Mac’s menu bar is the right place to indicate little tidbits of data or to provide customers fast entry to apps’ options. That’s why many apps embrace menu bar entry. However there’s solely a lot room on the menu bar that it’s not sensible to place all the pieces there. What are the important functions that you must have on the menu bar? Let’s discover out.
OS X Apps
Let’s begin with the plain ones. Mac OS X comes with a set of menu bar functions. Those that I believe must be current are Clock, WiFi, Bluetooth, Notifications, Highlight, and Time Machine. All of them are customizable by way of System Preferences.
A fast approach to discover any merchandise in System Preferences is through the use of its search perform. Kind within the identify of the merchandise or the subject that you simply need to discover, and it will likely be highlighted.
The following essential merchandise that you must have in your menu bar is Bartender 2 (US$ 15.00). The app do one easy factor, however it’s so helpful and apparent that it’s a surprise that Apple didn’t embrace the characteristic with OS X. Bartender provides you a spot to retailer all different menu bar objects so that they received’t muddle the menu bar. It means that you’ve got extra room so as to add extra objects there.
You’ll be able to decide to place an merchandise inside Bartender or not. Those that you’ll steadily entry ought to all the time be seen whereas the remainder will be hidden away. It’s also possible to cover Bartender itself and set a shortcut key to summon it.
For calendar, I change Mac OS X inventory app with the higher revamped Fantastical (US$ 49.99). This stunning 2015 Apple Design Award Winner is not going to solely offer you fast entry to a mini calendar window but in addition allow you to create occasions and reminders rapidly utilizing pure language.
The app syncs seamlessly with its iOS counterpart and Apple’s iCloud Calendar, helps location-based alert and robotically add and show maps on your occasions, and will be summoned utilizing keyboard shortcuts.
Even in case you don’t have the ears of an audiophile, you possibly can inform that your Mac’s sound falls into the class of simply audible. Growth 2 (US$ 19.99) is the repair. It’ll analyze your system and optimize the sound based mostly on the consequence. It’ll sit silently on the menu bar, and you need to use it to extend or lower the worldwide quantity of your system.
Should you open the primary window, you achieve entry to extra management, together with choices to use results, and change between completely different sound settings like Jazz, Rock, Traditional, Hip Hop, Home, Film, and many others. It’s also possible to use the iOS app because the distant management.
Working lengthy hours in entrance of the pc display screen can provide you extreme eye pressure. You need assistance from f.lux (free) to heat up your laptop show at night time time and return it to the traditional shade and brightness through the day. The app will regulate itself based mostly in your time and placement.
You simply must obtain and set up f.lux. Then you possibly can overlook about it because the app does its job quietly from the menu bar.
Copy and Paste
Perhaps among the best options of any trendy laptop is the flexibility to repeat and paste digital info. Should you use your laptop steadily, there might be tons of copy and paste operations that you simply do each single day; starting from easy snippets of texts to very large recordsdata and folders. Sadly, Mac’s clipboard just isn’t designed to carry multiple merchandise.
That’s why we’d like assist from clipboard managers to maintain a historical past of copied objects for use once more later. There are options to this sort of apps, however the ones that I exploit is the visually-rich Paste (US$ 6.99) that may maintain as much as limitless objects in its clipboard historical past.
However if you’re extra of drag and drop sort of particular person, you would possibly need to strive Yoink (US$ 6.99). Aside from staying within the menubar, you possibly can place Yoink’s digital container in one of many sides of your display screen. You’ll be able to drag an merchandise from a supply window to Yoink, change to the vacation spot window, and drag the merchandise out from Yoink to the vacation spot.
Cloud Storage Companies
Different helpful instruments that you may placed on the menu bar is a number of cloud storage providers like Dropbox or Field (each free with choices to improve) to handle your recordsdata each domestically and within the cloud. However the extra helpful cloud service that you may add to your menu bar is Droplr (free).
Droplr will allow you to share your recordsdata simply. Drag and drop your recordsdata to Droplr icon within the menubar, and your recordsdata might be uploaded to your Droplr storage. You’ll get the hyperlink to the recordsdata that you may share with your mates. Free customers can hold the recordsdata within the cloud storage for twenty-four hours. Paid customers’ recordsdata won’t ever be deleted.
Droplr additionally integrates effectively with Slack for simpler file sharing amongst workforce members.
Battery
Should you work with MacBook, then the battery must be certainly one of your predominant concern. Fashionable MacBooks include superb battery life, however the efficiency of any battery will degrade over time, and no person can do something about it but. One factor that you are able to do for now could be to observe the efficiency of your battery, and hopefully – with correct care – will prolong the battery’s life.
In case your objective is simply to understand how lengthy do you’ve got left earlier than it’s important to plug your MacBook into the adapter, or how lengthy to cost the laptop computer till the battery is full, you need to use Slim Battery Monitor (free). The app is a straightforward menu bar battery indicator that takes 70% much less area than Mac OS X battery indicator.
However if you’d like one thing extra superior that may additionally allow you to keep and delay your battery life, you possibly can strive FruitJuice (US$ 9.99). The app will inform you how lengthy your MacBook ought to keep unplugged every day to optimize battery well being, suggest upkeep cycle as soon as each a set of time, hold the statistic of your battery utilization, and extra. All of those are based mostly on the battery situation, age, manufacturing facility, capability, lifespan quantity, and your utilization sample.
Taking Screenshot
Display seize apps are one other instance of excellent menu bar app, the place customers can entry completely different sorts of display screen capturing menu comparable to capturing space, home windows, full display screen, menu, timed, and many others. After attempting out many display screen seize apps, every with its benefits and downsides, I’ve but to search out the right one. However after cautious consideration, I like to recommend Skitch (free) from Evernote.
The app integrates effectively with the word taking beast. It’s full-featured and has many annotating options that you simply want. One factor lack from it’s the skill to export whereas resizing photographs inside our pre-defined dimension restrict. If you wish to do this, you possibly can strive Ember (US$ 25.00), or the extra full-featured SnagIt (US$ 49.00).
Different Extra Utilities
Nonetheless hungry for extra? There are different helpful utilities that you may placed on the menu bar comparable to:
- Clear My Drive (free) – to handle and clear junk from exterior drives
- App Tamer (US$ 14.95) – to set restrict to how a lot an app have entry to system assets
- Little Snitch (about US$ 42.67) – to provide/deny apps permission to entry sure community connection
- iStat Menu (US$ 18.00) – a system monitor which provides you with any details about your system actions
SEE ALSO: Suggestions and Apps to Hold Your Mac Clear
Do you’ve got strategies to what different apps that must be on Mac’s menu bar? Please share them utilizing the remark beneath.
