Dashboard Widget
Welcome to Power Manager. In this article I will show you a fun element of Power Manager 3 - the Dashboard widget.
Fun and incredibly functional
Power Manager's Dashboard widget
The Dashboard is a great new feature in Mac OS X 10.4 and we were keen to exploit it in Power Manager. The Dashboard gave us the opportunity to present you with Power Manager's Active Schedule.
Third party events
The events shown are not limited to those scheduled by Power Manager. The widget also shows events scheduled by other Apple and third party applications and utilities.
You can use the widget as a short cut to the Power Manager System Preferences. Clicking on either the link on the back of the widget, or on the version information on the front launches the System Preferences.
Active vs Configured schedules
Power Manager maintains two schedules. The schedule you set up and edit in the System Preferences, and the Active Schedule.
We will call the schedule you set up in the System Preferences the Configured Schedule. This is written to disk and consulted each time a change is made in the System Preferences and when your Mac starts up.
The Active Schedule is the working copy of the Configured Schedule; this copy controls the UNIX daemon driving Power Manager.
When you make a change in the System Preferences the Active Schedule is updated.
Notification options affect the Active Schedule
Power Manager lets you cancel and delay events as they approach.
Power Manager's notification options
When you cancel or delay an event, it is the Active Schedule you are adjusting. The Configured Schedule is untouched.
This means it is possible to delay a repeating event today and the event will repeat at the original time tomorrow.
The widget shows the Active Schedule
Power Manager's Dashboard widget shows the Active Schedule. That means if you cancel or delay an event, those changes will be visible in the widget.