Customize Application's Menus

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by sstoy, Feb 25, 2007.

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  1. sstoy, Feb 25, 2007

    sstoy macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2007
    #1
    So I was hoping someone might know if there is a way to customize my menu bar in mac applications. Allow me to add that yes i am a novice, with no real coding expirience, so a detailed step by step would be very much appreciated.

    The example I will highlight is in my safari. I use a 12" ibook so clearly I don't have the width of screen that is compatible with wastes of space. In my safari browser the menubar has the following items:
    Safari :: Edit :: View :: History :: Bookmarks :: Window :: Help :: Stand

    and then I have menubar icons for virtuedesktops, gmail, ical, isync, activity monitor, bluetooth, batterylife, volume, wifi, clock, name.... you get the point.

    needless to say with all the space taken up by the safari menu a lot of space is taken up and I lose access to some menubar icons. I am wondering if it would be possible to customize the menu into fewer dropdowns: this i see being accomplished by placing the "history", "window", "help" and "stand" menus into the "safari" dropdown menu.

    I would find this useful in all of my apps infact. I would rather have menubar space and have to go through two dropdown sequences than the current configuration.

    I do have fruit menu's but this only lets me modify the apple dropdown, I would like a way to reorganize and customize all the menubar dropdowns to my personal preferences. I attached a capture of my screen to highlight what I mean. If anyone knows of a way to accomplish this I would be very appreciative. thank you



    Sean
     

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  2. sstoy, Feb 27, 2007

    sstoy thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2007
    #2
    So shall I assume then, based on lack of replies, that there no way to do this?

    Thanks
     
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  3. Father Jack, Feb 27, 2007

    Father Jack macrumors 68020

    Father Jack

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Ireland
    #3
    Sorry I too am a relative beginner.

    FJ
     
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  4. GimmeSlack12, Feb 27, 2007

    GimmeSlack12 macrumors 603

    GimmeSlack12

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2005
    Location:
    San Francisco
    #4
    There is nothing you can do about reducing the menus you have in Safari, although the Stand menu can be removed can't it?

    Ultimately you have to reduce the number of menu bar items you have. I feel your pain on this matter as I have a 12" iBook. But I am a long time Mac use so here are some suggestions.

    Download SlimBatteryMonitor, it'll save some space over the Mac OS battery item. Take your User name out of the menu bar, that takes up a lot of space, and really isn't necessary is it? Or do you change users that much? I know having your sound volume is useful to have in the menu bar, but can't you use the keyboard? Does Bluetooth really have to be there? And if it is important you can use an Applescript (I have one if you need it) to activate/deactivate it?

    The point I'm making is reduce the menu bar icons you have. You have a 12" Mac, get used to have small amount of space.
     
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  5. robbieduncan, Feb 28, 2007

    robbieduncan Moderator emeritus

    robbieduncan

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2002
    Location:
    London
    #5
    You can't do much about the Stand menu: it's not part of the application and is loaded into place at runtime. The rest of the menus are defined in the MainMenu.nib file in the localisation folder for the language you are using in Safari.app/Content/Resources

    The file can be edited with Inteface Builder which is part of the Developer Tools. You should be able to move the menu as around as long as you don;t break any connection (so not cuting). Note that this could totally break the app so take a backup copy of the file. Also note that everytime Apple release an update the file will get overwriten so take a backup of your edited file.
     
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