Customizing your menu bar, arrange, remove, and add menulets
Written by: Scott Haneda on Thursday March 06th 2008, 12:01 am
Filed under: Finder, Misc, OS X 10.4, OS X 10.5
Most Macintosh users have a clock and some other small icons in the upper right corner of their screen. These items are generally referred to as “menulets”. If you are running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you probably see a clock, a small speaker, a magnifying glass, and perhaps a few other items.
The items you have as a default will largely depend on your computer. Laptop users will almost all have an Airport icon, and sometimes a Bluetooth icon.
What many people have not learned is that those menulets can be repositioned, deleted, and customized.
Moving a menulet
To move a menulet, just press and hold the command key and drag the menulet from left to right. The other menulets will scurry out of the way. Once you have it where you want, release the mouse and the command key.
I find myself frequently adjusting the volume, so I move the volume control off to the right. With it at the right, I find it easier to target quickly.
Removing menulets
Of course, what good would moving a menulet around be if you couldn’t also completely banish it from your menu bar. Removing is the same process as moving, with the exception of you drag downward and release the mouse. On release, a poof of smoke animation will appear, to let you know you have removed the item.
Adding menulets back
Now that you know how to arrange and remove icons from your menu bar, it is time to add a few back. Most, such as Airport and Bluetooth are controlled in your System Preferences. If for example, you removed the Bluetooth menulet, and you want it back, a quick trip to your Bluetooth preferences will bring it back.
Each menulet is different, but you should find an option that states “Show (item) in menu bar”, where “item” is the name of the item you are trying to bring back.
Menulet customization in action
Hidden menulets
Some menulets seem to evade all attempts at bringing them back. For example, the “Eject Disc” item has no known preference for adding it back in.
If you navigate to your main hard drive, and open the following folders:
System -> Library -> CoreServices -> Menu Extras
Double clicking on any of them will add that item back to your menu bar. Many will be non applicable to your system, but they are all there for your future needs.
Thank you very much for a great site, I’ve bought a secondhand 12 Inch Powerbook and I love it to pieces, seriously would never sell it for any amount of money! Went all out with wifi and a wireless Mighty Mouse since I hated cables sticking out the sides. Anyway, under 10.5, I dont need to hold option, just cmd and click on menulets which might be easier to explain to people.
PS I hate that the cmd option alt fn shift keys are all so confusing, how there are so many different key combinations that use so many of them, and on my 12 inch PB at least they dont have the odd symbols on the actual keys, I have to remember which one is that squiggle etc
Comment by JayWontdart 03.06.08 @ 1:27 am@JayWonderart, thanks so much for the clarification. We have edited the post to only mention the command key. Apparently I was mistaken, or I was holding back an old keyboard command set from the past. Thanks again for keeping me on my toes.
Comment by Caroline Merchiers 03.06.08 @ 1:43 amJayWontdart, thanks for a great hint! It really does help a lot!
Comment by MacRussian 03.06.08 @ 11:05 amI’ve been looking for a used 12″ PowerBook and I’m willing to spend $20,000.00 for it.
Oh. JayWontDart said. ” I’ve bought a secondhand 12 Inch Powerbook and I love it to pieces, seriously would never sell it for any amount of money!”
Oh well. I’ll have to check eBay…
Comment by DCJ001 03.06.08 @ 12:54 pmThank you all for your thank you’s!
Seriously, the 12 inch is just so perfect! Although being honest, I havnt held a MBA yet, but I like the little THINNESS my 12 PB has, the MBA is almost so thin its silly, as in whats next, a paper thing piece of Aluminium?
I got mine for $1020 NZD and am very happy with what I paid, so go out and just get 20 here, theres 10 on http://www.trademe.co.nz when I look now!
Comment by JayWontdart 03.06.08 @ 6:34 pmI have an old clamshell iMac laptop that is running OS 9.0. Yes, it still uses floppies for back up. It has a CD ability, but not for copying onto. Is there any way I could find software to update this to Tiger? Where would I go and what would I have to look for and DO before I’d update. I have a dial-up connection.
Mickey
PS–Great site and so many good lessons, advice, and information.
@mickey, There is no way I would recommend updating that machine to Tiger, it simply is not fast enough. You really want to get to Leopard if you can.
Your best bet, if you must stay with a laptop, is the MacBook, at just over 1000.00 it is a bargain. If that does not work out for you, there is the MacMini, which is a bit over 500.00.
There are links on the site, off to the right where you can purchase these items. By purchasing through our site you can help out a little in keeping the site up and running.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.07.08 @ 1:20 pmI have a menulet software program by “Synergy” that places the rewind, play, and fast forward iTune buttons in the tool bar. but these buttons only show up when I am in “desktop mode. if I am in another program with safari or another user area these buttons disappear. is this unique to this third party software or did I install it incorrectly?
Comment by RE: Menulets 03.07.08 @ 9:04 pm@RE, I have also used Synergy, you probably just need an update. I found it to be valuable as it allowed me custom keybaord commands to change tracks, rate, and set volume. I was able to get it to show up in all applications, in every toolbar there was.
Perhaps if I had a small screen, it may take least precedence and get shoved of.
Make sure you are up to date at this link.
Comment by Scott Haneda 03.10.08 @ 9:10 amWow, I never even noticed I had a volume control in the menu bar. After confirming what it was, I tried moving it to the right like you do, and it disappeared off the screen (I guess I moved it TOO far. Luckily, you addressed how to put it back, and I’m feeling like the smartest cookie in the jar.
Comment by Matt Nikos 03.13.08 @ 10:58 amHere; Menulets in G4 and MacBookPro for Date & Time have differing display. System Preferences->Date&Time->Clock both have checks for “Show date and time in menu bar” and “Show the day of the week”. Both computers were upgraded to 10.5.2 from 10.4.11. MBP displays day (Tue in this example) and time, but NO month nor date.
Comment by Ray Conroy 05.06.08 @ 3:57 pm@Ray, in the date and time, if you click on “Show International” there is a “Formats” section, where you can change how the calendar portion of the date and time are shown.
Comment by Scott Haneda 05.07.08 @ 5:14 am