Tame Your Cluttered Mac Menu Bar with Hidden Bar
As an experienced IT professional, I’ve seen my fair share of Mac users struggling to manage their overflowing menu bars. With so many apps and utilities vying for a spot at the top of the screen, it can quickly become a cluttered mess, making it difficult to find and access the tools you need. Thankfully, there’s a powerful solution that can help you regain control of your menu bar: Hidden Bar.
Hidden Bar is a free and open-source app that allows you to easily hide and unhide your menu bar items with a simple click or keyboard shortcut. Whether you have 5 or 50 apps fighting for precious real estate, Hidden Bar provides a clean and customizable way to keep your menu bar organized and accessible.
Organizing Your Menu Bar with Hidden Bar
One of the standout features of Hidden Bar is its intuitive interface for managing your menu bar items. When you first launch the app, you’ll be greeted with a straightforward settings screen that explains the basic functionality.
The settings screen features a visual representation of your menu bar, showing the standard icons for Control Center, Spotlight, Wi-Fi, and Battery, from right to left. To the right of these icons, you’ll see a chevron symbol, followed by a vertical line (or “solidus”) and then a collection of less familiar icons representing various system utilities and services.
The key to using Hidden Bar is understanding the separation between the “Shown” and “Hidden” sections of your menu bar. Simply hold down the Command key and drag the icons you want to hide to the left of the solidus, and the items you want to keep visible will remain to the right.
Once you’ve organized your menu bar to your liking, you can enable the “Always Hidden” section, which adds a second solidus at the far left. This allows you to move items you never want to see, such as rarely used system utilities, all the way to the left, effectively hiding them from view.
Customizing Your Menu Bar Experience
Hidden Bar offers several additional settings to fine-tune your menu bar experience. You can choose to have the app start automatically when you log in, show the preferences window on launch, and even use the full menu bar when expanding the hidden items.
One particularly useful setting is the “Automatically hide icon after:” option, which allows you to specify how long the menu bar items should remain visible before automatically collapsing back into the hidden section. This helps maintain a clean and uncluttered look while still allowing you to access your tools when needed.
Another handy feature is the “Global Shortcut” setting, which lets you assign a keyboard shortcut to expand and collapse the hidden menu bar items. This can be especially useful if you have a lot of information in your menu bar, such as HomeKit temperatures or other system monitoring tools.
Tackling the Invisible Solidus
One quirk I encountered while using Hidden Bar was that the solidus separating the “Shown” and “Hidden” sections sometimes became invisible on my Mac. Despite being able to drag items around and see the gap between the chevron and the icons, the solidus itself was completely camouflaged, blending into the background of the menu bar.
To work around this, I found that the best approach is to position the chevron as far to the left as possible, and then place the invisible solidus immediately to its left. This ensures that everything to the left of the chevron will be hidden, even if you can’t see the solidus itself.
Once you’ve got your menu bar organized to your liking, you can enable the “Always Hidden” section to add a new, visible solidus at the far left. This allows you to drag your rarely used icons all the way to the left, effectively tucking them away and out of sight.
Seamless Integration with macOS
One of the things I appreciate about Hidden Bar is its seamless integration with the macOS user experience. Unlike some third-party menu bar utilities that can feel a bit clunky or intrusive, Hidden Bar blends in perfectly with the native system menus and interfaces.
The app hasn’t been updated in a while, and it does have a few minor quirks, but overall it seems to do its job well without trying to be too “naughty.” This sense of restraint and focus on core functionality is something I really appreciate, as it aligns with the general philosophy of apps available on the Mac App Store.
A Worthy Alternative to Bartender
If you’re a long-time user of the popular Bartender app, you may be wondering how Hidden Bar stacks up as a replacement. While Bartender offers a more comprehensive set of features, including context switching and the ability to group menu bar items into collapsible sections, Hidden Bar may be a better fit if you’re looking for a simpler, more streamlined solution.
One key advantage of Hidden Bar is that it doesn’t require any special permissions, such as the screen recording access that can raise concerns for some Bartender users. This makes it a great option for those who prefer to keep their system as secure and minimal as possible.
Accessibility Considerations
As an IT professional, I’m always mindful of the accessibility implications of the tools and solutions I recommend. In my testing, I found that Hidden Bar is largely accessible, with one notable exception: the tint slider in the settings.
For users who rely on VoiceOver or other accessibility features, the inability to adjust the tint may be a minor inconvenience. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that VoiceOver users have a unique advantage when it comes to navigating the menu bar.
Thanks to the helpful feedback I received on Mastodon, I learned that VoiceOver users can access and navigate through all of the menu bar items, even those that are hidden from the visual interface. This means that for users who primarily interact with their Mac using VoiceOver, the clutter of the menu bar may not be as much of a concern, as they can still access and manage all of their tools and utilities.
Conclusion: Reclaim Your Menu Bar with Hidden Bar
If you’re a Mac user struggling to keep your menu bar organized and tidy, Hidden Bar is a fantastic solution that deserves your attention. Its intuitive interface, customization options, and seamless integration with macOS make it a powerful tool for regaining control over your workspace.
While it may not offer the same level of advanced features as Bartender, Hidden Bar’s simplicity and accessibility make it a great choice for those who just want a clean, uncluttered menu bar without the hassle. So why not give it a try and see how it can transform your Mac experience?
