Some widgets can be useful (Calculator or World Clock), while others can be for fun (Ski Report or Movies). If you regularly need to consult a calendar or an address book, you may find the iCal and Address Book widgets particularly useful.
The Address Book widget lets you type all or part of a name to search for contact information about a person or company stored in your Address Book, as shown in Figure 15-8. By using the Address Book widget, you can view your stored contact information without the nuisance of starting Address Book, searching for a name, and then quitting Address Book when you're done.
Figure 15-8. The Address Book widget lets you search for names and contact information without starting and quitting the Address Book program.
The iCal widget can be handy when you want to review any scheduled events (appointments) for the day. Rather than start iCal and browse through your scheduled events, just display the iCal widget on Dashboard. Each time you click the iCal widget, it toggles between three states, as shown in Figure 15-9:
Displays today's date
Displays today's date and a monthly calendar
Displays today's date, a monthly calendar, and today's scheduled events
By using widgets, you'll find Dashboard handy for displaying information that you need quickly while using your Macintosh. By taking the time to customize Dashboard, you can make your Macintosh more useful and convenient than any other computer you've used in the past.