Transparent menus in Snow Leopard 10.6.4

[jamesith]

I think I must be tho only person that liked the transparent menus we had in 10.5.1...

I cannot find anything to re enable them now, and it is a shame, because I thought they were pretty ^_^

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[spinnerlys]

Do you mean the Menu Bar being transparent? System Preferences > Desktop & Exposé > Desktop.

Or do you mean the actual drop down menus?

 

[jamesith]

I'm looking to make the drop down menus transparent

no one?

 

[Lokrado]

no one?

well i can tell you right off the bat, they already are, look closer.
but yes i could see how you could want them more transparent!

 

[celticpride678]

I'm looking to make the drop down menus transparent

They are transparent.

 

[TreborM]

The drop down menus are transparent

I'm looking to make the drop down menus transparent

I am unable to actually point you to the real solution, but I have noticed that the drop down menus are transparent (regardless of above mentioned setting for menu bar translucency). The opacity is something like 80% but I can still see this post if I drop down say, Bookmarks menu...

As such there should be a knob somewhere in the system which controls the opacity. This is where someone knowledgeable should chime in with concrete info...

 

[jamesith]

I know that they are already slightly transparent, but it is such that they may as well be solid... If you are not paying attention, you just can't see it in most lights.

It is a shame that there is no way of adjusting the opacity.

 

[x0r-lord]

I know that they are already slightly transparent, but it is such that they may as well be solid... If you are not paying attention, you just can't see it in most lights.

It is a shame that there is no way of adjusting the opacity.

Can't help you with the menu, but heres a tutorial for windows themselves.

you need a property list editor, or a lot of experience with the terminal and VI. (this is where us OSX users with linux history shine).
the files are
/System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Resources/NSCoreSuite.scriptSuit

.../Resources/NSCoreSuite.scriptTerminology

You want to create a new Child process under Classes/NSWindow/Attributes/
and call it "alphaValue" (as i've done in the image), expanding it will reveal three properties; Apple Event Code, Class, Read-Only.
set the Class to "NSNumber"
the Apple Event Code to "alph"
Read-Only: No

should look like that.

Now, open The NSCoreSuite.scriptTerminology file

Again under Classes/NSWindow/Attributes/
Create a new Child called "alphaValue"
this time the three preferences are Description, Name, Attribute Gender.
set them as follows:
Description: The alpha value of the window
Name: alpha value
Attribute Gender: none

Save both Files.

now you just need to write an apple script to set the windows.

heres the simplest one yet (30% transparent),
in File: safari.scpt

tell application "Safari"
set alpha value of front window to 0.7
end tell



here the final product, running in apple script editor

you can get quite advanced with it, setting transparency based on foreground/background (like in SetAlphaValue), or just based on application (which would mean every application if desired). it would also be possible to change the menu opacity like this (possibly with another UI framework change), haven't desired it.

hope this helps, but either way, enjoy

Test/Pictured MB373LL/A Macbook Pro
Core i7 2.66Ghz
OS-X: 10.6.4

Pictures used for education purposes only