Menu Bar folders

Question

Level 1

12 points

Menu Bar folders

Hi. I have a lot of items in menu bar and i want to put them into folder. So can i put Menu Bar items to folder in Menu Bar? Is there any app which can do it?
Thanks

MacBook 4,1, Mac OS X (10.6.5), 2x2,4 ghz C2D x64; 2GB RAM

Posted on Dec 14, 2010 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 14, 2010 1:03 PM in response to hajek.jonas

To what menubar items are you referring? OS X menubar items cannot be placed in a folder. If you have third-party utilities that put up a menubar item when launched, then they also must be in the menubar. There are several menubar launchers like Classic Menu, Claw, MoofMenu, and others - CNet Downloads or MacUpdate - that may provide part of what you may want.

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Answer 2

hajek.jonas Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 15, 2010 12:32 PM in response to Kappy

OK 😟. I didn't want to put folders to menu bar, so i could open files from menu bar. I have a lot of apps in menu bar (Time Machine, Facile, Utility Lock...) and if i open some third party app which has a lot of words on the left side of menu bar, some apps on the right side are invisible. So i want to put them to folders, or stacks or whatever...
Thanks (sorry for my bad english, i'm from czech rep.)

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Dec 15, 2010 2:53 PM in response to hajek.jonas

I think you are referring to the items in the menubar for an open and active application. The placement is a function of the active application. It is not under user control unless it's a feature of the application itself. If you have system items in the menubar that are there permanently and there are so many that an application's menubar cannot fully display, then you need to remove the system items or bring the application you want to the foreground.

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Answer 4

hajek.jonas Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 31, 2010 3:23 AM in response to Kappy

I thought it will be something similar that Windows have on their right side of the panel. There are items like clock, battery... and if there is a lot of items, it will show the first 5 items and the others will hide. That's what I had in mind, do you understand me?
Thank you (again, sorry for my bad english, i'm student from cz)

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Answer 5

plcn

Level 2

325 points

Dec 31, 2010 4:10 AM in response to hajek.jonas

If you are talking about the icons in the right place of the menu bar (time machine, clock, airpot), it is really easy: Cmd + clic on the icon, then drag it outside the menu bar. Then the icon will dissapear.

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Answer 6

hajek.jonas Author

Level 1

12 points

Dec 31, 2010 4:22 AM in response to plcn

Yes, I know. But there are third party items, which I can't move. And I want them hide, but I want them in the Menu Bar. So I mean some items like Pen, Bluetooth and some other third party items will be in the Menu Bar but in one group and hidden. You understand?

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,536 points

Dec 31, 2010 6:28 AM in response to hajek.jonas

The third-party ones aren't supported by apple so they use hacks to make them appear in the status menu area. Since they are hacks, they don't respond like they are supposed to when the real menu bar drifts into the status menu area.

I don't know of a program that would do what you want as all the hacks to get those third-party menu items in the status menu do not follow a standard API so nothing could act as a controller for those things.

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Answer 8

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Dec 31, 2010 6:29 AM in response to hajek.jonas

I thought it will be something similar that Windows have on their right side of the panel. There are items like clock, battery... and if there is a lot of items, it will show the first 5 items and the others will hide. That's what I had in mind, do you understand me?

I understand now, but unfortunately there's no way to do that that I know of. (This doesn't mean that it's not possible that there's some third-party software that will do it, but I'm unaware of it if there is.)

As almost all menu items at the right side of the menu bar are purely optional - just convenient access to things that can be done other ways - my best advice would be to simply remove some. If you have some that you want to remove that don't respond to a command-drag for removal, see the preferences for the app that put them there. (For example, Transmit adds a menu icon that can't be command-dragged, but can be removed in Transmit's preferences.)

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Answer 9

Mar 9, 2011 6:26 AM in response to hajek.jonas

I know EXACTLY what you are saying and I WANT THIS TOO! I currently have over 24 "menu bar items" that I use regularly. From CLOCK and WIFI (airport) indicators that are APPLE menubar items; to many 3rd party (like you have) - StockMeter, DropBox, SugarSync, Translator, TextExpander, Default Folder and more.

