Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Guides

How to use MacOS Monterey’s Notification Center widgets

Sandy Writtenhouse
By

The Notification Center on MacOS has had its share of changes over time. With MacOS Big Sur, Apple revamped this handy spot to include widgets.

While not much has changed with Notification Center widgets in MacOS Monterey, you may not have had a Mac during the Big Sur days, making you unfamiliar with these widgets.

Let’s take a look at how to open the Notification Center; add, remove, and rearrange widgets; and use those you plop into the mix.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • MacOS Monterey

Widgets in the MacOS Monterey Notification Center.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Access the Notification Center on MacOS Monterey

To view your Notification Center, simply click the Date and Time on the right side of the menu bar. You can also swipe to the left from the right side of the screen with two fingers on your trackpad.

At the top, you’ll see notifications from apps like Mail, Home, Reminders, or whichever apps you designated to show Notification Center alerts.

Below those, you have your widgets. Just scroll down to view them all.

To close the Notification Center, click anywhere on your desktop. You can also click the Date and Time or swipe from left to right on the trackpad.

Add, remove, and rearrange Notification Center widgets

You can pick and choose which widgets to display in the Notification Center. In some cases, you can also select their sizes.

Step 1: Open the Notification Center, scroll to the bottom, and click Edit Widgets.

Edit Widgets in the Notification Center.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: While in this mode, you have apps with available widgets on the left, with a search box at the top of the list for finding a particular one. You’ll see widgets for Mac apps like Calendar, Reminders, and -- new with MacOS Monterey -- Find My. If you have any third-party apps installed that offer widgets, you’ll see those too.

In the center are the widgets you can pick from, and on the right is the Notification Center for viewing widgets you add or decide to remove.

If you see a widget in the center that has more than one size available, it may have an S, M, or L beneath it for small, medium, or large. Pick the size you want to see a preview.

Available widget sizes for the Notification Center.
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Related

Step 3: To add a widget to the bottom of the Notification Center, just click it. To park it in a particular spot, drag it where you want it in the Notification Center on the right.

To remove a widget, click the Minus Sign in the upper-left corner of the widget in the Notification Center.

To rearrange widgets, drag them to different locations in the Notification Center.

Edit Widgets screen for the Notification Center.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4: When you finish adding or removing widgets, click Done at the bottom of the Notification Center on the right.

Dragging to rearrange widgets in the Notification Center.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Resize, remove, and rearrange active widgets

Additionally, you can resize, remove, and rearrange widgets while you’re viewing the Notification Center. Scroll down to the widget area and then do one of the following.

  • Resize a widget: Right-click or hold Control and click. Then, select a new size in the pop-up menu.
  • Remove a widget: Hold Option and click the Minus Sign in the upper-left corner.
  • Rearrange widgets: Drag and drop the widgets in the order you’d like them.
Calendar app opened after clicking the Calendar widget.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Use Notification Center widgets

Once you have the widgets you want in the locations you want them, using them is easy.

Some widgets may simply display information. When you click one, it’ll open the app or site on your Mac. For instance, if you click the News widget, this opens the News app, and if you click the Weather widget, this opens the Weather Channel in Safari.

Other widgets may give you ways to interact. For example, if you have the Notes widget, you can click a certain note to open the Notes app to that specific note. The same goes for the Calendar widget. Select a particular event in the Calendar widget to open that exact event in the Calendar app.

Notification Center widgets on MacOS give you a quick and easy way to view the weather, news, reminders, notes, and more.

For other new features in MacOS Monterey you might want to explore, look at how to take advantage of Apple Shortcuts or how to use live text on Mac.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Sandy Writtenhouse
Sandy Writtenhouse
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Sandy has been writing about technology since 2012. Her work has appeared on How-To Geek, Lifewire, MakeUseOf, iDownloadBlog…
How to take a screenshot on a Mac
The keyboard and trackpad of the MacBook Pro 14-inch.

For most new Mac users -- especially if they're coming from Windows -- one of the first questions they need to ask is how to take a screenshot on a Mac? There's no dedicated Print Screen key like there is on Windows, but there is keyboard shortcut, and if you want something more akin to Microsoft's Windows Snipping tool, there are some great screenshot apps you can use, too.

Here's how to take a screenshot on a Mac in a few different ways.
How to take a screenshot using keyboard shortcuts
MacOS keyboard shortcuts are the quickest ways to take screenshots, whether you're capturing the entire screen or just a portion. By default, Apple's methods save your screenshot to the desktop, but if you want to copy the screenshot to the clipboard, there's a keyboard shortcut you can use instead.
How to capture a selected area

Read more
Forgot your Mac password? Here’s how to reset it
A person plays Stray using a PlayStation controller on a silver 13-inch MacBook Air.

We all forget a password once in a while. It’s really just a fact of life at this point, but things are a little different when you forget crucial login info for your go-to computer. And if you’ve ever forgotten your MacOS password, you’ll know just how frustrating it is to be locked out of your do-everything PC. But even if one of your Mac or MacBook’s system-stored hints isn’t enough to jog your memory, there’s a couple of ways you’ll be able to reset your MacOS password.

Read more
I was wrong about using Stage Manager on Mac
Stage manager in macOS Ventura.

Stage Manager is one of those software features that has had a rather bumpy road since Apple launched it in 2022. The unique multitasking feature has landed itself in a heap of criticism over its short lifespan.

I, however, was not one of these critics. I was super excited by Stage Manager and the promise it contained. It was something new and shiny, here to shake up macOS in a fresh and different way. Even after using it myself, I foresaw it fundamentally changing the way I used my Mac.

Read more