Fortunately, with the release of macOS Big Sur, these elements haven’t changed much, and most of the features work as before. But there are a few new things that you should know about. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to customize the Dock and Menu Bar on a Mac running Big Sur or later.

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Rename Dock in System Preferences

Section “System Preferences” called Dock now bears the name Menu Bar and Dock… Therefore, from now on, all the tools corresponding to the title of the section are collected in one convenient place.

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Renewed Dock and Menu Bar appearance

Open the app “System settings” using the icon in the Dock or the Apple icon in the menu bar and select the section Menu Bar and Dock…

Along with customization options, Apple has made several changes to the look of each instrument. The dock panel has become even more translucent. And the menu bar has become a little wider and also more transparent. In addition, you will see the words in the menu bar darken or lighter to match the desktop background.

And context menus for icons in the Dock and drop-down menus for items in the menu bar are also slightly updated.

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Customizing the Dock

Make sure section is selected in the left column Menu Bar and Dock…

Using the slider at the top of the preferences window, you can adjust the size of the Dock-panel, there you can also choose its position on the screen, an animation option for minimizing windows, and configure other parameters: automatic minimization and display of the Dock.

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App shortcuts in the Dock

If you’d rather place your own shortcuts for settings or applications in the Dock, then that’s still possible. And if you click on the divider in the Dock, you can drag and drop the entire panel. You can also right-click the divider to perform actions such as turning on the collapse effect and repositioning. You will also see an option in the context menu that will take you directly to the settings in System settings → Menu bar and Dockdescribed above.

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Customizing the menu bar

In the same area System settings → Menu bar and Dock at the bottom, under the settings of the Dock itself, you will see an option to automatically minimize and show the menu bar. Remember that this setting is now located here.

To customize items that appear only in the menu bar, scroll down the left side of the preferences window. In chapter “Menu bar only” choose Clock, Spotlight, Siri, or Time Machine. Currently, the last three items give you the option to display these items in the menu bar by checking the box. The watch offers several additional features, which you can see in the panel on the right.

In the case of the Clock, you can also display the date, customize its display options, select the desired type of clock and enable a convenient function “Say the time”…

The rest of the items on the left sidebar can also be added to the menu bar if desired. Just select one of them and check the box Show in Menu Bar… This is perfect for the functions you use on a daily basis.

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Menu bar shortcuts

Do you prefer to place your own shortcuts in the menu bar to better organize your work? It’s still available, and you can still easily remove unused items from the menu bar. While holding down the key ⌘Cmd, drag the icon from the menu bar and release.

But that is not all! Now that Apple has introduced Command centre on a Mac with the same look and feel as Command centre on iOS, you can use it to place icons on the menu bar.

Discover Command centreusing a new noticeable icon in the menu bar.

Select and drag an item from it to the desired location on the menu bar and release. Everything is very simple!

As with previous versions of macOS, hold down the ⌘Cmd to drag icons in the menu bar to rearrange their position.

See also:

Why do some macOS menu items have ellipses (…), while others do not?

18/10/2020 by ALOK DAS

Each of the applications available on your Mac endowed by developers with a lot of functions. Some of these applications are placed in the interface in the form of buttons and are “visible” to the user.

♥ BY TOPIC: How to quickly open the settings of any application in macOS.

What do ellipsis mean in macOS menu sub-item names

Others, not fitting in the interface (or not having a high degree of importance) were moved out of the quick access range.

Let’s remember, as soon as we access a function in the menu by clicking on it, it immediately works. However, you will often notice that some menu items have ellipsis in their names. These dots are not an empty whim of the developers, first of all, this punctuation mark in our case means that when this menu item is selected, the function will not start immediately. Most likely an additional menu or action will be called.

As an illustrative example, let’s turn to the Tools menu in the standard application. View… Of all the menu sub-items, three dots next to the name – “Customize color“,”Customize size“And”Assign profile“. This means that when you select them, an additional window will appear.

If you didn’t know the meaning of ellipsis next to the names of menu items in macOS, then from now on you will be able to instantly define those functions that are called immediately and those, the call to which will cause additional windows or options.

See also:

How to turn off recommended contacts in the Share menu on iPhone or iPad

21/07/2020 by ALOK DAS

Starting with iOS 14 (a detailed overview of new features), Apple finally provided the ability to delete annoying contacts that appear in the universal menu Share this… This will not only help increase privacy, but also make this section less crowded. We’ll show you how to remove recommended contacts from the Share menu on iPhone or iPad in just a few easy steps.

