Adding, Removing, and Detaching Gadgets in Software

Printing ANSI/AIM Code 39 in Software Adding, Removing, and Detaching Gadgets

You can easily add, remove, and detach gadgets on the Sidebar at any time and in any way that you want You can also download more gadgets from the Internet to your computer If you right-click an empty area of the Sidebar and choose Add Gadgets, a window appears listing all of the gadgets currently on your computer You can also click the plus sign (+) toward the top of the Sidebar to open the gadgets window as well, as shown in Figure 9-4

FIGURE 9-4

You can scroll through the gadgets and even search for one in particular using the search dialog box Notice that if you select a gadget, a short summary of what the gadget does appears in the bottom half of the window, as you can see in Figure 9-5, if you click the Show Details icon Once you ve found the gadget that you want to add, simply drag it to the Sidebar You can also double-click a gadget to install it to the Sidebar as well Notice that you can drag the gadget to any location on the Sidebar that you want If you rightclick a gadget, you ll notice a Move option Use the Move feature if you can t drag a gadget to a new location on the Sidebar Once you choose Move, you ll be able to move the gadget around as desired You can also remove a gadget from the Sidebar at any time This action doesn t remove the gadget from your computer it simply removes it from the Sidebar You can always return to the Gadgets window and add the gadget again To remove a Gadget, simply right-click it and click Remove

FIGURE 9-5

FIGURE 9-6

Keep in mind that gadgets are mini-programs Since this is the case, you may want to detach a gadget from the sidebar and use it on your desktop for a period of time This is especially helpful for gadgets that you want to interact with For example, in Figure 9-6, I have detached the weather gadget Now it appears on my Desktop and expands to a larger version so that I can work with it more easily Once I m done, I can simply put it back on the Sidebar To detach a gadget from the Sidebar, simply right-click the gadget and click Detach From Sidebar You can re-attach the gadget to the Sidebar by right-clicking it and clicking Attach To Sidebar or simply by dragging it back to the Sidebar An alternative use here is to detach a particular gadget and close the Sidebar Let s say that I really want to keep the calculator gadget on my desktop at all times, but I don t want the sidebar on the desktop All you need to do is detach the gadget and close the Sidebar Detached gadgets stay on the desktop, even if you close the sidebar

Some gadgets give you the ability to customize certain things about them, depending on the gadget If you right-click a gadget on the Sidebar and see a Settings button, then the gadget has some customizable features you can explore Since every gadget has its own setting options, we ll not explore each setting available (and besides, most of them are self-explanatory); however, let s take a look at the clock gadget as an example As you can see in Figure 9-7, I have accessed the options for the clock The clock options give you the option to choose a clock style by clicking through the selection arrows You can then give the clock a name, choose your time zone, and decide if you want to show the second hand on the clock or not Once you re done, simply click OK to apply your settings You have a few gadgets that are installed with Windows Vista by default However, you can find many additional gadgets on the Internet If you right-click the Sidebar and click Add Gadgets, you can click the Get More Gadgets Online link