Mac Treat #52: Grab Web Pages for Widgets!

ByMike Moffit

Dashboard Widgets found in OS 10.4 and 10.5 are featured as a means to keep information within a one-click reach.

One of the cool features of 10.5 with Safari 3 is that you can select pieces of a webpage to become Widgets. Upon testing this out, I just discovered a cool feature the other day on our very own website!

To clip part of a page and convert it into a Widget, here’s what you do:

1. In Safari, select File/Open in Dashboard…
2. Then, Safari will prompt you to select the part of the page you want to add as your new Widget.

When you open your new widget in Dashboard, it will take you to the URL associated with the part you clipped. Fast and easy!

So here’s where the Small Dog part came in–I clicked on our logo on Smalldog.com, and it also grabbed the search bar part of the page. I thought it would just take me to the home page to search for what I needed.

However, when I clicked my new Widget in Dashboard, it actually included a fully-functioning search tool–meaning that I could type right there, and it would take me straight to the results page! Very cool.

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