04/03/05
What's in your menubar?
Last year, the question was being asked around mac blogs, “Whats in your dock?”. Now I feel its time to ask the same about menubars. With so many apps using menu items, I find my menubar is becoming just as crowded as my dock.
This is mine after a recent prune:

- Burnout Menu to handle to-do lists (I’m currently trying a demo of this)
- xScope to measure and sample colours
- GMail status
- Synergy for controlling iTunes (these are the xScope style buttons)
- IC-Switch because I always change my mind between Safari/Omniweb and NewsFire/NetNewsWire
- Applescript menu
- Airport
- iSync
- Volume
- Show Character palette
- Battery power
- Quicksilver need I say more?
- Calendar Clock replaces the standard date/time with a drop down calendar and to-do lists.
Whats in yours? Get a screenshot, upload it to your site and drop the img in here. Please use Textile as HTML img tags are stripped out). Tell me about any of the more unusual apps that you’ve got hiding in there. The maximum width of the comment area is 355px, but don’t worry too much – if it breaks the layout, it breaks the layout.
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Pat said 1313 days ago:
Left-to-Right
1.) Deskshade. I often change the hue/saturation of my desktops to match my current theme, so I keep DeskShade active all the time.
2.) JetClock. The MenuExtra stays to the right, and so does wClock.
3.) Konfabulator. Cleverly disguised as a Spotlight button…I have most of my widgets on Konsposé only mode.
I used to use Synergy, but found ByteController, which has down states. I don’t use it because it ruins my neat menubar :P
I also used to use xScope, but it also makes my menubar ugly and crowded…I only launch it when I need it.
Something neat though…iPulse has a menubar thing that can show you mem pages, network activity, and CPU usage. If it showed mem usage, I’d use it and throw away the little widget on the desktop.
Kim Siever said 1313 days ago:
My menubar has volume, Character palette, standard date/time and Adium.Scott Johnson said 1313 days ago:
Synergy is the app I have been searching for! Finally!BTW, the numbers in the post are a bit off from those in the image.
Jon Hicks said 1313 days ago:
oops – thanks Scott!Gavin Montague said 1313 days ago:
1. Quicksilver, if you don’t have it then there must be something wrong with you
2. Synergy (closed).
3. Desktop manager – virtual desktop, yay!
4. BlueFoneElite A stupidly useful app for integrating your phone and powerbook.
Steve Hubbard said 1313 days ago:
Please excuse my boring conservatism. Just plain ‘ole Quicksilver, Norton AutoProtect, Airport, iChat and iSync.
Izzy said 1313 days ago:
From left to right:
1. Synergy
2. Adium (the icon is only there when I’m running the app)
3. Imagewell (I can’t believe I don’t hear more people talking about this handy little app. I use it almost every day.)
4. Airport status
5. Battery status
6. Calendar clock
I seem to go through phases when it comes to add-ons like this. I’ll go from throwing in every single interesting app I can find to going completely minimalist and taking everything out. Quicksilver and FruitMenu were two big reasons why my menubar is now usually pretty short.
Ian said 1313 days ago:
Left-to-right, the first three belong to xScope, then HimmelBar (an application launcher), iChat (oh look, I’m offline), Bluetooth, Airport, Character Palette, Sound and finally CalendarClock.
There used to be a couple more, but I just installed a new HD, and took the opportunity to clear some of my less-used apps out.
dave.defmech said 1313 days ago:
He he, I did this a wile ago with my Anatomy Of A System Tray post.I’ve since converted, mainly, to the Mac. All I have of interest in my menu bar is Gee .
andrew stott said 1313 days ago:
1. Also trying the Burnout Menu demo
2. Quicksilver, of course
3. Keychain, so I can lock my screen when I step away
4. iChat (currently “away”)
5. AirPort
6. Battery status (with time, not %)
7. Good old normal clock :)
Adrian T said 1313 days ago:
I’ve only been in love with Macs for a couple of months so my menu is quite empty. I hide Quicksilver and besides the already mentioned Synergy I have.Sailling Clicker for Bluetooth remote control of iTunes, DVD etc with my phone.
BluePhone Elite for call and SMS management.
Both highly recommended!
Daniel Andrews said 1313 days ago:
Mine is fairly basic. From left to right:
Adium, Meterologist, GmailStatus, bluetooth indicator, and my clock.
Jeremy Pinnix said 1313 days ago:
1. AudioScrobbler
2. iSeek
3. WeatherPop
4. iAddressX
5. Airport
6. Battery
7. wClock
François said 1313 days ago:
Slightly off-topic, but yes Scott, Synergy is what you need: this program rocks. It’s amazingly cheap, stable and handy. My menu bar: Synergy, Volume, Date/Time. Quite boring but my old G3/500 does not like too much background tasks at the same time…Jon Hicks said 1313 days ago:
Francois – no thats on-topic, you’re OK!Great, already getting some great apps surfacing…
kevin said 1313 days ago:
jon:there is only one menubar app i can’t live without: delibar
it’s a drop-down of all your del.icio.us bookmarks, organized by tag. you can even post to del.icio.us without going to your bookmarks in the browser.
recently ditched everything from the menubar except delibar, meterologist and menumeters. very liberating. I’ve also stopped running Quicksilver, just for a break.
People, Synergy blurs your album art. Try using Menutunes instead, it’s far and away the best.