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Contacts in the Share menu on iOS

Universal iOS sharing menu that can be invoked in apps by pressing a button Share, initially has two rows of icons. The top row contains a list of suggested contacts for sharing content, and the following is a list of apps and services, such as AirDrop.

The sharing contact list is based on Siri intelligence and cannot be edited like a list “Programs” in the bottom row. There you can enable or disable certain applications, services, as well as change their display order by clicking on the rightmost icon “Yet”…

Until iOS 14, there was no way to hide these contact suggestions, so users resorted to all sorts of creative solutions. The most common trick is to delete the entire message thread for a specific contact, which allows the specified contact to disappear from the exchange list.

But deleting an entire conversation just for the sake of removing a contact from the top row of the sharing sheet seems like an odd decision, which is why Apple added a new option in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. With its help, you can easily remove contacts from the menu Share this on iOS.

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How to turn off contacts in the Share menu on iPhone or iPad

Follow these steps if you want to remove contacts from the menu Share this on iPhone or iPad:

1. Open “Settings»On your iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 14 or iPad with iPadOS 14 or later.

2. Go to the section Siri and Search in the root list.

3. Click the radio button next to “In the Share function” under the heading “Siri Suggestions“To position “OFF”to turn off the row with contacts from the menu Share this…

These are all the actions that allow you to disable the contact bar in the menu Share this…

At least privacy considerations force you to take such a step – strangers can see a list of those with whom you often communicate. Accidentally tapping or touching the screen may result in unwanted loss of information. Some people might find this menu format Share this not very successful for their work, in which case their exchange list will simply be more per line than it could be.

And to include a line with suggested contacts in the menu Share this, just enable said option in Siri settings.

See also:

How to use the 3D Touch (Haptic Touch) menu on iPadOS

16/07/2020 by ALOK DAS

3D Touch technology is considered unnecessary by many users. But with the release of iOS 13, Apple revived its creation in the form of Haptic Touch. In addition, with the release of iPadOS 13, the same feature first appeared on the iPad.

In iPadOS, you can pinch the application icon, which will lead to the appearance of the same 3D Touch menu as on the iPhone. In fact, most applications with versions for the iPhone already work in this mode on iPadOS.

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3D Touch (Haptic Touch) on iPad – no need to push

The 3D Touch function is really convenient, although Apple has never actively promoted it. It is a faster option for a long press on the screen. In fact, the gradations of clicking peek and pop are more annoying than helping. They interfere with the implementation of other functions for processing long presses. But now that the 3D Touch functionality has become available for the iPad, it can be popularized and used. Recall that on iOS 12, a long press can cause some applications to list the latest files without working properly.

To open the Haptic Touch menu, just briefly hold the touch on the application icon. Release your finger immediately after the start of the animation to reduce the application icon. If you continue to hold your finger on the icon, the drag / drop application mode is activated. And this is how it looks.

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Examples of 3D Touch (Haptic Touch) menus on iPad

Mail application:

The application of our site – Apple:

App Store App:

Book App:

Settings app:

Application Notes:

Camera app:

The 3D Touch (Haptic Touch) gesture on the iPad also works with applications located in folders:

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iPadOS will make users happier

As you can see, the implementation of Haptic Touch is in line with the unwritten motto “it just works.” Any application that supports calling up the menu of icons on the home screen using 3D Touch for iPhone will be able to display them for iPad in iPadOS.

Pay attention to the screenshot of the “Maps” application. The last entry in the list is “Show all windows”.

With it, you can show all open windows for this application by putting them together in the new App Expose view. This is done specifically to support the new iPadOS multi-window feature.

Perhaps the addition of the 3D Touch pseudo-effect is only a side addition to the new operating system, but this is good news for users.

See also:

How to get a new Start menu in Windows 10 right now: 2 ways

14/07/2020 by ALOK DAS

In one of the next updates to Windows 10, the Microsoft operating system will get another redesigned Start menu. This time it will get an elegant look in the style of Fluent Design. If you want to refresh the look of Windows with new tiles and other tools of this element right now, then in this material we will tell you how to do it.

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An improved Start menu appeared in a special assembly of Windows 10 build 20161, available to registered testers. But there is a workaround to get this update on your computer right now.

Microsoft describes the design of the updated Start menu as “more streamlined,” the tile background has now become uniform, partially transparent instead of the previous plain color.

And to get the 20161 build of Windows 10 right now you need to put your PC in Windows Insider Dev development mode. It carries out early testing of new functions, so you may encounter a whole series of errors.

