Found a good approach to Mac Widgets

I don’t particularly care for widgets in the background of my apps when working, but I found this arrangement to work well.

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Can you put this in words?

Your “working” monitor is an external one. It has no widgets but you are running stage manager?

Your “other” monitor is the desktop screen and that is where you are storing widgets? Or are those things on the desktop screen just some windows? If so, where are the widgets? And what is the significance of the diagonal blue lines on the left side of the desktop screen?

As my reply implies I am confused.

Well, the process is complex and requires some knowledge of scripting and other forms of automation. So, here goes:

On the left side of the large monitor are the Stage Manager apps.

I was able to get the widgets on the laptop by connecting it to the monitor and then dragging the widgets from the large monitor over to the laptop. That’s it. :joy:

Regarding the blue lines, they are merely reflections of the lighting in the office.

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I wonder if something like Moom (or other window manager) could automate the moving of the widgets? I’m still on Ventura so I can’t try it.

I have Moom but didn’t realize that was a possibility. I’ll check that out.

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I have my widgets on the external 4K display - which is also a dumping ground for windows. That way when I walk away with my MacBook Pro there’s no rejigging to do.

So the opposite setup to this one.

Trying to setup six widgets on a 14" display without a second monitor is maddening. The slide up window at the bottom where you drag your widgets out of gets in the way and completely covers the bottom row. Also, the widgets aren’t centered, that won’t do.

I like the idea, I like how it could look, but not how it does look currently.

I never thought of dragging the widgets on my external display. Since my main display is my MBP and my external display is vertical and secondary, I can fit more widgets on it.

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Genius! I have exactly that layout of screens. The laptop really only stays open for access to Touch ID, plus I use it for a native (ha, yeah right!) MS Teams window when I am remoted into my work Windows PC on the Studio Display.

Now the laptop screen has a purpose when I’m not working.

What happens when you disconnect the external monitor for working on the go and the connect it again? Is everything kept as tidy as before?

Yes, which was a pleasant surprise. I anticipated the need to re-drag the widgets to the laptop, which would have been a drag. :slightly_smiling_face: But, when I plug everything back in, the widgets stay on the laptop screen.

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Now I have a use for the laptop screen!

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