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Welcome to Widgets WorldUseful and fun |
By Dragos Jijau, Software News Editor
3rd of September 2006, 09:33 GMT
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Widgets have become an entertaining and useful computer gadget similar to Ipod mania in our day life. While working with them, the user can have easy and comfortable access to different utilities from weather news and forecasting to sports, games, time management or system utilities. It is very easy to access what you need directly from the desktop without complicated installations.
First of all, what is a widget and how does it work?
A widget is an interface element that a computer user interacts with. It is in fact a mini application that has special properties which permits the interaction between it and the computer user. A widget works with an engine, a JavaScript runtime engine, available free to download. The most used engine is the one provided by Yahoo, suggestively named Yahoo Widgets Engine which, before being bought by Yahoo, was formerly called Konfabulator. The newest born widget engine is the one implemented with the latest Opera Browser, Opera 9.
Because it is the most notorious engine, I'll describe how you can work with the Yahoo Widget Engine. The first step is to download the installer. You can find it here. The installation is not fastidious. You will be asked if you want to install the Yahoo toolbar and Yahoo Central. Uncheck these options because they are not useful and can be annoying. After installation the engine will start and you will be prompted with a small introduction. Then, check your
desktop. You will discover that six, nice looking utilities appeared. These are just some of the default widgets that come bundled with the engine. The installation created a special folder in My Documents directory called My Widgets. There you will find 20 widgets. You have to understand that these widgets work only with the engine. If the engine is shut down, all the widgets will disappear from your desktop. Looking at the system tray and you will see an icon representing two wheels. That's the engine. When you don't want it to run, just right click on it and click Quit Yahoo Engine.
Yahoo Widget Engine settings and options
When you right click on the taskbar icon, representing the Yahoo Widgets Engine, a small menu will emerge showing important information like: Preferences, running widgets, recent widgets or links to get new widgets. By clicking the Preferences option you will be prompted with a window where you can set up if the engine should start when you log in, choose the language or add a proxy for the internet connection (many widgets require internet connection to run).
Moreover, every widget has its own settings. To access these settings just right click on the widget and from the menu select Widget preferences. All the widgets have more settings tabs: one related to the widget functions, one related to Fonts and one where the user can set the widget appearance (dimensions, position, and opacity). These settings are very useful because they increase the level of conformability. You have a wide choice related the "looks" of the widget on your desktop.
Install and run widgets
Yahoo provides an increasing number of widgets (thousands). You can browse the online categories and download for free the desired widget. After download just double click the file and you will be prompted to use the widget. In some cases you will be informed that the widget may not be safe because it is not created by Yahoo. It's ok. The number of widgets available is increasing every day and the developers are independent from Yahoo. The increasing need and diversity of the widgets overwhelms Yahoo, that's why widgets are being developed by independent creators.
When you are bored or you just do not need a widget anymore, right click on it and select close widget. After its closure you can find it in "Recent widgets" by right clicking the engine icon displayed in system tray.
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