Matt Carey said 1313 days ago:
From left to right…iscrobber
sailing clicker
bluetooth
ichat
monitor (i desk hop an plug my PB into external monitors)
airport
battery (%)
isync
character menu
standard analogue clock
joel schou said 1313 days ago:
1. Synergy
2. Meteorologist (that’s in °F, of course. And 32°F is the warmest it’s been in a while. Stupid MN.)
3. SlimBatteryMonitor (I just picked this up two days ago. It rocks my socks)
4. MenuMeters (so I can see how badly I’m abusing my iBook G4)
5. iChat
6. Airport
7. Character Palette
8. (below menu bar floating above everything) Focus ( It gets the clock out of the menu bar and makes it plainly obvious which app I’m in. I can’t live without it.)
brian w said 1313 days ago:
I guess I’m the only person out there who hates the gigantic font in Apple’s default menu bar clock?
1. CalendarClock
2. Synergy
3. iScrobbler
4. Meteorologist (it’s very cold here in New Hampshire, as you can tell)
5. Recent Tunes (gotta edit that icon… or find something that will combine iScrobbler, Recent Tunes, Synergy & iChatStatus into one appliction!)
6. Timbuktu
7. AirPort
8. PCMCIA status thingie
9. iChat status thingie
10. AppleScript’s system-wide menu
11. OS 9 status thingie
12. Displays thingie
13. Volume thingie.
I also use PopCharPro but that’s over on the left side ;)
Simon Zirkunow said 1313 days ago:
# Audium X – Because iChat messes up when chatting with Windows users.
# Synergy (first Mac app I bought)
Bluetooth, AirPort, speakers, battery and clock. Pretty basic.
As my screen is only 12” I have to keep this place tidy.
Andrew Ho said 1313 days ago:
Having a 12-inch PowerBook means that space on my menu bar is at a premium. Thus, I try to have as few icons as possible. The ones I’ve got can be seen here:I have the standard clock, battery monitor without text, Airport Signal and Bluetooth.
The clock is obvious. The battery monitor doesn’t contain any text because I use GeekTool to output more battery information to my desktop, amongst other things. Basic output:
Battery: battery installed, above warning level
Charger: charger connected, not charging
UPS: UPS not installed
System:
Voltage: 12.500V
Current: 0.000A
Charge: 4.230Ah of 4.241Ah (99.7%)
Capacity: 4.241Ah of 4.400Ah (96.4%)
Cycles: 193
I also don’t have something such as Synergy because I have the Quicksilver iTunes plug-in that enables me to do things like stop, start, pause, next track etc from Quicksilver (I’m entirely a keyboard guy).
Paul D said 1313 days ago:
I always change my mind between Safari/Omniweb and NewsFire/NetNewsWireHah, that sounds like me to a tee, if you add Camino into the browser mix. I still haven’t made up my mind on NewsFire, I like the polish but it seems buggier than NNW.
My menubar is boring, so I won’t post it. However, I have a question: how do you get rid of the Applescript menu? One of my applications put it there (I told it too, doh), and I can’t get rid of it now.
Also here’s a trick a friend showed me: if you use a standard English qwerty keyboard but don’t want the US flag on your menubar, you can use an Australian keyboard layout instead. See the pretty constellation!
Sascha said 1313 days ago:
I like it nice and tidy, so there’s not much up there:
1. Desktop Manager
2. DeskShade
3. Butler
4. WinSwitch
5. Calendarclock
I changed the icons of Desktop Manager and Butler to match the style of DeskShade’s icon. Looks a lot less obstrusive, me thinks.
I’m also using the great Synergy like many of you, but I prefer to control it via key combos.
Jack said 1313 days ago:
I’m stingy with my menubar. I have displays, airport, audioscrobbler (why does it need a menubar item?).Quicksilver doesn’t really need a menubar item. it’s so smooth it feels like it’s part of OS X itself.
I keep stuff out of the menubar because I use the trackpad most of the time and it’s just to far too move all the way up there :D
Sid said 1313 days ago:
Well at the moment im doing my Algebra Homework on the PC… so heres the taskbar….1. iTunes
2. AIM
3. Anti-Virus
4. Nero Burnign Rom
5. MSN (Currently ofline)
6. ZA, ofcourse
7. An ip-dodad to help my hoem server have a domainname
...Skip a few…
8. “The yellow thingy” Defrags my RAM every few seconds.
9. “The E” my home server
...Skip a few…
10. The last one, my remote desktop program.
ozean said 1313 days ago:
having a only 1024 pixel horizontally, I would like to have less stuff in my menubar…from left to right: Adium, Salling Clicker, WeatherPop, Language thingy, Bluetooth, Battery (only icon), AirPort, Monitor, Standard Clock (time only), and finally XMenu.
Does nobody use XMenu anymore? I like the flick of the hand to the upper right corner like in the old days.
*feels old fashioned having XMenu installed and not using Quicksilver *
ozean said 1313 days ago:
on my PowerMac’s screen I also have NetMonitor displaying a graph of my network traffic – if I would have more space on my PowerBooks screen I would love to have it sit there too…isil said 1313 days ago:
Hi! I read your site but this is my first time commenting here :)
My menu shows Quicksilver, Konfabulator (both of which are godsends) and the standard stuff: network, bluetooth, airport, displays, battery , language, volume, date/time
ozean said 1313 days ago:
finally, here’s a picture of my PowerMacs menubarcboone said 1313 days ago:
The only gizmos I’m running that haven’t been mentioned are iBiz’s timer toggler (which might go soon: it seems to only be able to toggle the bottom-most event in the bottom-most project for each client – a major flaw) and FuzzyClock – which is an excellent, non-precise menubar clock. Like it sounds.Brian said 1313 days ago:
# XScope
# SlimBatteryMonitor
# MenuMeters
# Bluetooth
# Airport
# Volume
# WinSwitch
# Displays
# CalendarClock (I really like being able to see the date without any clicking. That’s the only reason I use this one. Well, it looks neat too.)
P.S. I use quicksilver. I love it. I just dont see the point in having it in my menu bar.
