How to manage the menu bar in OS X

The OS X menu bar is that the central location for commanding application you employ, however additionally holds many choices for accessing international content, together with the Apple menu, and therefore the standing menus, along side hosting third-party menu extras and options like Spotlight and Notification Center.

Configuring

There don't seem to be terribly several choices for configuring the menu bar in OS X; but, you'll be able to modification its opacity also as organize a number of the menu things thereon. to vary the menu bar opacity, visit the Desktop tab within the "Desktop & Screen Saver" System Preferences pane, and check or uncheck the "Translucent menu bar" possibility. this may switch between the classic gray-colored menu bar, and therefore the newer clear possibility that shows your desktop image beneath the menu bar.

For the menu things themselves, the integral standing menus like Battery, Wi-Fi, and Audio, in OS X are often rearranged by holding the key then dragging them around on the menu bar. this stuff can even be far from the menu by dragging them off with the key command down.

While these choices area unit nice, you'll notice that they will not work with several third-party menus like those offered by Dropbox and Evernote. This distinction is as a result of Apple's standing menus area unit managed by the SystemUIServer background method, whereas several third-party developers use an alternate suggests that of implementing their menus. sadly, this implies that solely Apple's integral plug-ins are often stirred around.

Troubleshooting

Perhaps the sole persistent frustration with the menu bar in OS X is in some cases, you would possibly notice your standing menus to be unresponsive. once this happens, the clock could freeze, and tools just like the volume, machine, wi-fi, and user account menus are unresponsive or maybe show a spinning color chart pointer after you move your mouse over them.

When this happens, you'll notice that third-party menus still work simply fine. This distinction is once more as a result of the SystemUIServer method. If the method has adorned  up for a few reason and is not any longer responding, then your menu bar can equally freeze. To correct this issue, you'll be able to open the Activity Monitor utility (ensure All Processes is chosen from the read menu) then find the SystemUIServer method to check if it's "(not responding)" in red next to its name. If so, choose the method and force it to quit, that ought to spur the system to relaunch it and provides you operating menus once more.

Moving the menu bar

If you employ multiple monitors together with your mackintosh, then {you can|you'll|you may} notice with OS X Mavericks that the menu bar will persist on all monitors, showing along side the Dock on the active one wherever your mouse pointer is. This feature are often helpful, however now and then can even cause slightly of a frustration. To disable this and revert back to the classic approach wherever the system uses one main monitor to deal with the menu bar and Dock, open the Mission system Preferences pane and toggle the choice referred to as "Displays have separate areas." Unchecking this may disable the menu bar on external monitors, reverting to the classic multi-monitor behavior.

If you opt to use the classic behavior with the menu bar on one monitor solely, then you'll be able to switch that monitor the system uses because the main one. To do this, visit the Displays pane of System Preferences and choose the Arrangement tab. Here you'll see 2 blue squares that represent your monitor layout, with one containing a white strip on the highest that represents the menu bar.

Drag this white strip to the monitor of your selecting, and it'll become the most monitor. Note that this setting can persist for your current monitor setup; if you have got a laptop computer and use a multi-monitor setup at each work and residential, then you'll be able to have the external monitor at work set because the main monitor, whereas your home setup you'll be able to have the integral monitor because the main monitor.