The basic menu bar with Apple-supplied menu items shown.Our list of 15 menu bar apps is by no means all-inclusive; there are so many apps available that it would take quite a while to combine them into a single list. Instead, I’ve gathered a list of menu bar apps that I’ve either used or are popular in the Mac community, and are worth trying out.Let’s start our list of favorite menu bar apps with ones that enhance your productivity.CalendarsYes, your Mac comes with its own Calendar app, which does a pretty good job of keeping track of dates and notifying you of upcoming events. But to add, edit, and view the calendars, the app needs to be running. That’s where menu bar-based calendar apps shine, letting you work with your calendars directly from the menu bar. FantasticalCurrently at version 2, started life as strictly a menu bar app but has grown into a full-fledged Mac app. Thankfully, the folks who make Fantastical didn’t abandon the menu bar; version 2 has all the original benefits of a lightweight menu bar app, as well as the power of a full app when you need it. Fantastical provides easy access to your current calendar and upcoming events.Fantastical supports multiple calendars, and calendar sets, which can automatically switch their active/inactive states depending on your location.
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This lets you set up calendars for work as well as home, and automatically switch between them. is $49.99, with a 21-day free trial. ItsycalIf the Mac’s Calendar app is performing well for you, and the feature you’re really missing is access to Calendar from the menu bar, Itsycal is the menu bar app for you. Itsycal can display a monthly view of your Calendar app’s information, including showing events that are scheduled. If you need additional information, you can open the Calendar app directly from Itsycal.
is free.Contact ManagersThere are a number of contact managers for the Mac but most are full-fledged apps, with only minimal, if any, menu bar support. One of the exceptions is the app below. CardhopCardhop is the preferred way to access, edit, add to, and just work with the Mac’s Contacts app. For many Mac and iOS device users, Cardhop is the only method they use to manage their contacts; that’s how powerful this menu bar app is. Cardhop can show upcoming events and recent contacts, as well as all of the cards in the Mac’s Contacts app.Cardhop makes use of a powerful search capability that allows you to find contact information based on just about any detail that may be present in a contacts card. Search by name, address, birth date, or any criteria; it’s as easy as clicking or tapping the Cardhop menu bar item and starting to type.
Cardhop will display any matching cards it finds.Adding or editing contacts is just as easy; just enter the name and details and Cardhop takes care of the rest. Cardhop also includes the ability to add note fields, to enter personal details about your contact, and a timestamp field to create a history of your contacts.One of the best features of Cardhop is its ability to act on a contact you select. If you need to send an email or make a phone call, Cardhop can launch the appropriate app to send an email or connect to your Bluetooth phone, use Wi-Fi calling, or get the macOS Continuity feature to make calls for you. is $19.99 and is available with a 21-day free trial.System UtilitiesMenu bar-based system utilities have a tendency to overpopulate my menu bar.
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15 of the Best Menu Bar Extras for macOS Sierra. Posted on May 12th, 2017 by Craig Grannell. As we outline elsewhere, the macOS menu bar is tremendously useful. This article concentrates on the bit at the right-hand-side, where you can stash menu extras (also known as status menus) – little apps whose icons you click to access handy controls. Oct 09, 2018 For example, to reinstate the AirPlay icon in the menu bar: Click the apple symbol in the far left of the menu bar and select System Preferences. Select the Display preference pane. At the bottom of the pane, check the box to 'Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available'.
It seems the techie in me wants to know how my Mac’s resources are being used any time I’m using it. There are a number of system menu bar apps, but here are a few of my favorites. IStat MenusThis system utility will place a number of items in your menu bar to monitor the performance of your Mac. You can keep track of CPU and GPU performance, disk access, and network usage; there’s also a large array of built-in system sensors, including various temperature, voltage, current, and wattage readings, You can even measure ambient light levels, if your Mac is properly equipped. The compact menu bar menus in iStat Menus can reveal details about how your Mac is performing.iStat Menus can monitor just about every aspect of your Mac’s performance and do it without taking up too much of your menu bar’s real estate. is available for $11.99 for a single Mac, or $14.99 for a 5-user family pack. A 14-day free trial is available.
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MenuMeterswas a handy menu bar system monitor by Alex Harper that stopped working when OS X El Capitan was introduced. Since then, the original open source app has been forked by various developers, to accommodate the newer versions of the Mac OS. This version works with OS X El Capitan through macOS Mojave.MenuMeters installs as a preference pane that allows you to specify how each item (CPU, Disk, Memory, and Network) should be displayed in the menu bar. You can control the type of information displayed, update intervals, and in some cases, the colors to be used. is free. Memory CleanUnlike the other system monitor utilities in this group, Memory Clean is dedicated to monitoring a.
