MakeUseOf - Mac Menu Bar

How to Declutter Your Mac’s Menu Bar Using Hidden Bar

Yash Wate — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:16:17 GMT

Many developers nowadays offer menu bar functionality with their apps to offer quick and easy access to some of their features on the Mac.

How to Remove Any Items From Your Mac’s Menu Bar

Dilum Senevirathne — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 16:45:15 GMT

Use your Mac for some time, and the menu bar is bound to fill up with all sorts of native and third-party status icons. Some of them are useful. Others, not so much.

62 Menu Bar Apps That Will Take Your Mac to the Next Level

Rahul Saigal — Sun, 15 May 2022 10:15:13 GMT

Menu bar apps live in the top-right corner of your Mac’s screen and bring some amazing benefits to your computer. These smart utilities don’t get in the way like regular apps. Instead, they sit in the corner and swing into action only when your summon them.

How to Always Show the Menu Bar in Full-Screen Mode on Mac

Dilum Senevirathne — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 14:00:13 GMT

The macOS menu bar houses handy tools and shortcuts which you might regularly access. Do you hate seeing the menu bar disappear when you use apps in full-screen mode or Split View on your Mac? It doesn't have to be that way.

A Beginner’s Guide to the macOS Menu Bar

Bobby Jack — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 17:15:16 GMT

Unlike Windows and many Linux desktop environments, macOS doesn’t attach a menu to each application window. Instead, it features a single, global menu bar that switches context to the active application. The macOS menu bar is consistent and persistent—if you want it to be.

The 7 Best Mac Weather Apps

Brent Dirks — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 22:00:15 GMT

If you're stuck working at a Mac all day, it's difficult to know what the conditions are outdoors. But there's no need to guess when you have the right tools.

The Microsoft Office for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

Sandy Writtenhouse — Thu, 02 May 2019 18:00:00 GMT

Keyboard shortcuts save time no matter what type of computer you use. To help you work faster, here is a list of commonly-used shortcuts for Microsoft Office on Mac. We have included OneNote, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and some basic universal shortcuts to start with. We'll even show you how to create your own custom keyboard shortcuts.

How to Add Useful Options to the macOS Services Menu

Akshata Shanbhag — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 21:00:00 GMT

If you didn't know about the services menu on your Mac or have ignored it so far, it's time to change that.

7 Tiny Time-Saving Mac Apps You'll Fall in Love With

Akshata Shanbhag — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 17:00:00 GMT

macOS comes with plenty of time-saving utilities and shortcuts. But you'll find so many more on the web that will save you hours. Let's explore seven of those gems.

10 Dead-Simple Mac Apps Everyone Needs to Use

Khamosh Pathak — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 17:00:00 GMT

One of the best parts of macOS is its superior collection of apps. From polished writing apps to complex design tools, the platform has everything. But there's one area of macOS apps that not everyone knows about: utilities.

The 5 Best Free SoundCloud Desktop Apps for Mac

Tim Brookes — Mon, 14 May 2018 17:00:00 GMT

Web apps are fine, but native Mac apps are often better. When you listen to music in your browser, it's hard to keep track of which tab is playing. Plus, much of the time pressing the Play/Pause key will open iTunes instead of pausing the current track.

20 Common macOS How-To Questions Answered

Akshata Shanbhag — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 22:00:00 GMT

When you first start using your Mac, you're bound to have quite a few "How do I..." type questions. Today we'll show you how to take care of certain common tasks that, sooner or later, most macOS users need to know about. Let's get started.

13 Free Mac Productivity Apps You Haven't Heard Of

Mihir Patkar — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 21:00:00 GMT

There's a misconception among Mac users that good apps are always paid, but you'll find plenty of excellent free apps if you know where to look. We knew, so we came up with a mega list of the best free apps to improve your productivity within macOS.

How to Monitor Your Bank Balance From the Mac Menu Bar

Joel Lee — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:30:54 GMT

The first step to financial responsibility is being willing to face your spending habits. This means tracking how much you spend every month, what you're spending your money on, and looking for ways to reduce that spending. Not doing this is how most end up drowning in debt.

Use This Trick to Clean Up Menu Bar Icons on Mac

Joel Lee — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 14:30:40 GMT

Take a look at your menu bar right now -- the top bar running across your screen, assuming you're on a Macbook or iMac. Look to the right side and count how many icons are cluttering up that menu bar. Don't count the volume or Wi-Fi icons.

The Best Mac Apps of 2015 (And Our Favorite Updates)

Mihir Patkar — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 20:00:00 GMT

It has been a good year for Mac users. There was the new MacBook, OS X got that smooth El Capitan update, and Apple Music hit iTunes. And while Apple was bringing all that to the table, developers were busy bees too.

20 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with the Mac Option Key

Akshata Shanbhag — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 20:00:00 GMT

The Command (cmd) key steals the limelight on your Mac's keyboard, but it’s the Option (or alt) key that is the real hero. It works behind the scenes, providing you with fast access to a variety of functions and actions — and you probably never realised.