Chris McElligott said 1313 days ago:
I try to keep my menubar tidy at all times, it hard to because it it just wants to keep expanding.– iChat – Airport (Airport Express rules!) – Battery – Times – Fast User Switching
Thanks for pointing out IC-Switch Jon, I’m constantly switching browsers and opening Safari/Omniweb to set a default is really annoying.
quis said 1313 days ago:
All I use that hasn’t been mentionned so far:MailCountX – pretty useful for just glancing at the laptop and seeing if that really was the mail notification noise.
OS X Bluetooth icon
OS X display preferences icon (essential for when my second screen decides to revert to 800×600)
I will also soon be buying Salling Clicker I think, the integration with iTunes has to be seen to be believed.
sam d said 1313 days ago:
1. synergy
2. desktop manager
3. gmailstatus
4. osx planet (mac version of xplanet (desktop image of earth with time line and other goodies)
5. MUMenu
6. 7. 10. menu meters
8. soundsource
9. menory cell
11. ichat
12. geektool (my addiction)
13. script menu
14. volume
15. winswitch
16. the venerable menucalendarclock
Ok I know I have too many but I am testing out different menu meter
kellegous said 1313 days ago:
1 – AdiumX
2 – Quicksilver
3 – Virtue Desktops
4 – Bluetooth
5 – GeekTool 2
6 – Volume
7 – Lest I forget when to leave for the train
8 – Lest I forget to respond when my name is called.
Ryan said 1313 days ago:
Left to Right:
xScope
SlimBatteryMonitor
WeatherManX Menubar
MenuMeters
SoundSource
VPN
AppleScript Menu
Airport
Clock
I had more, but pared down a bit because I felt I was being just a wee bit excessive.
Brian Fox said 1313 days ago:
I prefer keeping my menu bar nice and tidy, however I do have lots of goddies I like to use. Unlike the other posters, I DO use Quicksilver, but chose to use it without a menu item or dock item (so I can only access it using the shortcut).This is a company networking app – similar to a VPN clientSlim battery monitor – The best battery monitor – takes less space and disappears when no longer used.FuzzyClock – The BEST clock app for the Mac.Airport MenuBluetooth MenuThis is actually my Keychain Lock, pretending to be spotlight
Dan Frakes said 1313 days ago:
This sounds familiar :) My menu bar is detailed hereI also have the excellent Synergy installed, but I use it entirely via keyboard shortcuts.
Brady J. Frey said 1313 days ago:
you control:tunes
Weather Menu
World Clock Deluxe
Menu Calendar
Then the special characters menu (for my print design), the volume setting, and my Unix fast user switching so the girlfriend can get to her iTunes/iPod controls.
I used to have much more—but I’m starting to clog my menu just as much as I clog my multiple docks!
Phill Kenoyer said 1313 days ago:
Left to Right:
Tiger Launch
Desktop Manager
Weather Menu
SSHKeyChain
wClock
Silus Grok said 1313 days ago:
Konfabulator, Airport, Volume. That’s it.I hate having stuff up there.
A question, though, for everyone: What on earth is Quicksilver?! I’ve tried their site, but I must be missing something. What’s the use case for Quicksilver?
jaffry said 1313 days ago:
like some folks here, i’ve got limited width on my iBook and so i only have:* good ol’ clock
* battery status (in hours, not percentage)
* airport
* net meter [from raging menace but with my own icons]
* cee pee you :cos I run Seti
* HimmelBar : Because I miss the OS 9 way of starting my apps :)
Chris McElligott said 1313 days ago:
#41 Silus Grok: What on earth is Quicksilver?Its the best launcher out there, and its insanely customizable with a heap of plugins avaliable. I use it but forgot to mention it (I have the icon hidden)
Brady J. Frey said 1313 days ago:
Sascha Thanks for the WinSwitch, never saw that before—just got back my real estate on that one.mns said 1313 days ago:
Romeo, Meteorologist, Konfabulator, Pod2Go, Quicksilver, SSHKeychain, Timbuktu, Scripts menu, iChat status, Bluetooth, VPN, Airport, SoundSource, Displays, Volume, iSync, Battery, Clock, username.
I really need to do some cleaning up around here.
head zoo keeper said 1313 days ago:
Nothing all that out-of-the-ordinary on the right-hand side but in the upper left corner—the [ p ]—I have PopChar X… that old Classic Mac utility, PopChart, for MacOS X that quickly and easily allows you to find special characters.
Feaverish said 1313 days ago:
Nothing too exciting. Quicksilver – gCount – Synergy (with milk theme) – iScrobbler) plugin for Audioscrobbler – MenuMeters
gb said 1313 days ago:
1. Quicksilver (naturally)
2. WeatherPop (love it)
3. iScrobbler
4. Desktop Manager (properites menu)
5. Desktop Manager (Two Screens, Two Desktops)
6. GrowlTunes (for iTunes track notification via Growl)
7. MenuCalendarClock (having a calendar with my upcoming tasks popup from my clock is handy)
8. iChat
9. Display Prefs
10. Fast User Switching (forgot the name of the menu extra… whoops)
Ryan C said 1313 days ago:
Here’s the rundown:
# Virtue – I love me some freeware!
# Quicksilver
# GrowlTunes – Part of the Growl bundle
# DockFun – Fun for more than just your dock!
# AudioScrobbler Menu
# BlogAssist
# MenuCalendarClock
Jesse Wilson said 1313 days ago:
While I had Quicksilver and Synergy running, I don’t feel the need to have their icons visible in the menubar. That leaves Meteorologist (icon and temp), battery (icon only), time (24hr clock), and AirPort.neil said 1313 days ago:
oooooh, I love this rampant Mac nerdness:1. Path Finder : er, because it’s great?
2. IC-Switch : because I am also completely 0wned by a web browser fetish
3. iScrobber : because I am a sucker for stats, and music, and stats involving music.
