Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition

Dashboard

As you know, the essence of using a computer is running programs, which often produce documents. In OS X, however, there’s a third category: a set of weird, hybrid entities that Apple calls widgets. They appear, all at once, on a virtual desktop—the leftmost of the ones in Mission Control.

Figure 4-12. When you summon the Dashboard, you get a fleet of miniprograms that convey or convert all kinds of useful information, on a Spaces screen all their own. You get rid of Dashboard either by pressing the same key again (F4 or whatever), by swiping three fingers to the right on your trackpad, or by clicking anywhere except on a widget.

Here’s how you can find them:

• If your F4 key bears the Dashboard logo (), press it.

  Note

  On the very newest Macs, F4 bears a Launchpad icon () instead. On the very oldest Mountain Lion–capable Macs, the Dashboard keystroke is usually F12. Or, on laptops where F12 is the key, you have to hold down the Fn key (lower-left corner).

  In all of these cases, you can change the Dashboard keystroke to whatever you like, as described below.

• Swipe with three fingers on ...