Widgets, those wonderfully simple mini-applications that run under OS X’s Dashboard, are great examples of programs that do one thing very well. Widgets have grown so popular that they have their own category in the Downloads section of Apple’s web site. You can wait for a programmer to create the widget of your dreams, or you can take charge and create your own. Don’t let the word “programmer” scare you; creating a simple widget is actually pretty easy.
Safari 3.0, introduced in OS X 10.5 (Leopard), can turn a web clipping (an area of a web page that you select) into a widget. In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how it’s done.
Load Your Favorite Weather Site in Safari
The first step is to load your favorite weather site in Safari. I’ll use The Weather Channel for this example.
- Click the Safari icon in the Dock.
- When Safari opens, type http://www.weather.com in the Address bar.
