The introduction of Widgets for the dashboard in OS/X has caused many useful utilities in the form of widgets to pop up around the place… Sometimes there is the odd utility that you would like to see on the desktop so you don’t have to remember to keep hitting that dashboard button. This is where ‘DevMode’ comes in handy.

You can click here to get the development widget which will turn this mode on or off.

What is DevMode?

The DevMode widget serves two functions. First, it shows the current status of Dashbooard Development Mode. Second, if you click on the widget it will turn devmode on or off.

Alternativly you can read the rest of this article to learn how to enable and disable dev mode yourself…

Enabling dev mode manually couldn’t be easier, simply open a new Darwin session and type:

defaults write com.apple.Dashboard devmode YES

The just log off and log on.

Once you have done this activate dashboard, then drag and hold the widget you would like on the desktop while deactivating dashboard again. Voilá! Depressing the key while mousing over the widget will show the close button (works in dashboard mode, too).

Dragging and holding the widget while activating dashboard will put it back again.

If you would like to disable Dev Mode down the line then just use:

defaults write com.apple.Dashboard devmode NO

It’s that easy!

This mode is handy for people developing Widgets so you don’t have to keep switching back to the dashboard (in fact I beleive that is why this usermode exists).

Enjoy!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Mac hack. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.