Widgets and the editor
A widget is a row of cells, and each cell shows one reading in one style. Each widget is its own menu bar item — or a panel on the desktop — so you can have as many as you like and put them wherever you want them.
Open the editor with Edit Widgets… (⌘,) from any Caliper item’s menu — or, with no item in the menu bar to click, by opening Caliper again from Applications while it is running.
The editor
Section titled “The editor”The editor has three parts:
- The sidebar lists your widgets. The checkbox beside a name shows or hides that widget.
- The preview at the top is the selected widget, drawn by the same code as the menu bar, with live data. It is not a mock-up that can drift from the real thing.
- The cell list and inspector below: select a cell to change its metric, style, caption and alerts.
Every change applies immediately. There is no OK button — the preview, and the menu bar itself, are the feedback.
Widgets
Section titled “Widgets”| To | Do |
|---|---|
| Add a widget | + under the sidebar. A new widget starts in renaming, the way a new folder does in Finder. |
| Rename | Double-click the name, or Rename… in its context menu. A blank name becomes “Untitled”. |
| Hide or show | The checkbox beside its name. Hiding keeps its place, so showing it again puts it back. |
| Move to the desktop | Show On ▸ Desktop in its context menu. See Desktop widgets. |
| Copy one | Duplicate in its context menu. |
| Share | Export… or Copy as JSON in its context menu. See Sharing widgets. |
| Bring one in | The import button under the sidebar, or drop a file on the list. See Sharing widgets. |
| Delete | − under the sidebar, or Delete in its context menu. |
Position in the menu bar is macOS’s. Hold ⌘ and drag a Caliper item to move it, as with any menu bar item. Editing a widget never recreates its item, so a carefully arranged menu bar does not jump around while you type.
| To | Do |
|---|---|
| Add a reading | + at the end of the cells, then pick a metric. The list shows only what this Mac actually has. |
| Add space | Spacer or Divider, at the top of the same popover — see Captions, icons and spacing. |
| Reorder | Drag a cell onto another; it takes that cell’s place. |
| Change a cell | Select it; the inspector shows its metric, style, appearance and alerting. |
| Remove a cell | Delete in its context menu. |
A widget holds at most 24 cells, and is limited in width — the same limits a shared file is held to, so anything you build here can be sent to someone else.
Density — Compact, Regular or Roomy in the toolbar — sets type size and padding for every widget at once. Gap sets the space between cells for the selected widget; until you change it, it follows the density.
What a new cell starts as
Section titled “What a new cell starts as”A metric you add picks a style, a precision and a caption from what it actually is:
| Metric | Starts as |
|---|---|
The time (time.epoch) |
A clock, with no caption — the time says what it is |
| Percentages, counts, temperatures | A number with no decimals |
| Sizes, rates, watts | A number with one decimal |
| Everything | A caption from the metric’s group: CPU, MEM, NET, TEMP |
Changing an existing cell’s metric to the time switches a plain number to a clock too, but leaves any style you chose on purpose alone.
What a new cell does not get is thresholds. It stays quiet until you say what “bad” looks like — see Alerts.
When a style is not offered
Section titled “When a style is not offered”Some pairings cannot be drawn honestly, and the editor refuses them and says why rather than just greying the option out. A donut bound to network throughput would claim a maximum that does not exist, so it is not offered; Cell styles explains the rule.