Get your Mac back: Make Lion Dashboard translucent

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Get your Mac back: Make Lion Dashboard translucent

1 August 2011 8,581 views 16 Comments

I use the Dashboard in OS X 10.7 daily — calculator, calendar, weather and, yeah, Trek news. However, when calculator gets the call, I often need to see numbers on a webpage or document, and OS X Lion’s Lego board Dashboard background is completely opaque — here’s how to make it go away.

There’s a lot of beauty in Apple’s $29 (purdy price) Mac OS X Lion, but Spaces implementation of the Dashboard is downright fugly.

Here’s how to make the Dashboard in OS X Lion translucent: 1.) Go to System Preferences > Mission Control, 2.) Deselect “Show Dashboard as a Space”

More OS X Dashboard goodness:

— Top 10 Mac OS X Dashboard widgets
— How to OS X Snow Leopard Disable Dashboard
— Daily Dilbert Widget: Don’t go a day with sarcasm
— Star Trek widgets for your Mac

16 Comments »

thanks said:

hi,
fortunately it’s possible to revert to a snow leopard like dashboard – i would never have found that option without this page..
thx!

# 1 August 2011 at 4:51 pm

Marjam said:

Awesome, thanks a lot! I also had the same problem and using the calculator was such a pain. Problem solved now:)

# 1 August 2011 at 5:04 pm

Steve said:

Thanks a lot for this one. I definitely don’t understand little changes like this that get pushed through as default.

It is great to have the option of reverting them.

# 2 August 2011 at 11:50 am

globbyblogga said:

Heya, how do I make Snow Leopard’s (not Lion) Dashboard background transparent and not just translucence ?

# 11 August 2011 at 1:54 am

How to: Disable, enable OS X Lion resume, FTP, Library, 3D dock, more | FairerPlatform said:

[...] on the Fairer Platform: — Get your Mac Back: Download, install Safari 5.0.5 for Snow Leopard — Get your Mac back: Make Lion Dashboard translucent — Get your Mac back: OS X Lion’s missing iSync — Get your Mac Back: Fix OS X Lion [...]

# 11 August 2011 at 4:06 am

Viktors said:

Thx, a lot u save my life

# 11 August 2011 at 8:24 am

Beth said:

Thank you so much! I was ready to switch back to Snow Leopard!

# 12 September 2011 at 8:56 pm

Brian said:

Thank you for this info. At work I have snow leopard and F12 / F11 have one set of functions. Just got a new iMac at home and it has lion already installed. This whole dashboard/spaces adjustment had me confused.

After I used your help to fix the way it looks and acts, I also went into the keyboard settings and assigned the dashboard to F19 and desktop to F18… cause I wanted to “try” to keep the new keys labeled as stock use (F12 increase volume, etc.)

Just wanted to mention to others in my shoes, that once this info is used you can adjust it further as needed in the keyboard settings. Mission Control’s preferences only list F1-F13 as choices, where the keyboard settings know I have options all the way to F19.

Thanks again.

# 18 September 2011 at 5:22 pm

Jose Longa said:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I use calculator a lot and the space thingy just isn’t working for me.

# 20 September 2011 at 11:27 pm

gregorylent said:

thanks!

# 30 September 2011 at 12:23 am

Jesse said:

Thank you sooooooo much! Not real fan of Lion so far, nothing really inspiring happening so far….

# 13 October 2011 at 1:47 am

Rafael Paranaíba said:

Thank you very much. Very usefull for me.

# 13 October 2011 at 11:08 am

Hands on with Lion Designer 2 | FairerPlatform said:

[...] screensavers: Get X-Galaxy, X-Vortex free • How to: Roll your own OS X Lion DVD installer • Get your Mac back: Make Lion Dashboard translucent • How to: Turn on ‘Do Not Track’ in Safari 5.1 • How to: Enable AirDrop on any [...]

# 9 November 2011 at 12:35 am