A Review Of Application Launcher Dashboard Widgets - Part 1

I have a lot of applications in my dock, too many probably. But, then again I use most of them daily so it's nice having them there and the nice thing about the dock is that it is unobtrusive. That's the whole point of it: there when you need it, gone when you don't. (Unless you are one of those people who have it visible all the time. I don't understand you people.)

I also have a number of programs that I use sporadically. These I move to the dock if I'm going to be using them for a couple of days in a row, otherwise I'm content leaving them in the applications folder. One alternative to this is getting a freeware menubar program that will launch your seldom used programs, saving you the the hassle of trying to locate them when you actually need them. Another alternative is getting one of the numerous widgets out there that will do the job.

These widgets are actually designed to launch programs you use quite often. I think the developers were thinking more along the lines of getting as much out of your dock as possible and moving it to the Dashboard where it is just as accessible. I'm not so sure I really like that idea. I'm pretty used to the dock at this point and have a relationship to the positions where I have all of my applications. (Sort of strange how that happens after a while. If you don't believe me use someone else's Mac while they're not around and move all of their applications to different places in the dock and wait for their response.)

With all that said, I decided I would take a look at three of these "Dashboard Application Launcher" widgets and see how they compared and how useful they are. My thinking here is that whichever widget wins will be the proud home of such great applications as Google Earth, Audio In, and Automator, etc. The programs that I sometimes use, but not all that often. They will reside in what I will refer to as the "Glove Compartment". Which is what I would have called one of these widgets if I had developed it.

The three widgets I have chosen for this exercise are, DashDock, Mondo Dock, and the less dock-likeAppButton.

We'll start with DashDock, it is the oldest of the three having been released all the way back in July 2005. When you first open DashDock you are presented with three program icons; Safari, Mail, and System Preferences. When you mouse over them the application name appears beneath the icon. Not entirely sure why that is needed, it creates sort of an issue because you can accidentally launch the far right application instead of pressing the "i" because the two overlap. On the back of the widget you find the same three icons however passing over them shows a red X, obviously indicating that clicking there will remove them from the widget. Simple enough

To add applications to DashDock you drag them from out of your Applications folder, hit F12 to launch Dashboard and then drag them into the widget. The first couple of times I tried this nothing happened. It indicated that something was going to happen, but the icon never showed up. It seems that you have to hold the icon over the "dock" for a couple of seconds to be sure it comes up. Once you've got that down there isn't a problem adding to it.

There are some issues with certain applications refusing to stay in the dock. Word, for example, I just could not get to remain there. Not sure why this is exactly, but I'm going to blame Microsloth. However, most do work as they should.

How many icons can you get on that dock? I'm guessing as many as you want. I went up to ten and realized even with a 22 inch monitor that that is about the limit when you consider it's a widget. I'm not saying it's big, because it really isn't. I'd say the size of it is just right. You just don't want it stretching across your entire screen, because then it defeats the point.

As for the design, well, it looks nice. Till you hover over it. The names of the applications float below the widget. Things should not float aimlessly in Dashboard. And if they do, they should probably be above the widget. The same goes for the back, very nice and simple, but the Done button is just floating on it's own. These are petty complaints, the only real one is the deal with the name of the far right application when trying to access the preferences on the back.

Functionality. Well, it works. It does what it's supposed to do, it launches applications from Dashboard. Does it remember your preferences if you shut the widget, or restart your computer? Yes. Can you have multiple versions open and create multiple docks? Sure. Can it do anything else, like drag files into it, or folders? No. Does it need to do anything else? No.

All in all it's a good widget. It has a couple of little problems, but so does just about every widget, including Apple's. I don't think we are going to see an update to this one since it's been eight months since it's initial release and is already at 1.0. As I said it works well enough to make it worth the price. Free.

Design: 3
Functionality: 3
Dock Problem Solving: 4

Part 2 will cover AppButton.

K. Panda

The irony of launching Sherlock and Konfabulator from Dashboard.