It can keep track of memory usage, how memory is being used, which apps are memory hogs, and which apps are inactive but still tying up memory. Keeping track of how your memory is being used is one of the many tasks Memory Clean can perform for you.Additionally, Memory Clean can also purge inactive memory, freeing up RAM that was set aside for apps that are no longer running., currently at version 3, is $9.99. A free trial is available. Mac Fan ControlThis menu bar app can monitor the temperature sensors built into your Mac. But it doesn’t stop there; Mac Fan Control can use the temperature information to control the speed of your Mac’s fans.You can set a constant fan speed, or assign one of the temperature sensors to be used to regulate a fan’s speed.Mac Fan Control is a great way to silence a noisy fan momentarily while you perform a critical task, such as recording from a microphone that is located near your Mac. It’s also commonly used to set a fan’s speed when a temperature sensor was broken during an upgrade or tear down that went awry. is $14.95; a free trial period is available.
F.luxOne of the new features of the macOS was, a system that reduces blue light from the display as the evening approaches. The idea is to enhance your sleep cycle by reducing blue light output from a digital display that can interfere with your natural circadian rhythm.The f.lux app has been providing the same type of capabilities for a lot longer and may be in a better position to provide a better implementation. The f.lux system provides more control to the user and does a better job of reducing blue spectrum output of a display in the evening.If you need a better night’s sleep after working on your Mac all day, give f.lux a look-see. is free.Battery MonitorsMac laptop users need a reliable way to monitor their Mac’s battery to help them stay informed about the current state of the battery, how much run-time is left, and the.
CoconutBatteryThis battery monitor has been a Mac staple since 2005. Since then, coconutBattery has branched out to provide battery-monitoring services to the iPhone and iPad, as well as the Mac.coconutBattery displays your current battery health, how often the battery was charged, the age of the battery, current charge, original and current capacity, battery temperature, and much more. is available in a free basic version and a Plus version for $9.95. Battery HealthUnderstanding how well your battery is performing is one of the goals of the Battery Health app, but it can also help you prolong the battery’s runtime and longevity.Battery Health displays the usual battery details: current battery health, capacity, charging cycles, battery temperature, age, manufacture date, the remaining charge on the battery, and how long it will take to fully charge the battery. It can also help you increase the battery runtime by showing you which apps are using the most energy.Battery Health can also display the battery levels of connected Bluetooth devices, such as your Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, or AirPod.Battery Health also works for iPhone and iPad devices. is $9.99; a 3-day free trial is available.SecurityThere are quite a few apps for detecting malware that utilize the menu bar.
But in many cases, the menu bar is used to launch the associated app. So, instead of listing those security apps, I went with a favorite password manager. 1PasswordThis has long been a popular Mac app for creating and managing all of a user’s passwords. It provides access via the included full-featured app as well as from the menu bar, and from most Mac web browsers.
Let 1Password manage your logins and passwords, freeing you to use complex passwords for increased security.The 1Password web extension can handle most of your web-based login and password needs, but with the addition of the menu bar interface, 1Password can be used with any app as well as any web page, even when a web page hinders the use of a password manager.1Password can generate complex passwords for you and make sure you’re not using duplicate passwords. Since 1Password is storing the passwords and login information for you in an encrypted database, you don’t need to worry about remembering every password, 1Password takes care of that for you. is available for single users and a 5-user family license, as well as business licenses. A free 30-day trial is available.File AccessIf your Mac is getting a little weighed down with apps and files, either of these file access apps can help you find everything faster.
XMenuThis simple little app adds one or more menu items to the menu bar; each menu bar item can be populated with apps, folders, documents, or text snippets. is free and available from the Mac App Store. Shortcut BarAnother menu bar app designed to give you quick access to your favorite items, including apps, documents, folders, bookmarks, text snippets, and color swatches. Shortcut Bar lets you create your own list of important locations and documents that you want to have quick access to.Items can be organized into groups that can be expanded or hidden as needed – a helpful feature when your Shortcut Bar gets a bit overpopulated. is $8.99; a free trial is available.WeatherIn the Weather and Menu Bar Utility categories, I only found one app for each that’s worthy of mention. MeteorologistThere have been quite a few for the menu bar, but for me, Meteorologist stands out because of the details it can provide and the community of developers/supporters that keep the app up to date.