4. Hardware Monitor : got a fairly new iMac G5 that I’m keeping an eye on…
5. WeatherMenu : because nerds need to be reminded that there is a beautiful world out there.
6. Spell Catcher : God, I love this program. Spell checking, thesaurus, online lookup, auto-complete and text expansions… it’s crazy good.
7. Script Menu : I like to pretend that I have an understanding of Applescript. It’s a confidence thing.
8. AirPort Strength : I hate wires.
9. MenuMeters : More grist for the nerd mill. The memory usage on the left is because I’m tracking down a memory leak in some beta software I’m running. The CPU meter is essential stuff for knowing when something has gone amiss instead of waiting for your fans to kick in.
10. CalendarClock : Unfortunately, a mere month after Peter Maurer released this sweet thing, it was bought out by another developer. Having not only control over how the clock and calendar are displayed, but also being able to see a full calendar plus my iCal events and to-do’s at a click of a mouse makes me feel more productive. “Feel” being a state of mind, not of reality, sadly. Jon, let me know if you’d like to try this… it’s killer.
Here’s a screenshot of the CalendarClock dropdown menu:
I also use Synergy and Quicksilver, but I’m a keyboard man – I set up quick keys to start, stop, jump forward and backwards in Synergy and hide the menu bar. Quicksilver is the same thing.
Man, I am such a nerd. Sad, isn’t it.
Karim said 1313 days ago:
Wondering why people prefer Quicksilver over Launchbar ?neil said 1313 days ago:
Whoops – didn’t read closely enough to notice that you’re already using the sequel to CalenderClock, Jon.Justin said 1313 days ago:
I didn’t find a Mac-only …so I thought I’d throw mine up here…Left to Right…
iTunes
Outlook 2003
Trillian 3.1
Hardware Eject…boring
Samurize
Konfabulator
Powermenu
RealVNC
Symantec Antivirus
Longhorn Clock
Alex Cabrera said 1313 days ago:
1 • Adium2 • Airport Meter
3 • Volume
4 • Battery
5 • Clock
I also run Quicksilver (best application ever); but I removed both the Dock icon and menubar icon because they’re really no purpose to either. Plus, I hate clutter.
Captain said 1313 days ago:
I’m surprised that some of you are not showing these nice & free alternative:1. Checkoff (Burnout Alternative): http://sourceforge.net/projects/checkoff/
2. ByteController (Synergy Alternative): http://brainbyte.digitalhybrid.net
.s said 1313 days ago:
PTHPasteboard, Quicksilver, FuzzyClock (Esperanto), xScope, Pod2Go, HeathRow, cacophony
trucmuche said 1313 days ago:
Non-Apple stuff (left to right): – QuickSilvah! – MailTicker (customized icon) – IPMenu (cust. icon) – CalendarClock
And yes, I’m going to bed :^)
Kevan said 1313 days ago:
Synergy (only visible if iTunes is open)
DeliBar (which is making me want to trim my tags)
Meteorologist (brrr. cold here in DC)
SlimBatteryMonitor (only shows percent when on battery)
MenuMeters (disk and cpu)
ScreenRes (allows my 12” PB to drive my Samsung HLP-6163 at 1280×720)
AirPort
MenuCalendarClock
I dig those Synergy buttons…
Cameron Moll said 1313 days ago:
Run-of-the-mill for the most part:Mat said 1313 days ago:
My menubar tends to change regularly, but here’s what it is at the moment:
1) IC-switch
2) Flashnote for StickyBrain – my default notes manager (mainly because of Palm support)
3) Sticky Windows – a new favorite, which allows you to shrink your open windows to tabs on the edge of your desktop, thereby reducing window clutter (though, to be honest, I don’t see why it needs to be a menu item)
4) Salling Clicker – a seriously cool Bluetooth remote control app
5) Konfabulator
6) gCount
7) Quicksilver
8) iChat
9) Menumeters – first, bandwidth up/down
10) Menumeters – second, free memory
11) Volume
12) TypeIt4me – it’s really a character palette item; but it does auto-typing.
13) Calendarclock – the old free, version
What I really want is some kind of app that would allow you to nest menubar items. So you would click on the icon and that would open a drop down menu with the other menubar items. I run at 1280 width and I’m always running out of space. I guess I need a 30” ACD.
Roger Johansson said 1313 days ago:
From left to right: Date & Time.
Sometimes I try all these gadgets because it looks kind of cool to have a menubar crammed full of important looking stuff. I always end up not using any of them. Maybe it’s just me ;-)
Sven said 1313 days ago:
AdiumX
MenuMeters
PPPoE Connect
Monitor Prefs
Airport
Volume
Battery
Date / Time
oh, and i do use quicksilver but i don’t know why i should use the menubar item…
Joe Chellman said 1313 days ago:
1. Hallon – lets you do things like bookmark emails in Mail.app. Super cool.
2. FastScripts – Runs Applescripts just a bit faster and more flexibly than Apple’s script menu. It has a generous demo that I’m still in, but I’ll register before long.
3. Airport Status
4. Keychain
5. Battery
6. Input Methods, which includes TypeIt4Me (although it’s not turned on at the moment)
7. MenuCalendarClock – I’m trying to decide if it’s worth bumping up from Peter Maurer’s free version.
Marco said 1313 days ago:
From left to right: Quicksilver, Virtue*, Art Directors Toolkit*, Meteorologist*, BwanaDik, iChat, Airport, Battery, Date & Time, Displays.
Items with * are not always there.
Yes, it’s cold in Amsterdam!
Luke said 1313 days ago:
My menubar is all about saving a bit of space here and there. I use QuickSilver but I figure having it on the menubar adds nearly nothing to its usefulness. On my 15” PowerBook screen, any more than this on my menubar and sometimes it overlaps with application menus.
