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Can I make Mac Menu Bar work like Windows does and be at the top of each window?

Been using my Mac now for a few years and been happy with it...but I just switched to a 26" 4k monitor and I now find the vast distance between my window position (say bottom right) and the menu bar (top left) makes the positioning of the Menu bar to be not very useful. It's fine on a standard display but I just find there is too much real estate to traverse with your mouse to use a menu bar item.


So 2 questions really ...


1. Is there a way(an add-on) that would stick my menu bar to the window it pertains to (same way as Windows does)

2. Any way to get the menu bar to pop-up next to your mouse with some arcane key-stroke


I did have a search but found noting. Any menu bar addons i found I also wasnt certain they would do what i wanted...


Any and all help gratefully received.. TYIA

Posted on Jul 15, 2014 12:49 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 15, 2014 1:15 AM

No.

The Menu Bar and other screen interface design features have always been designed like it is from all the way back to the introduction of Macintosh in 1984.

There is nothing out there that will modify this OS design feature of how the Menu Bar is designed,placed and how it works.

It is designed the way it is to always be there and available to any application, all the time.

You either change the screen resolution to something a little less fine to increase the size of the menu bar and other screen elements and decrease the distance to the Menu Bar and/or try speeding up your mouse cursor so it doesn't take so long for the cursor and your mouse to traverse the screen.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 15, 2014 1:15 AM in response to Gkinghrn

No.

The Menu Bar and other screen interface design features have always been designed like it is from all the way back to the introduction of Macintosh in 1984.

There is nothing out there that will modify this OS design feature of how the Menu Bar is designed,placed and how it works.

It is designed the way it is to always be there and available to any application, all the time.

You either change the screen resolution to something a little less fine to increase the size of the menu bar and other screen elements and decrease the distance to the Menu Bar and/or try speeding up your mouse cursor so it doesn't take so long for the cursor and your mouse to traverse the screen.

Jul 15, 2014 1:27 AM in response to Gkinghrn

Since the main Finder menu bar and screen is part of the Mac OS X, other than using

some dozens of Apple keyboard shortcuts to access window menus, there's little else.


For users with dual displays, they could choose to use a small display for accessing

the main Finder and applications windows and a second display for the larger view.

I've heard of people doing things like that, for a variety of reasons. Also there had

been (in prior OS X) third-party Dock applications that could place a second Dock in

other window locations, or in a second display, such as in Extended Desktop view.


Good luck! 😐

Jul 15, 2014 5:18 PM in response to K Shaffer

Thank you both .... Speeding the mouse up isnt really a solution as it traverses 2 different screens and it means it takes 2 secs to traverse 1 screen and 0 seconds to do the other... my old reaction times cant work like that.


Just a shame its not customisable.. like i said never gave it a thought before with smaller screens...

Aug 20, 2015 7:16 AM in response to Gkinghrn

Rather than hacking the system, learn to use OS X as it's designed. The big difference is that you don't have to do anywhere near as much mousing or keystrokes with the Mac OS.


In Windows, keyboard shortcuts are a pain because you first have to press the Alt key before you can press Ctrl+C. So everything is a double move and actually discourages its use. Hence, most Windows users rely on mousing to the nearest menu.


That's where the Mac OS design comes in. You don't need to press an activation key before doing the command. If you want to copy something, you just press Command+C. Learning the keyboard shortcuts for the most commonly used actions greatly speeds up the process and mostly eliminates the need to even use the menus directly with the mouse.


I've used both the Mac and Windows for decades, and the Mac's layout is much faster, once you memorize the keyboard commands you would use the most. My left hand is practically glued to the keyboard and at least half of what I do is keyboard shortcuts rather than bothering to move the mouse to a menu.

Can I make Mac Menu Bar work like Windows does and be at the top of each window?

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