I used MenuMeters for years. But I got tired of waiting for it to be updated, so I moved on to iStat Menu. I use it on an iMac so I am less concerned than others may be about space. In fact I added space between icons so I can distinguish them more easily. The ability to add or remove space was a welcome recent addition.
Which goes to show you need to keep track of updates.I use many of the others you recommend, including f.lux, 1Password and Bartender. Some others I find highly useful are TypeIt4Me, Popchar, AppTamer, Total Finder and Default Folder. Other apps that provide a menu extra are Carbon Copy Cloner and Adobe Application Manager/Creative Cloud. The latter because the two Adobe Apps I use, Photoshop CC and Lightroom, are so often updated. As you can see, my menu bar is cluttered. But on an iMac I have that luxury.There are many other apps that I avoid precisely because they use menu extras. It’s gotten to the point where I do have to be selective.Some that I like but which are not compatible with High Sierra and above are Clip Menu and Finder Window Manager.
Which is why I’m still using Sierra. There are other clipboard managers I can use when the time comes, but I’ve found no window manager that offers the flexibility of FWM. GREAT TOPIC, Tom!Rocket Yard is really one of the most consistently interesting and helpful blogs out there. Steve Sande, and even Larry when he pens something, often have great insight and tackle engaging topics.BTW, you may not be totally up to date with iStat Menus, the only 3rd party menu bar app I use.
Version 6 (which came out a year and a half ago!) does almost everything all of your picks do in one app, including WEATHER! I had to laugh, because I honestly thought, “Oh, what a gimmick. I’m never going to need or like that.” And now I find myself checking it a couple times a day!On my 13″ MBP, version 6 also has done some “squinching” which I like a lot! I’ve been using this app forever (since version 2?) to diagnose what’s going on underneath the hood, but on small screens, it was taking up a lot of real estate. Version 6 seems to be using all of the vertical space it can, while saving horizontal space. Now if we could only get the same functionality from Apple!At my Mac support and repair shop, we installed it on every machine that came into the shop so we could easily monitor Mac engines in for upgrades or repairs. An amazing time saver and clients had the option to disable it later, but most never did.
Even the novices loved knowing what was happening at a glance.I think your blog here should give them plenty of ideas of other functions they might add moving forward. Really fun to read this today, and I’ll look at some of the others when I have time.Perhaps I missed it, but there should always be a perfunctory warning about hacking your OS with a utility of any kind. Apple is pretty fascist about this stuff, but they still don’t “encourage” 3rd party apps that modify the OS.
Just worthy of a note in case post installation things slow down or act wonky, a technical term some might not know.Cheers!Mick. Get notified of new posts!Email AddressSubscribe.
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+ + 15 of the Best Menu Bar Extras for macOS SierraPosted onMay 12th, 2017 by, the macOS menu bar is tremendously useful. This article concentrates on the bit at the right-hand-side, where you can stash menu extras (also known as status menus) – little apps whose icons you click to access handy controls (and more). You might have a few there already, since Apple provides some with macOS, but we’re delving into third-party utilities here; the aim is to utilize all that otherwise empty menu-bar space, in order to make you more productive on your Mac. AmphetamineEnergy Saver is great, apart from when you really don’t want your Mac dozing off. Amphetamine provides control over your Mac’s sleeping habits beyond what Apple offers itself.
The app can be triggered to keep your Mac awake for a set period of time, or even indefinitely. But delve into the preferences and you can define triggers based on specific apps, and auto-deactivate Amphetamine if your battery’s running low.
Bartender 2This one’s an organizational tool for those people with a few too many menu bar extras. On installing the app, you can stash whatever you like in Bartender’s own menu. But there’s more: items can be hidden completely, and apps can temporarily reappear for a few seconds when they update. You can also search within the Bartender menu, to quickly filter your menu extras. Default FolderThis much-loved utility is primarily designed as a radical overhaul for Open and Save dialogs, adding all kinds of handy goodies.
But it also comes with a superb menu extra. Click it and you can access Finder windows, recent folders, and recent files. You can also rapidly navigate through your entire Mac’s drive structure, from various starting points (such as Home, iCloud, and Documents). DropzoneThe idea behind Dropzone is to make it faster and easier to move, copy, and manipulate files.