1. ByteController (free, handy iTunes controller)
2. XScope (but only the tools I use the most)
3. SlimBatteryMonitor (takes up less space than default OS X battery monitor, also free)
4. SharingMenu (free doohicky to toggle/monitor file/web/etc sharing activity)
5. AirPort
6. KeyChain Access (useful to lock the screen on command)
7. Keyboard/Character palette
8. 24 hour time saves space
9. MenuCalendarClock (cause I like to know the date at a glance)
Karen said 1313 days ago:
A great idea, Jon!I use LaunchBar – I tried QuickSilver, but although I like the graphical effects I found LaunchBar more usable. It seems to learn better which application matches what I want.
Hidden out on the left is PopChar X
you control just for the iTunes part – I like the extra control it gives compared to Synergy
URL Manager Pro – because I also like switching browsers (though I’m sticking with OmniWeb more and more)
Default Folder X – I really like the features it adds to dialogs, though I don’t tend to use the Menu Extra functionality that often
A secret icon (I’m doing some beta testing…)
iAddressX for handy access to the Address Book
The AppleScript menu (I’m trying to learn it)
Menu Calendar for Entourage – because I prefer Entourage to Apple’s Mail.
Like a few others I end up having regular clear-outs as the list grows (or apps where I switch off their menu bar extra). I’m off to read up on some of the interesting items that others have written about!
Dale said 1313 days ago:
Great idea Jon. There are lotsa menu bar items I haven’t seen before. But my menu bar is relatively sparse:
1. Sidekick
2. iiUsage
3. iChat
4. Keychain Access
5. Airport
6. Oz flag/Character Palette/Keyboard Viewer
7. Apple’s Date & Time
sam said 1313 days ago:
No dock, no buttons, no icons here. Only terminals, launching apps …It’s way cleaner, faster and much more light.
– Sam
Ben Sekulowicz said 1313 days ago:
Being a PB 12” user, space is at a premium, even more so if you use fast user-switching with a name like mine!I have from l-to-r: Bluephone elite, airport, date-time, battery, fast-user switching.
Out of interest, why have Quicksilver in your menu bar – surely the functionality of the app makes it easier to hit ctrl-space and hit preferences?
AkaXakA said 1313 days ago:
As I don’t have a Mac and my taskbar fails to be usefull for anything but showing windows, I thought I’d post my firefox top & statusbar.My Menu bar:
To take you through the menu: – A simple ‘Menu’ curtosy of Compact Menu so I have room enough to fit all the other stuff on one bar. – xml feed folder. It holds all my livebookmarks. Still debating if it isn’t easier to just use Sage all the time. – Location bar. Crunched only because I had to get the screenshot small. – back – Stop/Reload Great little extention to combine stop and reload. – Text Zoom . For Increasing, normalising and decreasing text – Search bar – Full Screen button – Sage (see xml entry, as this is the folder that sage uses) – Bookmarks – Tab Bin Remembers your last 5 tabs and presents them in a pop-down menu.
My Statusbar:
No tooo much to see here but still: – Gmail Notifier – Statusbar Clock And yes, I took it off the windows taskbar. – Google Pagerank Cos I don’t need the rest of the google bar
Paul said 1313 days ago:
My menu bar is pretty sparse at the moment – especially after a recent reinstall of my system. Pretty much try and keep it simple thou… Adium, Bluetooth, Date, iSync etc… but it will probably get a lot lmore crowded after this post jon!I tend not to show the volume slider too – I use the keyboard instead, but I guess thats not possible on a Mac Laptop…
Richard Rutter said 1313 days ago:
# DropCopy. Great little app for dragging files between Rendezvous machines.
# Adium X. Cross-network IM client. Supports MSN, iChat, ICQ and others.
# BluePhoneElite. Complete phone control from the desktop via Bluetooth.
# AudioScrobbler. Builds a profile of your musical taste and provides recommendations using a plug-in for iTunes.
# Synergy. Say no more.
# iChat. Offline cos I was on the train.
# Airport Extreme. Likewise.
# Battery level. Nicely charged up.
# CalendarClock. Bloody brilliant integration of iCal into the menu bar.
So why no Quicksilver? Well it’s running but not in the menu bar (I didn’t see the point of having it there). And no gCount anymore cos I use Mail.app now Gmail can be accessed with POP.
Lode said 1313 days ago:
*1* cpu load and system load
*2* network monitor
*3* gaim “do not disturb”
*4* beagle – the future, today
*5* tomboy – notetaking on speed
*6* weather at work
*7* weather at home
*8* the old notes applet.. time to delete it (see 5)
*9* my battery sucks
10 volume control
11 time & date (this is Linux, of course.. But I’m ordering a PB 15” as soon as Tiger is out)
Brad Knowles said 1312 days ago:
1. WeatherMenu (3 locations defined).
2. WeatherPop
I like what WeatherMenu gives me over WeatherPop when it works (multiple named locations in the menu bar, weather alerts, radar images, ability to launch WeatherManX, etc…), but the problem is that WeatherMenu doesn’t seem to be able to correctly handle international locations very well right now. While WeatherPop is simpler, it does seem to be more robust at handling international locations. I’m testing them both out, and I’ll stick with the one that works for me.
3. SlimBatteryMonitor
I have an old PowerBook G3 “Pismo”, and I’m currently running on two batteries. The standard Apple battery monitor takes up way too much room, even for one battery. Here, I get info on two batteries in less space than Apple takes for one.
4. MenuMeters (memory and CPU)
I had also been monitoring disk and network activity, but as a result of this page, I decided that I’d trim those out. They’re nice, but not as important as memory and CPU.
