widgets being removed when its only just been added to iOS, why was it allowed to rot? The notifications bar is not as good hence i continued with what worked better.