Reorganizing my MenuBar

[koesherbacon]

Howdy all,

Got a question for you, and I've seen some other questions like this but I haven't been able to find out one way or another if this is truly possible.

I love the OS X MenuBar. I keep many menulettes (?) saved up there for easy access. I'm a little OCD, however, when it comes to computer organization.

Is there a way to organize the non-command-clickable menulettes up there?

I've attached an image of my current MenuBar.

Basically, I'd like it if all my file and desktop serving menulettes were together - as well as all other like menulettes - instead of haphazardly put up there with no discernible order.

In particular, I'd like it if it could go from left to right:

• TigerLaunch
• DropBox
• Playback
• Serve to Me
• LogMeIn
• BootChamp
• Weather Dock
• iStats Menu
• and then all the standard Apple Menubar items (which can be command-clicked and moved)

Ideally, it would be rad if it could look like this:

• TigerLaunch
• DropBox
  
  [*]Playback
  [*]Serve to Me
  [*]LogMeIn​
• BootChamp
• Weather Dock
• iStats Menu
• and then all the standard Apple Menubar items

Where the Italics and indented menulettes would still always be running in the background, but not shown in the Menubar at all. I have a feeling that would be much more tricky, though.

Anyone know any tricks?

Thank you!

 

[dissolve]

There are probably 3rd party solutions that I'm not aware of, but the simplest way to accomplish this is try to alter the order they launch. If you quit them all and open in the order you want them (from right to left -- newly opened menubar apps will open to the left), they should remain in this format at each restart. This is only if they are always running and start on boot. Any that run while opening an application will open the farthest left. I'm not sure of any way to work around that.

As for hiding particular ones, that's up to the application. Most should have a preference to remove the icon from the menu bar. Hopefully that helps somewhat. I'm afraid it's not the answer you're looking for though

 

[brijazz]

I'm fussy about the order of my menu bar items too, so here's my solution: write an Applescript that launches each application in the order that you want, and have it run at login. Your Applescript would look like:

tell application "iStats Menu" to activate
delay 3
tell application "Weather Dock" to activate

and so on... Save your Applescript as an application and put it into your startup items.

Caveat: if any of your menu bar items have the option to launch automatically on launch (you should be able to find such an option in the preferences for each particular app), make sure to deactivate that option. The script will take care of the launching.

 

[Gregg2]

Command-Click-Drag

 

[brijazz]

Command-Click-Drag

Only works for Apple's menu bar items (Spotlight, Airport, etc.), not for third-party add-ons.

 

[dissolve]

I'm fussy about the order of my menu bar items too, so here's my solution: write an Applescript that launches each application in the order that you want, and have it run at login. Your Applescript would look like:

tell application "iStats Menu" to activate
delay 3
tell application "Weather Dock" to activate

and so on... Save your Applescript as an application and put it into your startup items.

Caveat: if any of your menu bar items have the option to launch automatically on launch (you should be able to find such an option in the preferences for each particular app), make sure to deactivate that option. The script will take care of the launching.

This is a good approach that I've tried in the past. Drastically slowed down startup times, but I don't recall any performance hit while the menubar apps were loading. The real problem (as a few of us have said) is trying to organize menubar icons that appear on launch. Those are always going to appear on the furthest left.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Only works for Apple's menu bar items (Spotlight, Airport, etc.), not for third-party add-ons.

Not quite accurate. It only works for applications using the correct API. For example, MenuMeters and iStat Menus are rearrangeable via cmd-drag, including amongst the Apple ones.