5. Airport
6. Volume
7. Application menu provided by iClock. Shows me what’s running, lets me quickly switch applications (as an alternative to Command-Tab or DragThing, both of which I also use), plus it lets me quickly get directly to System Preferences panes or recently used applications (going back much further than ten items).
8. iClock
I like having the day of the week, date, and 12-hour time with timezone information in the menubar. I used to use a much larger format, but after reading the other entries here and seeing the other menubars, I decided that I didn’t need to see the year, or the seconds. I had been using the seconds as a sneaky way to keep an eye on the system, to see if it had locked up on me. But now I’ve got MenuMeters CPU to do that for me, and the year is just superfluous. The other information is there because sometimes I forget what month it is, or what timezone I’m in. ;)
Timmargh said 1312 days ago:
Nothing unusual here; the stars are Rating Bar – I’m fickle with my iTunes track ratings!
Mathew Hoy said 1312 days ago:
My menu bar:Running Quicksilver, Memory Cell, Internet Connection, iSync, Date/Time, and WinSwitch. Simple and small. I really don’t use Memory Cell much and think I might pooch it from the bar.
Tobias Steinhoff said 1312 days ago:
fltr:
ic-switch
synergy
gmailstatus
weatherpop
sallingclicker
mumenu
menucalenderclock
isync
winswitch
Kevin Gerich said 1312 days ago:
What, no GNOME? :)
From right to left: Volume, time, power status, weather in Worcester, MA USA, Rhythmbox, GAIM, Synaptic Package Manager, gEdit, Thunderbird, Firefox, menus
Wen Zhang said 1312 days ago:
Jon Hicks posted in his blog about the apps in his menubar. Here is mine:
1. TigerLaunch
2. Desktop Manager
3. Zoe
4. Instiki
5. Airport
6. AppleScript
7. Sound Volume
8. Locale
9. Time
10. battery
Ed Mullin said 1312 days ago:
From Left to Right
Local Instiki
WeatherPop
LaunchBar
Airport
iChat
Bluetooth
VPN/Internet Connect
Stuffit
iSync
Bluetooth Modem
Date
Battery
matsimpsk said 1312 days ago:
I’m a bit of a menubar icon junkie and keep on adding more and more icons until I run out of space, and then have a clearout and restart the process.
At the moment on my bar, from left to right:
1. Adium, for when I was to speak to MSN users
2. Audio Hijack Pro, for no reason other than i think it looks a bit neato
3. GMail Status
4. Salling Clicker
5. iChat
6. AppleScript
7. Display settings (handy for when i plug the Mac into a telly)
8. AirPort, which is currently playing silly buggers
9. Volume setting
10. Bluetooth
11. iSync which, along with the volume setting, is probably the most useful of the icons
12. Battery
13. Date and time
14. Username, despite the fact that I only really use one account
15. International settings thingy. Again, one I never really use, but I still can’t bring myself to remove it
Michel Salim said 1312 days ago:
Left to right:
Quicksilver
Salling Clicker
GPGKeys (caches SSH public keys)
iBeatTime (quick access to different time zones)
AppleScript, iChat, VPN, Bluetooth, Airport
Volume, Keyboard layout, Battery monitor
Yannick L. said 1312 days ago:
Here is mine:
1. Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta)
2. DSL network icon
3. Volume Control
4. AVG Antivirus
5. Microsoft Broadband Network Utility
6. MSN Messenger 7.0 (Beta)
7. Nvidia Settings
adam said 1312 days ago:
Left to right:
Adium :: Best IM client ever.
Sofa :: Used for album art collection. The site seems to be down right now.
iScrobbler :: Tracks iTunes listening habits and uploads to Audioscrobbler
GCount :: GMail notifier
WeatherMenu :: The weather
Displays
Bluetooth
Airport
Clock
Matt Haughey said 1312 days ago:
1. audioscrobbler
2. slimbattery monitor (to save space)
3. FuzzyClock
4. Instiki (a lifesaver)
5. Apple’s default VPN (linked to hotspotVPN.com, for secure wireless on the road)
6. Modem connection for my bluetooth phone, when wifi is out of reach
7. ichat
8. monitor depth for switching between screens a lot
9. wifi
10. volume
11. bluetooth for my phone
Josh said 1312 days ago:
1. ByteController
2. BwanaDik
3. Ejector
4. SlimBatteryMonitor
5. Adium
6. iSync
7. Volume
8. Fast User Switching
9. MenuCalendarClock (iCal version)
Michel Christensen said 1312 days ago:
!http://theboomerang.org/flaf/menubar.jpgJust BurnoutMenu, Adium X and normal clock.
Michel Christensen said 1312 days ago:
Just BurnoutMenu, Adium X and normal clock.
(take two)
Will said 1312 days ago:
Just the basics. I don’t like clutter and I’ve got plenty of stuff in the Dock already.
Mike Piontek said 1312 days ago:
Great topic!
iBiz a great time-billing app. The menubar icon lets you start/stop timers for jobs.
iScrobbler an iTunes plugin that tells AudioScrobbler what I’m listening to. It’s a great way to look at your listening habits, see what your friends are listening to, and most importantly, discover new music.
Synergy for controlling iTunes.
AppleScript
SoundSource for switching output between my SoundSticks and headphones.
Volume
AirPort with internet sharing turned on
Date and Time
Patrick Haney said 1312 days ago:
Sadly, the only non-default thing in my menubar is Quicksilver, which I just installed moments ago after reading this post. I had heard about it in the past but never knew what it was. What a shame, because it’s a great application, and I haven’t really even figured out how to use it fully yet.At the same time though, my Mac here at work is a G4 which I use mostly for cross-browser testing (IE5, Opera, Safari, etc.). The Mac I have at home is a G3, and I rarely turn it on. I mainly use my Dell at work or my Dell at home.