You drag a file in Finder to the Dropzone icon, whereupon an actions grid opens. This can contain app and folder shortcuts, social media actions, file actions (such as to create a ZIP from a dragged folder), and shortcuts to online servers (FTP, Amazon S3, and Google Drive). EnduranceIf you find your Mac’s always running out of power, Endurance might give it the boost you need. You create a trigger for when the app’s features kick in (such as when your Mac’s battery hits 50 per cent power).
You then determine what Endurance does, such as dimming the screen, and quitting greedy apps. On a typical Mac notebook, this can help your Mac run for 20 per cent longer. FantasticalThis is an interesting one, because it started out as a menu bar extra before evolving into a full-fledged calendar app. The latter bit mirrors Apple’s own calendar, but has a handy day ticker sidebar. The menu bar bit, though, is great if you need fast access to your events, and it also enables you to build new events ‘live’ by using natural language input. Forecast BarThere have been plenty of apps that stick a weather forecast in your menu bar, and Forecast Bar is the best of them. Allow it to use your location and you’ll get a little icon showing current conditions, along with a temperature readout.
But click the icon and you gain access to an extended forecast, and hourly predictions for temperature and rainfall. (Should you want to access forecasts for elsewhere, you can add further locations, too.) HazeOverApple would have people use full-screen mode in order to focus, but that can be a jarring interface, not least when you need to switch between quite a few apps.
HazeOver provides an alternative – a kind of dimmer switch that reduces distractions by fading out background windows. Neatly, the amount of fade is controlled by two-finger swiping up or down on the menu bar icon, which turns its little dial. IBetterChargeIf you’ve ever picked up an iOS device to find it mysteriously dead, before very quickly realizing you’d not actually plugged it in, iBetterCharge is an essential app. Assuming your devices are set up to use Wi-Fi sync in iTunes, iBetterCharge tracks their power. When they hit a specific battery capacity (or are fully charged up when plugged in), the app will let you know.
IStat MenusYou won’t find a better system monitor than iStat Menus – nor a more convenient one. Whether you want to track CPU or memory usage, disk capacities, network and fan speeds, or how your batteries are doing, iStat Menus provides tiny graphs in the menu bar. Click them and they expand into a wealth of info to satisfy even the geekiest user. The app also bundles the best world clock you’ll ever see on the Mac. ItsycalIf you like the idea of a menu bar calendar, but don’t fancy spending cash on Fantastical, Itsycal is a smart, free alternative. It sits in the menu bar, displaying the current date (and, optionally, day); click and you’ll see the current month’s calendar.
If you like, the app will also list your appointments over the coming days. ResolutionatorApple inexplicably stopped enabling you to switch display resolutions from the menu bar a while ago, presumably because it reckons every display should use its most optimal settings. If you need to regularly switch resolutions, Resolutionator does the business. And if you’ve multiple screens, you can change each one’s resolution from within its own sub-menu. Time OutIt’s easy to get into bad habits when using a Mac.
Perhaps you spend time playing games, or get sucked into social networks. Time Out aims to help you focus by cycling work sprints and breaks, along with ‘micro breaks’ for stretching every so often. The app itself is free, but you’ll need to subscribe ($0.99 monthly) to use the menu bar component. VanillaA simpler alternative to Bartender, Vanilla simply has you place within it the menu extras you don’t need permanently displayed. On doing so, Vanilla collapses, hiding the relevant icons.
If you pay for pro, you can set specific icons to never appear, automatically hide icons after five seconds, and always have Vanilla start at login. WitchThis utility’s catchphrase is ‘Command-Tab everything’. It’s essentially a replacement for Apple’s app switcher, also enabling you to quickly switch to individual windows. It’s all very configurable, and you can define multiple switchers (for example, if you want one akin to Apple’s, and another specifically for windows). The menu bar component conveniently lists all of the apps you have open, and on selecting a window from one of them will immediately bring it to the front.
Are you new to Mac? Want to get the most out of your new MacBook, iMac or other Apple computer? Whether this is your first laptop or you’ve just switched from Windows, there are a few things you should know about your new Mac, like basic keyboard shortcuts or how to use the various features macOS has to offer. Learn more about what your Mac computer can do for you at the Intego New Mac User Center: About Craig GrannellCraig Grannell is a technology writer, mostly specialising in Macs, iOS, apps, and games. He’s been immersed in all things Apple for over 20 years, and enamoured with computers since getting his hands on a VIC-20 as a kid. He also has a Korg Gadget addiction.
Or alternatively, visit his website, and follow him on Twitter at.This entry was posted in, and tagged,. Bookmark the.
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