How To Customize & Tidy Your Mac Menu Bar

Justin Pot — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 17:00:00 GMT

Part of the appeal of using a Mac is how great everything looks, but nothing makes OS X look cluttered faster than menubar icons. These show up in the top-left corner, and for some reason Apple offers no real way of managing them by default.

The Remote Worker’s MacBook Survival Guide

Tim Brookes — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 18:00:00 GMT

So you spend most of your time keeping the local coffee shops in business, liaising with clients you've never met face-to-face and hunting for spare power outlets. You couldn't imagine doing your job without your Mac, but maybe you're not quite running at maximum efficiency.

How to Get a Word Count in Seconds on a Mac

Akshata Shanbhag — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 11:30:41 GMT

If you need a quick word count and you're on a Mac, there's no need to rely on a text editor or an online tool. You can get the count in just a couple of clicks -- or even a single keypress -- using one simple trick that requires a one-time Mac menu setup.

Hate the Dock and Menubar in OS X? Here's How to Get Rid of Them

Bryan Clark — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:30:15 GMT

For many of us, the dock has become an accessory that we no longer want to play with. What was once a cool toy has now become background noise and maybe even a minor inconvenience. OS X pro's already know that "Alfred" and Apple's own "Finder" are much better options.

El Capitan Means The End Of Mac Themes & Deep System Tweaks

Justin Pot — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:00:00 GMT

About a year ago I discovered Flavours, a delightful tool to personalize the Mac desktop. With it you could theme the Mac operating system, and all applications, by changing things like color schemes and the iconic top-left Apple logo.

$50 for a Calendar? 5 Reasons Fantastical 2 is Worth It

Harry Guinness — Thu, 14 May 2015 17:00:00 GMT

Fantastical combined a convenient menubar app with an awesome natural language processing engine that made populating a busy schedule ridiculously intuitive. Fantastical 2 is a paid upgrade to the much loved original calendar and organiser, but it comes at quite a price.

7 Good Habits Every Mac User Should Get Used To

Tim Brookes — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:00:00 GMT

After using an operating system for a while, you begin to automate many of your most repetitive actions without realising it. Years of doing the same thing teaches you that saving a second or two here and there really can make a difference to your workflow.

Get 10 Great Mac Apps to Supercharge Your Productivity For Only $10!

Dave LeClair — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:30:00 GMT

$1 an app. These 10 apps are designed to boost your productivity for just $10. It doesn't get much cheaper than that, but this deal is only available for a limited time, so you need to make sure you purchase it quickly!

How To Create A Keyboard Shortcut For Any Mac Menu Item

Justin Pot — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 20:00:00 GMT

Is there no keyboard shortcut for something you do regularly? That’s annoying, but here’s the good news: on your Mac you can add one easily, without the need for extra software.

3 Great Menu Bar Apps to Stay on Top of Your RSS Feeds [Mac]

Simon Slangen — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:31:14 GMT

For me, RSS feeds are the ideal way to keep up to date with all the websites I'm interested in - a centralised news-pool, so you don't have to check your browser every five minutes just to stay on top of the news. Google Reader does a great job organizing your RSS feeds, and Reeder wonderfully integrates Google Reader on your Mac.

3 Tools To Unleash Your Mac OS X Menu Bar

Simon Slangen — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 05:01:34 GMT

The menu bar on my Mac gets more attention these days than the Dock. The reason for this is quite simple - it's incredibly compact and dynamic in comparison. One menu bar application will show you an unread count of your email inbox, but remain unobtrusive. That application is accompanied by numerous useful tools and system settings that are within easy reach without taking up a lot of screen real-estate.

5 Simple Ways To Keep Selected Windows On Top [Windows]

Tina Sieber — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:31:55 GMT

Computers are made to multitask. As a result, we all have to juggle with multiple open windows to jump back and forth between various tasks. Sometimes, however, you just want to keep one window in your view regardless of what else happens on your screen. Surprisingly, Windows does not offer a native feature for this task. In this article I will introduce five tools that fill this niche.

Access Your Preference Panes From the Mac Menu Bar With MenuPrefs

Angela Randall — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:31:02 GMT

Are you always on the look-out for cool hacks and nifty tricks to make your life easier? Do you get sick of wading through pages of things you don't need just to access the things you do need? Does Apple's System Preferences generally just annoy you?

4 Cool Mac Apps That You Have Probably Never Heard Of

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:31:43 GMT

Applications are an integral part of any operating system. They give your machine specific abilities and enhances your computer using experience. Today, there are virtually applications for almost every kind of task that you can think of.

Two Cool Tools To Monitor Your MacBook's Battery [Mac]

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Recently I was traveling to a city on the other side of the island to attend a family wedding. I don't know exactly how far it is, but we were on the bus for 28 hours just to get there (and multiply that by two because there's the return trip home). Going on a plane is out of the question because of the limited budget (there were more than 15 people who went along), and most of the elders on the group are afraid of flying.

How To Manipulate the Mac Menu Bar & Login Items

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:01:16 GMT

As a person who lives from one deadline to another (and barely survives to another day!), I've accustomed myself to regularly check the time. That's why I rely so much on the Mac OS X menu bar clock display.