Someday I hope to get a Powerbook though. Someday....
Foofy said 1312 days ago:
Those Mac menubars are so elegant looking! Oh well, I’ll have to make do with my unsexy (but useful!) taskbar. :(1. MSN Desktop Search (I like it best ‘cause the fold-out results window!)
2. Opera 8 Beta 2 (fastest browser for dial-up!)
3. Trillian Basic 3
4. Dial-up connection (yes, sad huh?)
5. Faxtalk Net-On-Hold (let’s me answer the phone while connected)
6. Volume!
7. Background program for MSN Desktop Search
Luckily all of that collapses so I only see the connection and Trillian. :)
David House said 1312 days ago:
Representing the open source side of things, here’s my Linux launchbar:!http://xmouse.ithium.net/wp-content/launchbar.png(A picture of my Linux launchbar!
From left to right:
K Menu (like the start menu on Windows).
File browser (Konqueror)
File browser as root
QuickBrowser, pointing to ~/useful, which is a directory I’ve set up to contain some useful shortcuts (eg, shortcut to my apache configuration directory)
Firefox
David House said 1312 days ago:
And as I screwed up the image last time, here it is again.Joop Vos said 1312 days ago:
iSnip ... go get it!
gb said 1312 days ago:
Having posted my menubar, I got thinking about how easy it is to go overboard with cool little Menu gidjits and such… however, if any of you use Maya on a regular basis (with its ginormous menus), you soon discover you need to either 1) cut the fat, or 2) Get a bigger monitor…Allan White said 1312 days ago:
1. Default Folder (where’d I save that file…?)2. iBiz (formerly iWork) – project timetracking
3. QuickSilver – the best! One of the big reasons I came back to Mac.
4. (sometimes) GmailStatus
... the usual suspects (airport, modem, btooth, et. al.
Then WinSwitch at the end. Nice space saver!
Great post – lots of goodies I’ve never seen before. I try to only let The Best sit in the m’bar.
mbstuart said 1312 days ago:
ByteController from BrainByte is similar to synergy but free.Why do you have two “To Do List” apps?
I’m looking for a good one.
Wolfgang Bartelme said 1312 days ago:
1. Synergy for controlling iTunes and displaying song related information. No with Growl support!
2. iSnip for managing frequently used text snippets
3. iChat
4. Volume
5. Generic clock
6. and my username for fast user switching
Douglas McInnes said 1312 days ago:
1. Quicksilver because it rules.
2. Gee a Gmail Notifier because I wrote it.
3. Airport status
4. GeekTool because I’m a geek that way.
Think you know the rest :)
Mark Davis said 1312 days ago:
From left to right:Restore to backup important code docs
Meteorologist so I’ll know the weather forcast
DeskShade to hide my cluttered desktop
Airport Monitor
Sound
Battery Monitor
Date
Dan Rubin said 1312 days ago:
From left to right
1. Proteus (haven’t been hooked by AdiumX yet)
2. xScope (not always running)
3. Synergy (with a fixed version of the Milk theme so the buttons are centered vertically…)
4. Timbuktu (still around because of a few OS 9 systems I need to admin—Apple Remote Desktop kicks TB2’s arse now)
5. Default Folder X (I can’t live without this—DFX and DragThing are the two utilities that allowed me to switch to OS X full-time)
6. DeskShade 2 (so at least my virtual desktop doesn’t look cluttered :)
7. MenuMeters (because it’s nice to know just what the hell that 2nd processor is doing)
8. GeekTool
9. Loud Airport Signal (or Sound, however you want to interpret that ;)
10. TypeIt4Me, which really needs a better icon
11. Eject! Eject!
12. MenuCalendarClock iCal (for date and time, smaller font, quick access to iCal, etc.)
And of course now, after all these terrific examples, I’m going to be trying out lots of others… I guess I’ll be needing that second monitor after all ;)
Craig Hockenberry said 1312 days ago:
From my PowerBook:iPulse (which I wrote) is on the left.
MenuPop!, which I also wrote, is to the right. MenuPop! is sorta like TigerLaunch but allows you to configure the menus however you want. Someday I’ll release it as freeware. The icons are from the Clipper System release.
On my development machine, I also run xScope
Aaron Boswell said 1312 days ago:
!http://www.aaronboswell.com/aaron_menu.jpg(aarons image)Mine is pretty basic. I don’t use Synergy anymore because I use Quicksilvers hotkey functions. I don’t have my QS menu in the bar because I can access it from the interface. Most of the other stuff I used to have up there I have taken down in favor of QS hotkeys.
So, here is my bar:
TimeLog – The best shareware time tracking software (imo). If only I did invoices.
Airport
Volume
CalendarClock – Still using the freeware version because it just works.
Like I said, everything else is used with QuickSilver.
Aaron Boswell said 1312 days ago:
Sorry, forgot the closing tag.
Herr Theoretiker said 1312 days ago:
1. QuickTunes – Displays currently-playing song and artist; I use SizzlingKeys for hotkey iTunes operation
2. Quicksilver – of course
3. BloglinesMenu – Bloglines notifier
4. GmailStatus
5. AirPort status
6. Battery status
7. Input Mode Palette (used for Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer)
8. FuzzyClock – Can display times like “quarter to ten” and “ten after six” instead of the specific time. I have it set to German, because I like to pretend that I learned something from General Ed courses in college. I got the developer to write me a custom version that can display all the way to the right (that’s not an option in the public release).
Cranium Oxide said 1312 days ago:
1. Synergy
2. Net Monitor
3. Gmail
4,5,6 should all be obvious.
I try to keep it neat and clean in the menu bar.
