Help, my thingy (Dashboad) is missing!

[mollymcdeath]

Okay I'm still a mac newbie. I have a late 2009 MBP and when I press my f12 key usually a thingy zoomed in over my screen that had like a calculator, world clock, weather, and something else. I liked this thingy. It worked this morning while I used it to help do some basic math (I'm not a math person). But a few minutes ago when I hit my f12 key it didn't pop up! Instead there was a little dashboard thingy at the bottom of my screen that slid in and said "widgets" and reminded me exactly of the annoying widget dashboard on my old PC. I don't know how or why it has changed. How do I get the cool "zoom in over my screen thingy" back?

 

[jmann]

Find those same widgets (like the calculator) within the widget bar, and then drag it out onto the main part of the page off the dock and it will come back.