What is needed is a simple folder "A HOLDER FOLDER" (there's the name, now will someone please create this?!) - where you drop all the menubar items. Actually it could be a SECOND MENUBAR - a DROP DOWN menubar which you see below the entire top menubar and in which you can have ?? 10 to 30 menubar items. This has been needed for years - and likely the creator of DragThing or Default Folder could create this. Then, when things get really filled, you'd put yet another HolderFolder into the first HolderFolder and then you'd have a second DropDown menubar for another bunch of items.

This should actually be a part of the Mac OS - and more and more programs are using the Menubar - but it gets hidden. Hey, we don't put everything into one folder, do we? I have NESTED folders - often 6 to 7 levels - sometimes more-- it's the only way to stay organized!

And we need that here - in the Menubar. (It's really just a folder that is always visible. Right?)

Any and all comments appreciated and I will put this in as a request for Snow Leopard 10.6.7 or if too late for SL then for the next OS-- believe it is going to be called Lion.

Please stay with this, hajek.jonas - and let's get this much needed feature!

Best regards,

Steve Schulte
Wednesday 9 March 2011

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Answer 10

Sass

Level 2

343 points

Mar 9, 2011 8:48 AM in response to hajek.jonas

I've understood what you meant all along. Actually, your English is quite good. 😀 I would like the same thing that you are looking for. I thought I saw an app that would do this about 2 weeks ago, but now I can't find it. I will keep looking and report back if I come up with anything.

Sass

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Answer 11

pa_co

Level 1

0 points

Apr 13, 2011 6:30 PM in response to hajek.jonas

I'm looking too for the same. It would be great (how can't be a deffault feature in Mac OS X!?) There should be some third party application too...

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Answer 12

Jun 22, 2011 1:38 PM in response to pa_co

Try AccessMenuBarApps www.ortisoft.de

Only problem for me is it has to have a dock icon. But otherwise it's really well implemented. I turned squeezing off in the preferences and instead use the double tap on the menubar and it reveals all your hidden menubar apps.

You can read up on it here too

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/38985/accessmenubarapps

Hope this helps

Adam

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Answer 13

edglazer

Level 1

4 points

May 29, 2012 2:03 PM in response to Adam Aaron

I'm so glad I found this thread! I've been wanting this feature for years, and especially since I now use my 11" MacBook Air so often. So sorry to resurrect a dead topic, but I looked at the AccessMenuBarApps that Adam Aaron mentioned. It sort of did the opposite of what I was hoping for, but through macupdate, I found this sparkling gem:

http://www.macbartender.com/

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/42632/bartender

This does EXACTLY what I wanted, which I believe is the same thing that the OP wanted as well. It creates a secondary menu bar, which will store the menubar apps you select. It's got a bunch of nice features though its still in beta. One I particularly like is that it will allow you to set a menubar app so that it is hidden in the bartender secondary bar, BUT if the menubar app state changes it will re-emerge into the main menubar.

So, for example, I have dropbox in the bartender bar, but when I make a file change on any file in dropbox, the dropbox icon reappears briefly while it is updating. Perfect! Also, FWIW, looks like the app is %50 off while in beta. I'm not affiliated in any way, other than I'm so freakin glad someone finally made this happen.

Hope this helps!

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Answer 14

Dec 13, 2012 12:39 AM in response to edglazer

Bartenderr yst das solütion. Whell donn.

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Answer 15

shassel

Level 1

0 points

Feb 25, 2015 9:40 AM in response to Boyan in Islington

I like the Bartender app. Does exactly what I need!

I wish, however, that this were just normal Mac functionality. Don't know why I should need to pay for a third party app for something so basic.

And Bartender isn't sold through the App Store. Bartender folks say it can't be sandboxed, so they won't let it in the App Store. It's $15 or something for a minor utility, and I have tons of App Store gift cards I can't use. 😟

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