Net Monitor is probably the only app I would really miss from the menubar. I’m constantly keeping an eye on the incoming and outgoing traffic. The graphs scroll in opposite directions to indicate the direction of data :)
Manlio Napoli said 1311 days ago:
I never tried Synergy but think that Quicksilver can replace it if you enable the Control Scripts (Preferences > Catalog > Modules > iTunes) and Display Track Notifications (Preferences > iTunes).You could even set Triggers for Next Song, Previous Song, etc.
Jason Sares said 1311 days ago:
Adium
Salling Clicker
QuickSilver
MenuMeters
Display Prefs
Bluetooth
WiFi Level
Sound Pref
Battery Level
Clock
Veerle Pieters said 1311 days ago:
From left to right: iSnip , Norton, iChat, Internet Connect, Bluetooth, Airport, Character palette and Keyboard Viewer (under the Belgian flag), sound, iSync.
Just added iSnip today, looks promising.
Peter Parkes said 1311 days ago:
Short and sweet: – Proteus – Salling Clicker – Detour for making sure that I don’t deafen the neighbours with ‘mail sent’ noises at full volume from the hi-fi – iSync – Bluetooth – International options – Standard OS X clock
Vincent Rozenberg said 1311 days ago:
~TigerLaunch
~LexiconLine
~SlimBateryMonitor
~MenuCalendarClock
~WinSwitch
~QuickSilver
Wifi and Clock are OSX’s.
John Athayde said 1311 days ago:
1. WeatherPop
2. Apple Remote Desktop
3. Bluetooth
4. Airport
5. Audio Volume
6. An almost dead batter
7. Clock
ChrisJ said 1311 days ago:
Don’t have a mac (yet), so here’s my boring XP bar: network status, vokume, Kerio Personal Firewall, time (and it’s late).
britta gustafson said 1311 days ago:
i have a huge list of these things at super os x menu items : )Josh Bryant said 1311 days ago:
Pretty basic stuff for me:
1. OS X Battery Monitor
2. OS X Airport Monitor
3. MenuCalendarClock iCal
Guido said 1310 days ago:
From left to right: – Timbuktu – VPN – Scripts – iChat – Bluetooth – Airport – Battery – FuzzyClock (which I wrote) and YES, the latest version can be positioned to the far right … ;-)
Josh Bryant said 1310 days ago:
Guido –I have long been a fan of fuzzy clock. I can’t wait to get ahold of this version. Not being positioned on the right has been the single detraction from me using it. I can’t wait!
Also, have you fixed the text, I still noticed it looks slightly strange in your screenshot. Without the shadow, it looks jagged, and with the shadow, its too fuzzy. Is there a way to get it rendering the same as the other text in the menu bar. I know apps like MenuCalendarClock have that rendering.
Anyway, I am excited for when this shows public. Awesome work!
Kevin Tamura said 1310 days ago:
So does anyone know if there is a way to reduce the type size of item in the menu bar? I’ve tried to keep it from getting too full since I’ve got a 12” power book and space is a premium.Cheers
John Ko said 1310 days ago:
(I've removed the image as it was hosted on Tripod, and it doesn't allow hotlinking - Jon )1. Ymail – Yahoo! Mail Notifier
2. SlimBatteryMonitor
3. iSnip – Auto saving all text clippings quite useful
4. BluePhoneElite – SMS & Call Manager with a bluetooth cellphone
5. Synergy
6. Bluetooth
7. Airport
8 Character Palette
9 Default Date & Time – Although I think it is too long
jared cohen said 1310 days ago:
hey jon… totally unrelated, but i just wanted to let you know, in case you were unaware…in the back-of-house at work today i was reading through the new WIRED magazine, and the cover story is all about Firefox and it’s creators, and your logo is HUGE on the cover.just wanted to let you know, congrats on that, it’s kind of cool to have your logo on the cover of a magazine. it’s one the of the best app logos i’ve ever seen.
take care, jared
Wolfgang Prasmo said 1309 days ago:
Not completely offtopic, but for those who can not get enough Menubar items: http://menu.jeweledplatypus.org/ This site collect an overview of “super OS X menu bar items”.Allen said 1309 days ago:
from left to right…1. QuickSilver
2. Gcount
3. Adium
4. WeatherPop
5. Start Classic
6. Apple Script
7. Remote Desktop
8. Isync
9. Display Preferences
10. Sound slider
11. Clock
Rob Waring said 1309 days ago:
L to RGoogle desktop search
OpenOffice 1.1.3
Network icon
MSN 7.0 beta
ActiveSync
Clock
And I’ll quite happily lose the Active Sync and Google desktop search ones but I can’t.
The quick launch bar is also minimalist, show desktop, Firefox, Outlook.
Olly said 1309 days ago:
My Windows XP is a MacOSX wannabe, thanks to the delights of Flyakite OSX. Left to right, that’s iTunes, HP Photosmart card reader utility, internet connection status, volume and Avast! anti-virus.
W. Andrew Loe III said 1309 days ago:
1. Synergy – iTunes Manager
2. iScrobbler – AudioScrobbler Plugin
3. WeatherPop – Weather
4. Butler – Launcher/File Manager
5. PowerController – iTunes Alarm Clock (Wakes computer from sleep!)
6. AppleScript Menu
7. Airport
8. Volume
9. Battery
10. Time
11. International Menu – Up because I like the flag :-P
Thanks for all the ideas on new programs, I’ll definatly be checking out QuikSilver, Burnout Menus, MenuMeters and more.
pinkpooter said 1309 days ago:
minemini-d said 1309 days ago:
Mine is quite simple:1. Adium
2. Soundflower
3. iChat
4. Airport
5. Volume :)
6. Bluetooth
7. Language Selection
8. Batery and Time.
I like to keep it simplier. I run QuickSilver hidden mode, no icons just part of the system :)
leo prieto said 1309 days ago: