10.4: Type in applications while Dashboard is active

Jul 08, '05 09:09:00AM

Contributed by: jamesmac

Tiger only hintI guess this is a bug, but if so, it's the best bug Apple has ever invented.

Like many people, I sometimes wish that I could keep Dashboard visible while I was interacting with other programs -- for example, so that I could take notes in Word from my Amazon or Wikipedia widget search results. It turns out that this is easy to do, thanks to the way that Dashboard interacts with Spotlight. Here's how.

Activate Dashboard. Then while it is still visible, use the activation key combination for Spotlight (Command-Space by default). You will notice that you can interact with Spotlight -- open files, change applications, whatever you like. Then use the activation key combination again to dismiss Spotlight and, presto, your keystrokes will now be passed to the frontmost application -- even though Dashboard is still visible.

Of course, if you click anywhere, the spell will be broken, but it's very quick to cast it again. Lovely!

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