Menubar: can you change the order of applications up there?

[Argelius]

I have a number of useful applications that reside in Mac's menubar (Leopard).

They are in my account "login items".

Is there a way to change the order in which they appear up there? I know for Mac built-in items (such as volume, wifi, bluetooth, etc), you can command-click and drag them where you want them; this doesn't work for the addon apps...

Thanks!

 

[bjett92]

I don't think you can. I've tried looking for this before and can't seem to find anything.

 

[robbieduncan]

Non-Apple apps cannot be re-ordered as they are not put there using the same API as the Apple ones.

 

[Argelius]

Non-Apple apps cannot be re-ordered as they are not put there using the same API as the Apple ones.

Thanks -- that's sort of what I figured.

But I wonder what determines what order they do show up in. I assume it has something to do with the order they are loaded (with the first toward the right, then each successive one toward the left...)

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

Thanks -- that's sort of what I figured.

But I wonder what determines what order they do show up in. I assume it has something to do with the order they are loaded (with the first toward the right, then each successive one toward the left...)

That is my experience.

 

[Argelius]

That is my experience.

Can the order of the log-in items (as displayed in Settings>Accounts>Login items) be changed (other than deleting them and re-entering them? I tried to cmd-drag to move them, but to no avail...

 

[iCeFuSiOn]

Can the order of the log-in items (as displayed in Settings>Accounts>Login items) be changed (other than deleting them and re-entering them? I tried to cmd-drag to move them, but to no avail...

I'd imagine, because it would more than likely display them in the order that they load on the system.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Some of them can be moved around, and some of them can't. The ones that can't be moved usually do depend on the order they're loaded. The ones that can be moved, hold down the Command button, then click and drag them to the spot you want. This should work on the OS X ones (like volume, battery info, etc.) and the supported non-OS X ones (like iStat menus, etc.). The ones that don't follow this behavior I've found that they do go up there in the order they're loaded. And unfortunately, I don't think the Login items can be moved around like that in Sys Prefs; you just have to delete and re-add them (unless some else has found a way?)

 

[Ethereal11]

I know this thread is a bit old, but it's the first one that comes up when you google for how to change menu bar item orders.

In Leopard, (I'm on 10.5.6), you can change the order of how menu bar apps appear by simply loading them on demand as a user created app.

Firstly, you need to remove the apps you want to organize in the Accounts > Login Items preference pane. You also need to make sure they're not being loaded from the Dock, so right click the dock icon and disable Open at Login for each specific menu app. I'd recommend Logging out and back in to make sure they're not loading automatically at this point. If a particular app loads, it's probably a setting in the application itself, dig around the preferences for that app and disable it.

From here, open up Script Editor and create a script similar to this.

activate application "coconutWiFi"
delay 1
activate application "Ejector"
delay 1
activate application "Bokeh"
delay 1
activate application "PTHVolume"
delay 1
activate application "Dropbox"
delay 1
activate application "WeatherDock"

The app at the top, in this case "coconutWiFi" will load first and thus be placed in the right most position available. In the same regards, "WeatherDock" will be the left-most app on the menu bar.

Save the script (I called mine -- MenuBarLoader), change the File Format to Application, and leave all other options as is. For organization, put the newly created application in the Applications folder like any other app.

Now go back to your Accounts > Login Items preference pane, drag and drop your newly created MenuBarLoader app in the Login Items field, and click the checkbox to Hide the app. Log out and back in to give it a test run.

There you go, you now have menu bar apps loading in a specific order, and thus, showing up in a specific order. Keep in mind, you can not (atleast to my knowledge) make applications load more right than the Apple icons (spotlight, airport, bluetooth, etc.) Two exclusions that I know of are MenuCalendarClock (which loads in the clock's default position) and iStat (which can be setup to load just to the left of the clock by simply CMD-click & dragging it in the spot you want it in.)

 

[NicP]

If you hold down CMD (the apple key) you can drag around menu bar items

edit: seems this has already been mentioned, I should have read first

 

[CountPollen]

move menubar items

Non-Apple apps cannot be re-ordered as they are not put there using the same API as the Apple ones.

Just hold down the cmd key and drag them works for iStat.
For the rest, use a login items manager like MacPilot or TinkerTool.

 

[jwilcox09]

I recently read an article about an app that you could change the order of the items by delaying when they boot up, but can't for the life of me find it anywhere. Does anyone know what this app is called, or another method as I'm not very familiar with Script Editor.

Thanks.

 

[tnacsak]

CountPollen's solution works

Thanks, it is the perfect Cmd+Click and drag