Overlooked Widget Features

Here’s a feature you may have missed: Double-click to install.

The 10.4.2 update added some widget management functionality. The most obvious addition was the new “Manage Widgets” button that launches a special widget where one can view a list of installed widgets and disable widgets from appearing in the tray.

In a pre-release screenshot of this management widget in 10.4.2 I had seen red buttons next to each widget’s name which allowed you to uninstall (delete) the widget, rather than simply disable it. After installing the 10.4.2 update, however, I didn’t see these red delete buttons and assumed the feature had been pulled.

But actually it’s there, along with a bit more functionality.

In 10.4 double-clicking a widget launched the widget in Dashboard but did not add it to the Library/Widgets folder and thus did not add it to the scrolling tray in Dashboard. So once you closed it you couldn’t reopen it without double-clicking it again or manually adding it to the Widgets folder.

I assumed this behavior didn’t change. But it did.

Now, in 10.4.2, double-clicking a widget brings up a dialog asking if you want to install the widget. Clicking “Install” moves the widget to ~/Library/Widgets¹ and opens the widget in Dashboard in a sort of trial mode. It’s contained within a frame with the options to “Keep” or “Delete.” You can play around with it before deciding whether it’s a dud or a keeper.

Choosing “Keep,” obviously, keeps it and choosing “Delete” moves it to the trash. But now if you view the “Manage Widgets…” widget you’ll see the red minus button, allowing you the option to completely delete the widget.

This delete option only applies to widgets that were installed into the user’s local ~/Library/Widgets folder, not to widgets in the root-level /Library/Widgets folder.

The reason I overlooked this new functionality at first was because in Safari I have it set not to automatically open downloaded “Safe” files. If I had, I would have immediately been prompted to install a new widget upon downloading. If I hadn’t realized this I would have continued installing widgets into the root-level Widgets folder and thus, no delete buttons.

I’d prefer to keep my widgets in the root-level Widgets folder but this makes installing and removing widgets much easier.

¹ The tilde (~) stands for the current user’s main folder (ie. ‘Macintosh HD/Library/Users/someuser/’). As opposed to a leading forward slash (/) which stands for the root of the hard drive.