Making the Menu Bar in Mac OS X Visible or Invisible with defaults Commandįinally, for more advanced users who wish to use a defaults command string at the terminal, you can hide and show the menu bar with the following: Enable automatically hide the menu bar in Mac OS X defaults commandĭefaults write NSGlobalDomain _HIHideMenuBar -bool true Disable automatically hiding menu bar in Mac OS X defaults commandĭefaults write NSGlobalDomain _HIHideMenuBar -bool false If you’re looking for the menu bar to just be less distracting, another option is to switch it to dark mode which will display as black rather than white. You can obviously change this back to the default setting at any time by returning to the preference panel and unchecking the box for “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” again. Nonetheless, many users will enjoy hiding the menu bar as it really does eliminate distractions, and it’ll free up a few more pixels at the top of any Mac display if you’re feeling particularly cramped with space.
Personally I like the menu bar being visible all the time, primarily for ease of access but also to see the clock, battery, and wi-fi status icons. The video below demonstrates enabling the feature, and using the feature: You can see the menu bar hiding and showing automatically in the animated gif below: When the menu bar is hidden, a quick mouse hover to the top of the display will reveal the menu bar, just like the same action makes the Mac Dock appear if it’s hidden too (which is also a great tip).
How to Automatically Hide & Show the Menu Bar in Mac OS X
Auto-hiding the menu bar is a nice feature for Mac users who are fans of minimalist desktop appearances, as it really eliminates just about everything visible on the screen aside from whatever the applications and windows are actively open on the display.