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How to get a new Start menu in Windows 10

1. Press the menu button “Start“.

2. Select the “Parameters»Or press the gear button on the left.

3. Go to the “Update and Security“.

4. In the left column, click on the element “Windows Insider” or Windows Insider Program.

5. Click “To begin“

6. Click the + icon next to “Account Linking“.

7. Select your account type and click “Proceed“.

8. Click “Channel Dev » and confirm your choice.

9. Press “AgainConfirm“.

10. Click “Restart now“.

Your system will reboot.

11. Returning to “Parameters“, Press “Update centre Windows“.

12. Click “Resume Updates” (or “Check for Updates»)

13. After applying the updates, click “Reload now“.

You should now have a new Start menu. To confirm your actions, open the Start menu and find tiles for Windows programs such as Office. If these programs have solid backgrounds that contrast strongly with the Start menu, then you have it new.

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How to force download a new Start menu

If you have not seen your new Start menu, there is an explanation for this. It is known that Microsoft is still testing a new Start menu, but you can get this item using another solution.

The only problem associated with it is that this method will require certain advanced user skills, as it involves using the command line and a third-party utility. But this is always a little risky. If you received an updated Start menu with an update in Windows Insider mode, then you will not need this trick. Otherwise, do the following:

1. Download the ViveTool utility.

2. Unzip it to the folder of your choice.

3. Open the Start menu, enter cmd.exe and right-click on the search result.

4. Select “Run as administrator”.

5. Click Yes.

6. Change to the directory where the extracted ViveTool utility is located using the cd command, for example:

cd C: Temp Utilities ViveTool

7. Now enter the following text:

ViVeTool.exe addconfig 23615618 2

8. Click Enter.

9. Restart your computer.

10. Now after loading you should see a new Start menu.

See also:

How to open the Development menu (developer console) in Safari on Mac and why it is needed

17/06/2020 by ALOK DAS

Not every macOS user knows that the Safari browser has a hidden menu “Development“. In this article we will talk about the features of this section.

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What is the Development menu for Safari on Mac?

First of all, this menu will be useful for web developers who need access to the code, various options for displaying pages, disabling content, and so on. There are also some useful features for ordinary users.

From this menu, you can quickly launch the current page in any other browser installed on your Mac. Very convenient if Safari cannot play any multimedia content. For example, if you want to watch a VR movie (for virtual reality glasses), then Google Chrome is much better for this purpose.

Also useful is the function of clearing or disabling the cache. And sometimes there is a need to turn off the display of images, extensions, styles, scripts, etc.

Web designers themselves will understand the tools of the menu “Development“, But I would also like to note the possibility of launch Responsive Design Modes. It displays the quality of website page optimization depending on which device it will be running on and with what resolution.

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How do I enable the Design menu in Safari on Mac?

1. Launch Safari. In the menu bar, select the section Safari → Settings or press key combination Command (⌘) +, (comma).

2. Go to the tab “Additions“.

3. At the bottom, check the box next to “Show the “Developer” menu in the menu bar“.

All! After these actions, a new section “appears in the menu bar”Development“.

See also:

How to open dock panel settings in macOS via hidden menu

01/05/2020 by ALOK DAS

Using the Mac Dock, you can quickly and easily open your favorite apps or browse your existing ones. You can customize this item to your personal preference through “System Settings”, as well as through a hidden menu, which many do not know about.

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The dock panel does not have many settings, but there are additional options. For example, you can place this interface element on the left or right side of the screen, adjust the size of the panel and increase it if necessary. These and other settings can be controlled directly through the hidden menu in macOS (OS X).

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How to open dock panel settings in macOS via hidden menu

In the dock, you can easily find one or more dividers. To your left are your favorites and open apps. On the right, you can find the latest applications, folders, files and trash. The hidden menu is located “behind” one of the dividing lines.

Using a right-click on the separator in the dock, you can quickly activate the hidden menu of the dock. You can also do this by pressing Control and clicking on the dividing line.

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Work with options in the hidden menu of the dock

In this menu, you can adjust the position of the panel on the screen (Location Dock on screen), enable or disable the increase in the icons when you hover over them (Enable Zoom or Turn off magnification) and change the effect that will accompany minimizing the window (Tidy up Dock using effect) In addition, directly from this menu you can directly open the Dock settings, which are accessed in the “System Preferences”.

And if you just want to adjust the size of the dock, you can simply click on the divider and drag it up and down. This will automatically resize the entire icon strip.

