widget display

Is there a way to open a widget from the dock or otherwise put it on the screen while I am surfing or using Pages? I would like the language translation widget always available.

Drag the Dashboard icon from Applications to the Dock, click on it and available widgets will appear.

I have a key on my keyboard that turns it on or off. Do all Mac keyboards not included this key?

Here's how to do what you want to do with the widget(s):

To keep one or more widgets on the desktop, the Dashboard "devmode" must be activated. Enter the following into the Terminal.app:


and then restart the Dock (and Dashboard):


You should be able to simply start dragging a widget, and while you're still dragging it hit the Dashboard key on the keyboard to close Dashboard and have the Widget "float" on your desktop.

The problem with this method is that the widget will always float ABOVE ALL WINDOWS. You can have more contorl over how the widget appears using a handy little utility called WidgetRunner.