New to Apple, frustrated with menu bar

Press Escape to minimise the window

You should be able to see the menu bar at the top of the screen

Now click & drag the corners of the minimised window to resize it to the size you want (i.e. fill the whole screen but with the menu bar still visible)

This is essentially the same as the previous post

I found a work around for this problem, the menu bar going into full screen mode when hitting green button. This work around works for applications on the MAC but not for Safari, Chrome or Firefox.

Go to Settings -> Dock and disable the option "Double-click a window's title bar to minimize". Now you can use double click on the window's TITLE to maximize it and not use the green maximize button. Reserve that button for full screen mode only. (You can tap the window title or just in the area where the title is located. A second double tap will bring it back down to its original size)

For Safari, Chrome or Firefox manually bring the sides of your browser out to fit the screen and don't use the green maximize button unless you want full screen mode.

Annoying that it changed, but this work around is nice, you just have to adjust to not touching the green button anymore.

First and most important, Full Screen Mode is NOT the same as Windows maximize.

When you watch a movie on Netflix, chances are you want to see only the video on the screen. So you click the Netflix "full screen" button which hides the menu bars and application icons.

When you give a Powerpoint presentation, chances are you want the audience to see only the presentation on the screen. So you run the presentation in full screen mode which hides the menu bars and application icons.

To show the menu bar or other controls in each of the above cases, you move the mouse somewhere on the screen. The OS X Full Screen Mode simply extends this behavior to other applications. It just so happens that to access menu bars or dock icons while in OS X Full Screen Mode, you move the mouse to either the top or bottom of the screen.

In the above cases where you do want to display Netflix videos or Powerpoint presentations with menu bars and application icons visible, you would run the application in windowed mode and then manually resize the window. So if you want the menu bar to remain visible in OS X, then you would manually resize the window instead of going to Full Screen Mode.

Even before the introduction of systemwide Full Screen Mode, many Mac applications had their own full screen implementations which behaved the same way. For several years, applications such as DVD Player, QuickTime Player, Aperture, and others already had a full screen mode which autohides the menu bar when full screen was activated. Moving the mouse to the top of the screen would then make the menu bar appear. So for people who used these applications in the past, the transition to OS X Full Screen Mode is not so shocking.

Thank you. That worked!

Milew I'm with you buddy. I keep having the same problem. Your question isn't being answered

Same thing as OP and I see it hasn't been answered in years.. Pretty sad and not encouraging

I want Chrome to fill up everything under the menu bar and it seems impossible unless I do it manually every time.. *** is that?

I am using Firefox and have found that quite usefully, if I drag the corner of the window to fill all of the screen beneath the menu bar, then even when I quit firefox and restart the Mac, when I reopen Firefox, it automatically opens the window in the same large size by default. HOWEVER, what I am finding frustrating (I'm also a new Mac user) - is when I try and use Excel in the same way with a large window by default. If I open an excel from a colleague, it opens in a tiny window by default that I seem unable to change - if I go full screen, then I lose the menu bar. If Safari and Chrome behave the same way, I would consider moving to Firefox as this is working fine for me.

If anyone knows how to open an excel file in Excel 2011, and have it open a large window by default - please please let me know how! 🙂

I agree with this question.

"How do I ALWAYS have the menu bar displayed."

No fullscreen mentioned there.

No Safari mentioned there.

Nothing else is mentioned there so please do not include any of them in your responses !!!

Simple: ALWAYS display the menu bar, under all circumstances and all situations. Freggin paint it on the screen if you have to!!!!

Simple reply. As far as I know, you can't. That's based on numerous searches and investigating various utilities.

Especially if the power is off. Although painting would solve that. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Again, as far as I know, without using some utility, there's only one way to have the menu bar disappear and that is when you go <insert the F word here> using the green zoom button. There are utilities that change the default functionality of the green zoom button so that it maximizes the window and retains the menu bar rather than doing that other thing.

What I've done is trap the left click and option left click on the maximize button using Better Touch Tool and made both actions maximize. I too dislike that F thing and never use it. I do use maximize. I also have the right click on the maximize button revert to the original size. And for even more window control, I use Moom such that popup window controls appear if I hover over the maximize button. Once that's done, the only way into that F thing is Control-Command-F and I suppose you could trap that too if you wanted to.

Bob

Bob,

You rock ! Great answer. I'm looking into perhaps fine line Sharpies instead of paint .... 😀

Or, as a terciery, terciary, tersiary, ****!, third option... we could glue a stenciled image to the top of the screen?!

Okay, so Apple is becoming more and more like Microsoft in their ways, i.e. removing highly used convenient features without any thought of the community. Soon they will be publishing software without testing and get into the daily "fix" mentality whereby their user base becomes their beta testers. Anarchy.

Anyways, what about the notion of having the menu bar always available when not in full screen mode? My friend's machine's menu bar is on permanent popup under all circumstances. I've recently, yesterday, updated to Yosemite and my menu bar is always present except for full screen mode, as it was in the prior 10.6 Mac o/s version. Okay, no need to repeat the F commands!

Thanks,

Vincent

More like Microsoft!!!!! Blasphemy!!!

Running Yosemite and using the techniques/workarounds I mentioned in my earlier reply, I never lose the menu bar. I don't understand what you mean by "permanent popup". We are talking about the thing at the top right? Not the dock with all the apps in it.

Bob

Exit full screen (command+control+F) and the menubar and dock will appear. If the image is not filling the screen hover the cursor over the side of the image, left click, and drag to the edge of the screen. Repeat on the other side and bottom. Now you have "a" full screen and no disappearing menubar or dock. Command+control+F will still enter the "real" full screen.

I agree, answers have been rude. Some are unhelpful at pointing out an actual answer of how to (simply saying it can't be done if that's the case.) Some included extra stuff that has nothing to do with your question while not answering it. A bunch at the beginning where arrogant and attacking at a new person as though wanting something reasonable, is to be attacked if Mac isn't set up to do it. It's as assaultive to read here even though this is a question I too have about new macs. Which is why I signed in to post this. It was that unpleasant!

I came here because the new mac users in my family want to see the menu and program bar all the time. Full screen does NOT mean menus are gone. It CAN mean that. Or it'd be ideal to have a setting of maximizing the application window while still keeping the menu and program bars visible. So far I think I see an explanation for how to toggle on and off the program bar (lick the bottom to show the bar, right click near the trash can for a menu option to keep it visible.)

So now I'm looking for a way to keep the menu visible. If it's here, then kindly repeat it. (Piperoon's way of turning off minimize with title bar, then using that bar to maximize may be a good method for many applications!).

My users aren't very savvy and are likely to hit green buttons and red xs and whatever else, and I'd like these two to stay on top all the time, so the tears of "where'd it go and the licking won't work" to stop. They aren't going to become sophisiticated so fast. I suggested macs as easy and user friendly. This would be user friendly and helpful. And the biting at someone asking is not user friendly. If this is how mac users feel towards newcomers, then you aren't meeting mac's image of user friendly.

gotoshannon - that is a workaround and something, but what if you have users who aren't wanting to resize every window they open? How do you maximize windows (not fullscreen but max) them with the bars visible? That'd be the goal. In windows, that's default when you enlarge a window. F11 toggles the upper and lower bars on and off.