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Dashboard not displaying Widgets....

K

kk05629

macrumors member
Original poster
Greetings...When I press the F12 key (dashboard)...the widgets do not display...only the little dialog box that shows a list of widgets with a + sign in the lower left hand corner. I cannot find anything on the system preferences related to this behaviour. I am running Leopard.

Any direction is appreciated.
 
If you click the plus sign, do the widgets show along the bottom and can you then drag them onto the main part of the screen? 🙂
 
Widgets won't move to desktop

I get the list of widgets when I click on the plus sign, but when I try to drag them to the desktop they're empty. (For example, no weather information or a clock face with no hands.) As soon as I release the mouse, they vaporize. 😕
 
SouthernAngel said:
I get the list of widgets when I click on the plus sign, but when I try to drag them to the desktop they're empty. (For example, no weather information or a clock face with no hands.) As soon as I release the mouse, they vaporize. 😕
Click to expand...

Here you go.... (google is your friend)


It's not only possible, but it's pretty easy and darn fun! Here's what you need to do...

Ready for the fun now? Press f12 to bring Dashboard up, then drag one of your Dashboard widgets around. While you're still dragging it around (that's critical: keep that mouse button down!) press f12 again.

Poof! Your Dashboard vanishes, but the widget's still visible. Move it to where-ever you want on your screen and it's there, running, fully functional, without the rest of Dashboard around!

You'll notice that it lives above everything else on your screen (at least, I don't know how to push it behind other app windows) so I think you'll have the best results with small widgets that can be tucked into a corner or lined up neatly on an edge.

To move the widget back into the Dashboard world, reverse the trick: begin dragging the widget, then, while still keeping the mouse button down, press f12, then let go of the mouse button. The widget will be restored to its regular Dashboard layer.
 
Still vaporizing

Wow! Thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately, the F12 key (actually F4 on my setup) still makes the widget disappear -- even as I held down the mouse.

The fact that the widget is empty when it opens makes me think they haven't loaded correctly. They were working fine when I first bought my iMac about 5 weeks ago; I'm not sure exactly when this situation started or what I did to bring it on.
 
SouthernAngel said:
Wow! Thanks for the quick reply. Unfortunately, the F12 key (actually F4 on my setup) still makes the widget disappear -- even as I held down the mouse.

The fact that the widget is empty when it opens makes me think they haven't loaded correctly. They were working fine when I first bought my iMac about 5 weeks ago; I'm not sure exactly when this situation started or what I did to bring it on.
Click to expand...


Does it happen when you try the clock widget or a newer one you downloaded?
 
Widgets don't display

I've tried it for a number of widgets, including the clock and a widget for Quicken that I just downloaded.

As an example, when I drag the clock onto the desktop it displays the clock face with no hands. When I release the mouse, it disappears. (I think it's dropping off the bottom of the screen, but it moves quickly and may just be disappearing.)
 
SouthernAngel said:
I've tried it for a number of widgets, including the clock and a widget for Quicken that I just downloaded.

As an example, when I drag the clock onto the desktop it displays the clock face with no hands. When I release the mouse, it disappears. (I think it's dropping off the bottom of the screen, but it moves quickly and may just be disappearing.)
Click to expand...

I asume you are running leopard. Try looking here

http://www.usingmac.com/2007/11/26/leopard-terminal-commands-for-desktop
 
Type the first line into the program Terminal, located in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES


To use it, you enter dashboard. Click and hold the widget you want and press F12.
 
Thanks for the site. I tried the code for getting the widget to cling to the desktop, but no change. I'm thinking there must be a bug of some sort with my dashboard.

I like that the site you mentioned always posts the code for undoing the changes they describe. It's usually pretty intuitive, but it's a good principle to work by.
 
SouthernAngel said:
Thanks for the site. I tried the code for getting the widget to cling to the desktop, but no change. I'm thinking there must be a bug of some sort with my dashboard.

I like that the site you mentioned always posts the code for undoing the changes they describe. It's usually pretty intuitive, but it's a good principle to work by.
Click to expand...

Did you log out and log back in then try... Also you did try the terminal right. Oh are you still using F12 as you said you changed it to F4 or something like that. If you did you try it with F4 or maybe change it back to F12 to see if it works...
 
I did type the line into terminal as described on the site you listed.

I hadn't tried logging out, so I just did that. No change.

On my system F12 increases the volume. I'm not sure how to change that. (Simply assigning F12 to Dashboard in the system preferences doesn't do it). Just for the heck of it, I assigned Dashboard to F5 in preferences. I could then activate or deactivate Dashboard with both F4 and F5. None of this changed what happens when I try to use a widget, though.

I was thinking of calling the Genius Bar at the Apple store where I bought the iMac. I've avoided them so far, because I've been able to get through all the problems that have come up so far. (Most were due to my inexperience with a Mac.) Maybe this is a good one for them.
 
