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Widgets, also known as gadgets and a growing list of other synonyms, are a much more convenient way of adding tools and features to either your desktop or your website. Many of them use a new programming concept called Ajax. In this tutorial we'll just call them widgets. For example, if you like the little 5-day weather forecast at the top, you can just move your mouse over the top right corner and a "COPY ME" button pops up. Go ahead, try it and see what happens! You'll find this page and a few that follow loaded with widgets from sites such as SpringWidgets.com and YourMinis.com. Before you start grabbing everything that looks pretty, heed this warning: Some widgets may contain harmful code (spyware, malware, viruses, trojans, etc.) so if you put it on a page, be sure to run that page through a virus or adware/spyware checker before you launch it into cyberspace. Some of them may seem to be spyware because, by their very nature, they need to access certain things about your computer - location, etc. - to do what they are supposed to do. Just use some wise judgment. Many of these widgets can be resized and tweaked with color schemes to better match your own site, so be sure to take advantage of that. Look at the one just to your left. At the bottom is a button called OPTIONS. Click it and you'll see you can customize it, download it to use on your desktop, or grab the code to embed it right on your web page! In my case, I know that if I want to put a widget in the left or right column, I don't want it wider than 200 pixels, so everything will look consistent. Larger ones would appear in this center column. The example below, though not exactly a widget, is from Veoh.com, an excellent source of downloadable and embeddable videos - much higher quality than YouTube or Google. This is an example of excellent anime (this is the first of a whole series called "Avatar: The Last Airbender"), from which you could create an entire page, section or site devoted to anime.
See how much easier this page is to view! It all fits on one page without having to move back and forth sideways (assuming your screen is set to 1024x768). To find out your screen setting, go to the Desktop, right-click anywhere on the clean background (not an icon!) and select SETTINGS. There you'll see your screen resolution. Most computer monitors made in the last several years are capable of 1024x768 or even bigger. If your's is limited to 800x600, it may be time to get as new monitor! |
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