Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets & Gadgets to Increase Productivity
April 10th, 2007 (12:00pm) Judi Sohn 34 Comments
4 years ago, Arlo Rose released his shareware application Konfabulator. That’s when Mac users started installing little mini self-contained applications on their OS X desktop to do all sorts of interesting things. No need to switch out of the active application, as these mini-apps were accessible with a single click or mouse gesture. A windows version of Konfabulator soon followed. At around the same time, Apple introduced similar Dashboard Widgets built right in the operating system. Later, Rose sold Konfabulator to Yahoo. Then, Google got into the game with their Desktop Plug-Ins and now Vista ships with its Sidebar, which users can fill with gadgets. That’s a lot of clocks and battery meters!
Regardless of your platform and whether you call them dashboard or desktop widgets, gadgets or plug-ins, new desktop mini-applications are added to directory sites all the time by 3rd party developers. Frankly, most are eye candy and distractions. There are way too many mindless games, media players and countdown clocks to suck our attention. However, buried under all that there are some interesting ones that can help make the web worker more productive. Let’s take a look at a few.
Unfortunately, there is no universal standard for desktop widgets. A widget designed for Apple’s Dashboard won’t work in Google Desktop or Vista, or visa versa. However, there are options for converting Google gadgets to Apple Dashboard or Vista Sidebar formats. Learn more about that here.
Here are some interesting widgets/gadgets to try with productivity in mind. All downloads are freeware, and aren’t tied to having a paid account or license for software elsewhere. So I have not included widgets that work with Basecamp Tick, or Salesforce for example.
Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets
The biggest, and most interesting selection comes from Apple’s site. Makes sense given how long the built-into-the-OS feature has been available compared to Google or Microsoft’s alternatives.
Easy Envelopes – Print off a quick envelope in a variety of sizes without launching Word. Include USPS barcodes and search for addresses from Address Book.
PDF + PDF – Assemble multiple PDFs together without the full version of Acrobat or another utility. Would be ideal if it also worked to break PDFs apart.
Reminder – Need to remember to do something in a set amount of time but it’s not worth entering a full blown task? Use this Dashboard instead. Egg Timer is similar.
Word Counter – Copy & paste any amount of text and get a quick count of characters or words.
Google Gadgets
These gadgets require Google Desktop, which may be a deterrent if you don’t want to have your drive indexed. But if you’re already a Google Desktop user, these gadgets are worth checking out. Note, the Mac version of Google Desktop, just in beta, does not include this functionality.
RSI Reminder – Lose track of time while you’re working? You know that’s not good for your health. This gadget will pop up and let you know when you need to take a break.
World Clock – There are many gadgets for showing the time. Too many. This one shows multiple time zones simply and clearly.
Vista Sidebar
Vista gadgets are still brand new, so the pickings are on the slim side. This will improve as Vista is more widely adopted.
Systran Dictionary – Translate over 52 language pair combinations and consult bilingual dictionaries.
Traffic by Live Search Maps – If you live near a major city, get real-time traffic updates before you head out to that client meeting.
Yahoo Widgets
The widgets that started it all, and now the only cross platform widgets.
Full Year Calendar – This one is particularly nice to see the entire year at quick glance.
Clipboard Washer – Quick and easy way to remove text formatting. Especially helpful if you cut & paste from Word.
Do you use widgets as part of your web working day? If so, which ones do you find particularly useful without being time wasters?
34 Comments Post your own comment
Danny Espinoza says: April 10th, 2007 1:24pm
Cool — thanks for the, er, somewhat circuitous :-) mention with regards to converting Google Gadgets for desktop use. I just wanted to add that Amnesty Generator also supports conversion of other web widgets (e.g. Finetune’s spiffy MP3 player, slideshows from Slide). And we’ll be adding support for converting netvibes widgets (via their “copy to web” function) and Google’s slick new Google Talk widget very soon now…
Quiter says: April 10th, 2007 2:00pm
I find This one very usefull
Jeff says: April 10th, 2007 5:59pm
I dont think business widgets get a fair shake. Some of these are very useful. SupplyFrame’s vertical search engine is available as the GoPart widget – essentially an encyclopedia of information on electronic components for design engineers and procurement people.
jeremy says: April 10th, 2007 6:20pm
I know it’s not really productivity related, but my favorite widget is the free text messaging one over at TxtDrop. I use their free widget all the time to send texts to friends. It’s a little quicker than going to the web and doing the same thing.
