Finally, a mean to manage menu bar icons. [Archive]

pm-r

Sep 2nd, 2012, 07:51 PM

Hmmm...

I was wanting to find a way to get all the few apple menu apps that I normally use to display in a consistent order when in use and unfortunately most non-apple type apps don't move using the command+click and drag method with the exception of Fantastical which has a "Fantastical Menu.menu" plugin which allows such a drag.

I was getting a bit tired of quitting some and than opening others again just to change their order and most of the utilities I came across were overkill for my needs and some with dubious reviews, and besides which there is no way in Hades I'm going to pay for some that are only available via the App Store and no trial available thanks.

What I did come across was a free "Broomstick" utility via:
AddictiveTips » Blog ArchiveBroomstick: Hide & Reorder Third-party Mac Apps' Icons In Menu Bar (http://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/broomstick-hide-reorder-third-party-mac-apps-icons-in-menu-bar/)

and

Zibity: Broomstick (http://www.zibity.com/broomstick)

It's a bit different as Mac software goes, but maybe due to the 15 year old developer's programming experience, but it works for me.

But what it doesn't do is remember all the menu apps or their info positions after a cold boot or restart unless they were all included in OS X user to open at login option.

So to get that to work, I launched all such apps that I normally use and want some position consistency for in the menu bar, opened Broomstick and added the apps in the order I wanted and Broomstick changed to order them nicely.

I may take 2-030 seconds to do so and then it just quits as its no longer needed.

Then I opened the Broomstick app and made an alias of the 'Broomstick Menubar Icon Orderer' and moved it out to my desktop for now.
It was in my: /Applications/Utilities/Broomstick.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/Broomstick Menubar Icon\ Orderer.app

Now after any reboot or opening any app that wasn't opened at boot time, all I have to do to get the the menu apps in the order I want is to open the alias and the sort order happens in a short time.

It sounds more complicated than it actually is to do, but I'm a happier user now.


ehMac.ca > ehMac: Canada's Mac Community! > Anything Mac > Finally, a mean to manage menu bar icons. PDA : Finally, a mean to manage menu bar icons. MX-V Jul 29th, 2012, 09:25 PM Found this app: Bartender \| Mac Menu Bar Item Control (http://www.macbartender.com/) It's quite nice, allowed me to get rid of Notifications and LogMeIn's menubar icons easily. :clap: John Clay Jul 29th, 2012, 09:48 PM Oh, that's fantastic. Thanks for the link. Plenty of apps that I like to have running, but don't need to look at (Flux, Alfred, etc). digitddog Jul 29th, 2012, 11:39 PM FanTASTIC. Thanks for this. Perhaps my only peeve with Mac is having to toggle to Finder to see all my menu bar icons. And here's a potential solution. I'm looking forward to testing this out. jowyum Jul 30th, 2012, 03:08 PM thanks! John Clay Jul 30th, 2012, 10:04 PM Bartender just got updated - can now control individual system menus. Just paid for mine, at 50% off. jcdavies Aug 4th, 2012, 03:48 PM that does look fantastic cheers pm-r Sep 2nd, 2012, 07:51 PM Hmmm... I was wanting to find a way to get all the few apple menu apps that I normally use to display in a consistent order when in use and unfortunately most non-apple type apps don't move using the command+click and drag method with the exception of Fantastical which has a "Fantastical Menu.menu" plugin which allows such a drag. I was getting a bit tired of quitting some and than opening others again just to change their order and most of the utilities I came across were overkill for my needs and some with dubious reviews, and besides which there is no way in Hades I'm going to pay for some that are only available via the App Store and no trial available thanks. What I did come across was a free "Broomstick" utility via: AddictiveTips » Blog ArchiveBroomstick: Hide & Reorder Third-party Mac Apps' Icons In Menu Bar (http://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/broomstick-hide-reorder-third-party-mac-apps-icons-in-menu-bar/) and Zibity: Broomstick (http://www.zibity.com/broomstick) It's a bit different as Mac software goes, but maybe due to the 15 year old developer's programming experience, but it works for me. But what it doesn't do is remember all the menu apps or their info positions after a cold boot or restart unless they were all included in OS X user to open at login option. So to get that to work, I launched all such apps that I normally use and want some position consistency for in the menu bar, opened Broomstick and added the apps in the order I wanted and Broomstick changed to order them nicely. I may take 2-030 seconds to do so and then it just quits as its no longer needed. Then I opened the Broomstick app and made an alias of the 'Broomstick Menubar Icon Orderer' and moved it out to my desktop for now. It was in my: /Applications/Utilities/Broomstick.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/Broomstick Menubar Icon\ Orderer.app Now after any reboot or opening any app that wasn't opened at boot time, all I have to do to get the the menu apps in the order I want is to open the alias and the sort order happens in a short time. It sounds more complicated than it actually is to do, but I'm a happier user now.