SouthernAngel said:
I did type the line into terminal as described on the site you listed.

I hadn't tried logging out, so I just did that. No change.

On my system F12 increases the volume. I'm not sure how to change that. (Simply assigning F12 to Dashboard in the system preferences doesn't do it). Just for the heck of it, I assigned Dashboard to F5 in preferences. I could then activate or deactivate Dashboard with both F4 and F5. None of this changed what happens when I try to use a widget, though.

I was thinking of calling the Genius Bar at the Apple store where I bought the iMac. I've avoided them so far, because I've been able to get through all the problems that have come up so far. (Most were due to my inexperience with a Mac.) Maybe this is a good one for them.
Click to expand...

Ok, you might want to call apple care as the genius bar usually don't answer calls. Good luck on your problem. Please post back on what fixed it. Sorry I couldn't help
 
Turns out to be a good question. There are 4 accounts on the computer (one administrator), plus a guest account. I went into each account and checked. Widgets work in one of the four (not the administrator) plus the guest account; they don't work in the other three.
 
SouthernAngel said:
Turns out to be a good question. There are 4 accounts on the computer (one administrator), plus a guest account. I went into each account and checked. Widgets work in one of the four (not the administrator) plus the guest account; they don't work in the other three.
Click to expand...

That's weird ,but have you called apple on this yet?
 
Do you notice anything similar between the account that don't work? Do they have a certain widget installed in common? In one of the non-functional accounts, maybe try deleting all files with widget and plist in the name.
 
At least one account that doesn't work and the one that does (not including the guest account) have the same set of 20 widgets installed. They're all widgets that came with the Leopard operating system or were otherwise installed "automatically." I've only specifically installed one widget, for Quicken, in the administrator account -- but this problem predates that installation.

I can try deleting all the widget and plist files, as you suggested. I assume that will remove my widgets. How does one get them back?
 
No no no, don't delete your widgets. Delete files with both widget and plist in the name. These are the preference files and deleting them will merely restore the default settings to the widget(s).
 
OK, I 'm not deleting any widgets. In any case, there are no files anywhere on the Mac with widget in the filename. The only thing similar to that is the Quicken widget I installed, which has an extension of wdgt.

There are several filenames containing plist, but none that seem to be related to widgets.

Is there a safe way to remove and reinstall widgets? Is that what's needed?
 
There's a bunch of files in ~/Library/Preferences/ labeled widget-com.[widgetname].plist. Those are the ones to delete, and also delete com.apple.dashboard.plist and com.apple.dashboard.client.plist. You might consider moving them to the Trash but not emptying it, btw, just because if it doesn't help you can move them back and not lose your widget settings.

jW
 
Yeah, kind but horridly pungent Mal put it more eloquently than me. Deleting these files will have a similar effect to deleting and reinstalling the whole widget. 🙂
 
So this brings up a few things.

First, I found and deleted (actually moved to the trash) the files you mentioned, but the dashboard behavior didn't change. I tried it in two accounts, then restarted the computer. Still no change.

Second, why didn't I find these files when I did a search on my computer for all filenames with "widget" or "plist" in them?

Third, you seemed to imply that there's a way to delete files other than dragging them to the trash. I haven't found any way to remove a file other than dragging it.
 
I don't know why Spotlight wouldn't have found the files for you and I'm not sure what you're referring to with respect to deleting files. There are other ways, but they're not really pertinent right now. Anyway, I'm gonna guess this is a software conflict of some sort. List all your third party apps and plugins and hopefully we'll be able to find the culprit.
 
Forget about the delete comment -- I think I just misunderstood a prior posting.

I haven't had the Mac long. Below is a listing of my applications folder. The only third party apps I've installed are Office for the Mac, my printer, Firefox, and Quicken. (See next post for a list of plug-ins.)

The widget issue predates the Quicken install. The other three apps I installed the first week I had the Mac. I think but can't recall for sure that there was a period when those three applications were installed and the widgets worked. I do know that there was at least some period when the widgets worked. (And they currently work in two of my five accounts.)

BTW, thanks for your persistence and all this advice and help.


Address Book.app
AppleScript
Automator.app
Calculator.app
Canon Utilities
Chess.app
Dashboard.app
Dictionary.app
DVD Player.app
Exposé.app
Firefox.app
Font Book.app
Front Row.app
GarageBand.app
iCal.app
iChat.app
iDVD.app
Image Capture.app
iMovie.app
iPhoto.app
iSync.app
iTunes.app
iWeb.app
iWork '08
Mail.app
Microsoft AutoUpdate.app
Microsoft Office 2004
OmniPage SE
OmniPage_SE_Direct_OCR
Photo Booth.app
Preview.app
Quicken 2007
QuickTime Player.app
Safari.app
Spaces.app
Stickies.app
StuffIt 12
System Preferences.app
TextEdit.app
Time Machine.app
Utilities
 
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