In macOS Catalina, Apple has killed off the Dashboard, and at least one person will miss it dearly.
Apple had telegraphed earlier this summer that Dashboard was about to meet its end, but that didn’t make the news any easier for me, the only person I know who was using the feature every day.
Dashboard was a sort of second desktop that you could populate and customize with simple programs, called widgets. It launched with 14 basic options developed by Apple, including Weather, Dictionary, World Clock, Calendar, and Calculator widgets. One of my favorites was Stickies—floating yellow boxes that you could type notes into and “stick” onto your desktop. Another joy of widgets: Outside developers could make them, too. An entire ecosystem cropped up…
It wasn’t anything flashy, but I found it useful to have all of these tools in one place just a keyboard shortcut away.
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, memories, of a feature we never used. Longtime Mac users never really embraced the Dashboard. Yes, we knew it was there and how to get to it (and we even made a MacDailyNews widget for it way back when), but the Dashboard was never something we ever got in the habit of using.
Dashboard fans: use the “Today” tab within your Mac’s Notification Center to replace your Dashboard widgets. There are more available via the Mac App Store. Just search for “Notification Widgets.”
I use Dashboard ALL the time (my Mac Pro is stopped at High Sierra due to Nvidia driver issues and waiting to buy a new Mac Pro). The problem is it was never coded properly and the positions of widgets would change or sometimes not work or partially work. It was always an unfinished software project at Apple so thanks for nothing Apple.
I use it every day. Upgraded to beta 10.15 and couldn’t stand it. Went back to 10.14 for now. Was a great feature in the OS to quickly get at weather, stocks, package tracking, conversions, calendar. I use it multiple times a day as the “as overlay”.
How did you revert back to 10.14?
I too have always used Dashboard. I kept it available at a space—available with a swipe. I found it a good place to have my units conversion app, which I use a lot. (It also converts currency, which I also use.) Dashboard has also been home to a specialty calculator I use as a content creator. I often need to add up the times of multiple audio/video tracks. One cannot add hours/minutes/seconds in an ordinary calculator. But this widget is perfect for that—and in Dashboard it was always instantly available. Before upgrading, I’m hoping to find widgets of similar functionality for the notification center.
I use dashboard constantly! I will never upgrade now!
damn right!
Haven’t used Dashboard but Apple did the same thing to me with Time Travel on the Apple Watch. I still miss it today – not sure why they had to “retire” it.
So this is what we are writing and commenting about today… Sheesh.. okay.. I used Dashboard 4 times Since Mid-2012 MacBook Pro purchase. Wup Dee Doo. Next Article… Paaaaleeeease!
So you never used it. Other people did. You don’t think they have a right to complain.
I have never used your house. You did. So I guess you don’t have the right to complain if somebody burns it down.
What ever happened to routine human empathy?
Come on… What about Magic 8 ball widget. That alone is worth it
I used it everyday.
I’ve been a Mac user since 2005 and have used Dashboard nearly every day. I think the removal of Dashboard is unnecessary and am really disappointed. Of all the suggestions MDN suggested, none of them replace the usefulness of Dashboard.
I used it countless times everyday. For me, Dashboard is a “must have” feature for what I do professionally. The new built-in alternatives are a joke, which might suffice for amateurs.
One general gripe abut MacDailyNews, which I otherwise like and appreciate: MacDailyNews staff comments are way too often marred by ridiculous and/or stupid side remarks, like this one above: “Long time Mac users never really embraced …” Judging from the often childlike character of staff remarks, I am pretty sure that I have several decades more experience than the writer.
Indeed, it is the childish remarks from MDN staff writers that quite clearly show that they are the amateurs in the room.
Didn’t use it… The problem was that “widgets” were just apps in a cuter form. 🥺 Like “desk accessories” in classic Mac OS.
Seriously, MDN? I got my first Mac in 1989, so I think I can consider myself a longtime Mac user. I use Dashboard CONSTANTLY, and the only reason I use Notifications at ALL is because Apple turned off the Weather widget. Don’t make assumptions you have no way to back up.
Biggest problem with the Notifications tab is that it’s vertical and narrow. I have a HUGE monitor and I want to use all that space! A swipe on a Magic Mouse beats moving to the corner and scroll… scroll… scroll… until what I want to see appears.
Please… stick to news and drop the judginess.
Bring back Konfabulator!
I’d consider someone like me who’s used the Mac since 1986 to be a justified “long time Mac user” and I DO “embrace” using the Dashboard every day, so you don’t speak for me. I was ready to update to Catalina over my Thanksgiving vacation, but now I will be waiting a long time. I use the Dictionary/Thesaurus all the time, the world clocks, the stocks, the dictionary, the MacDailyNews widget, the calendar and the conversion widget, all just a screen shift away. This change is worse than removing colored folders.
I used the dashboard widgets (stickies especially) every day. I did not see this coming and am distressed. I recorded innocuous passwords and usernames for certain sites that I didn’t want to save in their respective apps. Is there anyway to recover what I lost?
Hopefully someone will have a clever answer for you…but I suspect other than restoring your old installation, you’re probably out of luck. For this reason, before upgrading my OS, I always clone my present system to an external drive I can boot up into…just in case. That has saved me a lot of grief in the past. I can always boot up into my old system if needed.
well that explains why my calculator’s not working now! dammit. what do I do?
I have used dashboard for quick access to dictionary, widgets and stickies since their inception. I found that my office software (excel, word, etc.) would no longer open and that the “upgrade to Catalina” meant an annual financial $oftware agreement to keep office. I already paid for the previous version and don’t want to have to rebuy it every year.
I gave it a week and went back to Mojave 10.14.6. I will not upgrade to Catalina unless I have to. The loss of Dashboard annoyed me, but holding my office software hostage is unacceptable.
i relied on this feature and used it every day. i had set it up so it was a hot corner and would overlay my screen. i was very disappointed when i went into my hot corner and was unable to find it. it was so handy for conversions, calculating and weather. although yes, most of these things are available on notification centre, you cannot use stickies. stickies a little sticky notes which you can write reminders and stuff on. i always wrote on these and am so disappointed they are gone.
Plus one vote for the Dashboard and Widgets. I use them all the time. I’ve used Apple computers since the Lisa 2, so I guess you don’t speak for all “longtime Mac users”, after all.
I loved the fact that you could make Dashboard its own space and with a second monitor you could keep it up indefinitely. I did use it in this way occasionally. Notification center will never replace Dashboard. For starters it can only occupy a quarter of your Mac’s screen. Notification Center is fine for iOS, but is seriously lacking on a desktop OS.
Sign the petition to bring dashboard back:
http://chng.it/F2YSXJdDQL
I went back to my previous operating system as well. When I discovered my last purchased version of Office for Mac was no longer supported and required a subscription, I was upset to say the least. When I subsequently learned dashboard was gone, that was the last straw. I used it multiple times a day for quick access with a swipe for weather, dictionary and tons of stickies with notes on them. I have no regrets about staying with 10.14. It is nice to add things, but taking away sucks.
Used it all the time. I’ve been using a Mac at home since the Performa in 1993 and started on them at school in 1990. So I guess 30 years could be considered a longtime user.