See also:

Overview PopClip – a convenient menu of actions “like in iOS” on macOS with the ability to customize

27/04/2020 by ALOK DAS

A long tap on any text element in iOS leads to the opening of an auxiliary menu with which you can copy, paste, cut or perform some other useful action. The feature is definitely useful and convenient, so why not port it to the Mac? With PopClip, this is possible.

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The main purpose of PopClip is to increase comfort when working with text materials.

After installing PopClip, when you select text, a panel will automatically appear, as in iOS. When using this application, it is no longer necessary to press the right mouse button or use keyboard shortcuts (sometimes there is no desire or ability to use them) to access the search functions (via the Google search engine), copy, paste or cut text.

The functionality of PopClip is not limited to this. There are functions “Show in Finder”, “Open link” and “Use address”, and the dictionary immediately offers options for replacing a misspelled word.

The cloud design with the proposed actions almost completely repeats that in iOS. In the settings you can adjust its size.

If PopClip interferes with its functionality when using some programs, then just add them to the list of exceptions.

In addition to the features described above, you can also add various extensions for PopClip (link). In total there are more than 170!

Thus, you can, for example, quickly pronounce the selected text, mark it, change the format, convert it to HTML, translate into any language, search Google, Google Maps Yandex, YouTube, Apple Music, Wikipedia, share, etc. . The possibilities are endless!

You can try the PopClip application for free by installing a trial version on the developer’s website (links below). The trial application has the capabilities of the full version, but the program is limited to 150 uses.

Download a free trial version of PopClip (developer site).

Download full version of PopClip (Mac App Store)

See also:

Hidden Bar – a handy utility for arranging items on the macOS menu bar

21/04/2020 by ALOK DAS

As new programs are installed on a Mac, the number of items on the right side of the system menu bar will increase. Not only does this make you strain every time in search of the right icon, it’s very difficult to put things in order in this place. Constantly have to get confused in this “maze”.

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Usually the only way to clean up the menu bar is to search for display options in installed applications. Most often, this option, if any, is in the application settings. Unfortunately, this option is not present in all programs, even standard ones, or it is simply hard to find among other items.

The free Hidden Bar app from the developer of the Dwarves Foundation will come to the rescue. With this program, you can organize as you wish and temporarily hide application symbols in the macOS menu bar. Owners of a MacBook Pro with a touchpad will certainly enjoy this operation.

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How to use Hidden Bar

Working with the program is very simple. Between the characters in the menu bar is a dividing line. To move it, simply hold down the ⌘Cmd key and move the item. Similarly, you can move other standard menu bar characters.

After arrangement, you can hide or show all application icons to the separator using the arrows “<» или «>“. And they can also be moved to the desired location using the ⌘Cmd key.

The result of your actions will be a neat and uncluttered macOS menu bar. Through the application settings, you can automatically minimize the panel icons when entering your Mac. In addition, it is possible to automatically hide characters after a specified period of time.

Hidden Bar is a handy utility that is actually needed. Apple in its operating system was originally supposed to implement this functionality as standard. We hope that in future versions of macOS there will be a similar opportunity.

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It’s free

The Hidden Bar app can be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store and from the developer’s page on GitHub. But for most macOS users, installing from the App Store will be most convenient.

See also:

How to move or remove icons from the menu bar on Mac (macOS)

How to move icons around the macOS menu bar

How to remove icons from the macOS menu bar

How to automatically hide the menu bar in macOS

How to recover deleted icons in macOS menu

macOS Big Sur: How to customize the Dock and menu bar?

Rename Dock in System Preferences

Renewed Dock and Menu Bar appearance

Customizing the Dock

App shortcuts in the Dock

Customizing the menu bar

Menu bar shortcuts

Why do some macOS menu items have ellipses (…), while others do not?

What do ellipsis mean in macOS menu sub-item names

How to use the 3D Touch (Haptic Touch) menu on iPadOS

3D Touch (Haptic Touch) on iPad – no need to push

Examples of 3D Touch (Haptic Touch) menus on iPad

iPadOS will make users happier

How to get a new Start menu in Windows 10 right now: 2 ways

How to get a new Start menu in Windows 10

How to force download a new Start menu

How to open the Development menu (developer console) in Safari on Mac and why it is needed

What is the Development menu for Safari on Mac?

How do I enable the Design menu in Safari on Mac?

How to open dock panel settings in macOS via hidden menu

How to open dock panel settings in macOS via hidden menu

Work with options in the hidden menu of the dock

Overview PopClip – a convenient menu of actions “like in iOS” on macOS with the ability to customize

Hidden Bar – a handy utility for arranging items on the macOS menu bar

How to use Hidden Bar

It’s free