Looks like they just came out with a Vista gadget too.
Don Synstelien says: April 10th, 2007 11:34pm
This is the one that I find most useful ;-)
http://springwidgets.com/widgets/view/372
p.s. Love WWD!
-Don
Dario Salvelli’s Blog » Blog Archive » L’incremento della produttività e Twitter says: April 11th, 2007 7:21am
[...] veloci: Web Worker Daily stila una top 10 dei widgets e gadgets utile ad incrementare la nostra produttività . Se ne conosci altri aggiungili pure nei commenti. Se [...]
Andrew Mackay says: April 11th, 2007 11:22am
OMG I just saw the word count widget. Thanks. I’m soooo sick of launching Word to do that!
Mrinal says: April 11th, 2007 9:14pm
Sticky memos from Yahoo
Terinea Tech Tips says: April 12th, 2007 8:44am
Finally a good list of Vista Widgets
Best Desktop Gadgets for Productivity | [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News says: April 13th, 2007 11:23am
[...] the guys at Web Worker Daily took a bite out of that problem. Did a post on the most productive gadgets, widgets, and doodads [...]
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Productivity-boosting desktop widgets and gadgets at SoftSaurus says: April 18th, 2007 3:57am
[...] like an egg timer, word counter, RSI reminder and a clipboard washer. —Gina Trapani Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets [Web Worker [...]
WIDGETS: Productivity-boosting desktop widgets and gadgets at SoftSaurus says: April 26th, 2007 2:04pm
[...] like an egg timer, word counter, RSI reminder and a clipboard washer. —Gina Trapani Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets [Web Worker [...]
Nikolaos says: June 5th, 2007 7:51am
Nice
Herakles says: June 5th, 2007 2:57pm
Cool…
Meandering cloud says: June 6th, 2007 4:05am
I saw a recent one from Extensio from http://www.extensio.com. They have a sidebar that runs on XP, and a bunch of gadgets. Also have a widget development tool.
They are in beta just now. Not sexy to look at, but spiffy and functional and seems to me that if one could build gadgets/widgets from applications as well. That should be cool, I think..
-MC
Photios says: June 11th, 2007 3:55pm
Cool.
Ilias says: June 12th, 2007 1:03am
Cool!
Koinos says: June 13th, 2007 1:16pm
Cool.
Constantinos says: June 15th, 2007 2:19am
interesting
Ioannes says: June 20th, 2007 5:23am
Cool…
Philippos says: July 9th, 2007 1:29am
Cool…
Drymiotes says: July 9th, 2007 9:23am
Nice…
Kharilaos says: July 9th, 2007 10:47am
Cool!
Giannis says: July 9th, 2007 2:01pm
Cool…
Markos says: July 9th, 2007 8:37pm
interesting
Theofanis says: July 10th, 2007 3:29am
Interesting…
Michail says: July 23rd, 2007 10:14am
Cool…
links for 2007-07-30 « geek notes says: July 30th, 2007 2:23am
[...] Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets & Gadgets to Increase Productivity « (tags: macosx widgets productivity) [...]
Productivity-boosting desktop widgets and gadgets [Widgets] at SoftSaurus says: October 29th, 2007 2:24pm
[...] like an egg timer, word counter, RSI reminder and a clipboard washer. —Gina Trapani Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets [Web Worker [...]
Mark Phillips says: December 24th, 2007 3:09pm
To add to the list.
Here is a free desktop timer to track time on clients or to track time on projects.
http://timer.vertabase.com
Its from the makers of Vertabase project management software.
Gadgets & Games says: February 1st, 2008 6:09pm
Gadgets & Games
Great post!!
The Toolbox : 100+Plus In-Depth Resource Collections for Web Workers « Webessentials’s Weblog says: February 26th, 2008 5:43am
[...] Top Desktop Dashboard Widgets: Use these widgets and gadgets to count words, time yourself, set alarms, and do all sorts of other fun and useful things. [...]
Franko Damian says: March 13th, 2008 1:08pm
Cool! This desktop widgets might come in handy. For reviews on the latest widgets and gadgets I’d probably recommend this resource http://www.widgetsandgadgets.com/