Most of the new UI enhancements in Mac OS X Lion are great but some don’t get the same open arms welcome. Although I’m a pretty big fan of the new version of spaces, I really liked to old way Dashboard was an overlay on your desktop. I often use Dashboard for a calculator (I know, not really using to it’s full potential) and need to be able to see some data that I’m trying to input into the calculator. The new spaces version didn’t allow me to do this. Here’s how to change it…

Step 1: Open System Preferences

Step 2: Select Mission Control

Step 3: Uncheck Show Dashboard as space

Step 4: Enjoy Dashboard as an overlay once again.

Note: You can use the Keyboard button for Dashboard just as you did in previous versions of Mac OS X.