

But hold Alt and you get access to input settings on macOS Sierra, and both output and input settings on OS X. For example, Sound when clicked shows a volume slider and the selected output device, and only the former pre-mac OS Sierra. In some cases, macOS native menu extras have hidden options that are only accessible when holding the Alt modifier key.

Cmd-drag any menu extra off of the menu bar and it can be removed by pausing until you see the cross icon, whereupon releasing the mouse or trackpad button will complete the action.Īs noted already, Spotlight and Notification Center cannot be removed any menu extras you drag from the menu bar must be reactivated from the relevant System Preferences pane. The position of menus, with the exception of Notification Center, can be adjusted by Cmd-dragging them. Other menus are added by turning on settings in relevant System Preferences panes or by installing third-party apps that include or effectively are a menu extra.įurther examples of native macOS extras include: display mirroring, keyboard preferences, sound, Bluetooth, the user menu, Time Machine, the Date & Time clock, and Siri. New macOS accounts also tend to display Network (Wi-Fi icon) and Clock. At the very minimum, you will see Notification Center and Spotlight, neither of which can be removed and the former of which cannot be moved. The right-hand side of the menu bar houses menu extras.
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How to use Mac menu bar in macOS Sierra: Using and managing menu extras Should any Apple icons remain ‘stuck’ on the wrong colour, clicking them should make them switch. Note that some third-party applications may not have been updated to cater for dark mode, thereby making them indistinct. The menu bar and Dock background will now be black rather than white, and text/icons will switch from black to white. In System Preferences, go to the General pane and click ‘Use dark menu bar and Dock’. However, two settings enable you to change this.
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How to use Mac menu bar in macOS Sierra: How to change the menu bar’s appearanceīy default, the menu bar is semi-transparent white, subtly showing your desktop background beneath. Alternatively, you can remap the aforementioned keyboard shortcut in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences. On a Mac with a Touch Bar, you may need to hold Fn to see the function keys prior to triggering the shortcut. On Macs where media keys are prioritised by way of the option in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences (the default on all relatively recent Macs), you will need to hold Fn along with Ctrl +F2. To enter and leave any sub menus, use the left and right arrows. You can also use Alt with the up and down arrows to jump to, respectively, the first and last items in any menu. You can also snap to any command by starting to type it out – for example, ‘SH’ typed quickly would immediately move the selection to ‘Show Deleted Messages’ when in Mail’s View menu.

You can then use your Mac’s cursor keys to move right or left to switch menus, or up and down to navigate the current menu. Tap (don’t hold) Ctrl+F2 and focus is moved to the Apple menu, which will be highlighted. By default, this has the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F2. To the right, you’ll see a number of focus options, one of which is ‘Move focus to the menu bar’. In the Keyboard pane of System Preferences, select the Shortcuts tab and then the Keyboard section. When in full-screen mode or otherwise, you can access the menu bar solely by using the keyboard rather than clicking menus by using the mouse pointer. How to use Mac menu bar in macOS Sierra: Access the menu bar using the keyboard
