The "Bring Back Translucent Menus" Thread

[kuwisdelu]

Bescause excessive transparency impedes legibility, and the primary goal of a menu is to expose text-labeled commands to the user, so anything to improve legibility is good? I have the same criticism of Vista's horrendous title bars and translucent windows (the gadget pane is the worst offender).

People said the same thing of the translucent menu bar and Apple gave into them. They now have the option to turn the translucent menu bar off. But they made the menus themselves much more opaque without giving those of us who liked it the option of keeping them as translucent as before.

 

[scaredpoet]

Count me as one of those people who like the translucence of the menus. The translucence certainly wasn't THAT much to be confusing, but I guess it caused issues for some.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Can you turn this into a poll?

 

[vanmacguy]

I'm another one that liked it and is missing it.

Damn!

 

[kuwisdelu]

Can you turn this into a poll?

Poll added!

 

[clevin]

I suggested in another post, just put a slide bar in preference settings like linux does, everybody would be happy.

 

[TimJim]

Im running 10.5.2 and i have translucent menu bar option.

Heres some picture. The 2nd picture shows the option for translucent/not at the bottom.

 

[gamera~]

Menus have a simple task: present a list of options and commands as text for quick, easy access. They aren't meant for resting permanently on the screen like a window, just a second or two — thus legibility should absolutely come before aesthetics.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Menus have a simple task: present a list of options and commands as text for quick, easy access. They aren't meant for resting permanently on the screen like a window, just a second or two — thus legibility should absolutely come before aesthetics.

It was plenty legible before.

 

[JSchwage]

I didn't really like or dislike the more translucent context menus previous to 10.5.2. Though after doing the 10.5.2 update, I realize how much less distracting and easier the context menus are to read now.

Also, remember that the more options Apple adds to OS X, the more confusing it will make OS X, which is exactly what Apple doesn't want it to be. I'm sure there's probably some plist file you can edit to change the transparency of the menus. That's what I love about OS X. There aren't too many options in the GUI. But you can make lots of changes to OS X via the Terminal.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Im running 10.5.2 and i have translucent menu bar option.

Heres some picture. The 2nd picture shows the option for translucent/not at the bottom.

We're talking about the drop-down menus themselves, not the menu bar.

Menus have a simple task: present a list of options and commands as text for quick, easy access. They aren't meant for resting permanently on the screen like a window, just a second or two — thus legibility should absolutely come before aesthetics.

But what about those of us who didn't have a problem with the legibility? Then shouldn't they be as aesthetic as they can be, too, if legibility isn't an issue for some of us? If you're that worried about legibility, Apple can always keep near-opaque the default option and just add an option to turn translucency on or off like they did for the menu bar.

 

[72930]

It was plenty legible before.

Not enough in all situations, it was one thing I was unhappy about with Leopard.

 

[Spievy]

I had no problems reading the text in the pull down menus.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Also, remember that the more options Apple adds to OS X, the more confusing it will make OS X, which is exactly what Apple doesn't want it to be. I'm sure there's probably some plist file you can edit to change the transparency of the menus. That's what I love about OS X. There aren't too many options in the GUI. But you can make lots of changes to OS X via the Terminal.

I would have argued this before, but seeing as they gave into the whining about the menu bar's translucency, I'd think they'd at least allow for the menus to stay transparent to match it or to turn it off. It's very unaesthetic to me to have a translucent menu bar and non-translucent menus, and I like my translucent menu bar. No one's found the correct .plist file to change and the old Terminal commands for it don't work anymore. Hopefully someone will find a new one.

 

[Spievy]

Hey I got an idea... Lets request they bring the menu back to the center of the screen.

 

[avalys]

Apple is not, and has never been about interface customization. Hell, they have never really been about any customization. I'm surprised they allowed you to turn off the translucent menubar. Apple does not want you to have to sit down and tinker with a bunch of options and sliders and percentages until you get everything just right. They want it to be set up perfectly and work right out of the box, so you can start using the computer.

There will never be a slider to control the transparency of the drop-down menus. And there will never be an option, either. It would be absurd and confusing.

If Apple including an option for everything some whiner wanted to work slightly differently, the System Preferences dialog would be roughly as complex as Microsoft Office.

If you want to dick around with every setting, install Linux.

 

[jeremy6044]

i had no problem reading it before. i also liked how they were translucent. seems like a step backwards to me.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Huh? The menus changed? 6 31.58%

Classic

 

[clevin]

Apple is not, and has never been about interface customization. Hell, they have never really been about any customization.

agree

I'm surprised they allowed you to turn off the translucent menubar. Apple does not want you to have to sit down and tinker with a bunch of options and sliders and percentages until you get everything just right. They want it to be set up perfectly and work right out of the box, so you can start using the computer.

There will never be a slider to control the transparency of the drop-down menus. And there will never be an option, either. It would be absurd and confusing.

not agree, options are absurd and confusing? please, don't belittle the intelligence of users. Each individual has their own preference, to force them into same style is truly absurd.

Work right out of box? last time I check, you still need manually install video player or codecs to play divx video. Nothing is absolutely right out of box. Give users options.

 

[kuwisdelu]

Apple is not, and has never been about interface customization. Hell, they have never really been about any customization. I'm surprised they allowed you to turn off the translucent menubar. Apple does not want you to have to sit down and tinker with a bunch of options and sliders and percentages until you get everything just right. They want it to be set up perfectly and work right out of the box, so you can start using the computer.

I've always agreed with this, but it just doesn't make sense to give the option of translucency on or off for the menu bar, but take away the translucency on the menus themselves. I didn't think Apple would give in to those who didn't like the translucency, but since they did, why did they take away the translucency in the menus instead of making that an option, too? Or why didn't they have the menus change to match the translucency of the menu bar? If they're going to go ahead change it around on every 10.5.x update depending on what people like or don't like, they may as well make it an option and shut everyone up.

 

[Brianstorm91]

Notice the lack of the option in my system preferences.

And yeah, I had to check the shortcut for screen print

 

[killmoms]

agree

not agree, options are absurd and confusing? please, don't belittle the intelligence of users. Each individual has their own preference, to force them into same style is truly absurd.

Then a Mac is not for them. This has nothing to do with belittling the intelligence of users—more options (especially for things as utterly trivial as menu translucency, for Pete's sake) ARE confusing for most users. I'm sure someone will find some plist preference somewhere, so the people who actually care can adjust it.

Ever wonder why Linux has never gained traction in the general desktop OS market? I'd bet dollars to donuts it's because it's confusing as hell.

 

[Fuzzy14]

Has anybody noticed that the translucency is still there for pop-up dialog boxes?

 

[kuwisdelu]

Has anybody noticed that the translucency is still there for pop-up dialog boxes?

Hmm, not all of them. I opened software update and it's transparent on mine, too, but then I tried to quit Safari and it gave me the "multiple tabs" dialog and there was no translucency. Interesting it's there for some of them, though.

 

[kolax]

Notice the lack of the option in my system preferences.

And yeah, I had to check the shortcut for screen print

Brianstorm91 - have you ever had the option for transparent menu bar? I thought some of the older Mac's didn't support it.

Has anybody noticed that the translucency is still there for pop-up dialog boxes?

Fuzzy14 - the translucency has been toned down, not removed. It was waaay to much before, now it is perfect to me.