What I'd like to know is if you can turn OFF the Menu bar transparency. Frankly, I think a transparent menu bar is a ridiculous idea.
No, there's no option for that.
What you can do, however, is bring your desktop picture into photoshop, scale it to your current screen res, and put a white bar the same height as the menu bar up at top. It'll make the menu bar look solid white.
The only problems with that are that you have to do it for each desktop picture you use, and that if you change resolutions the bar will either be too short or too tall, making it look bad.
There's also a 3rd party app that makes it opaque. Frankly it's pretty lousy, but i'm sure better ones will come in time.
Judging from this screenshot, it looks like the arrows are too high now. \
I think this will be a symptom of the new vectorized interface. If you resize a PDF, the lines of text wobble about but if you do this on a bitmap of text, it doesn't. Maybe vectorized images only use whole pixels whereas bitmaps would just get more blurry on non-whole pixels.
I've given a lot of thought to the transparency they've added to the menubar, and my conclusion is that it actually makes sense.
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-10.5 interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
I've given a lot of thought to the transparency they've added to the menubar, and my conclusion is that it actually makes sense.
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-OS X interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
Not really, whether or not it helps to disappear into the background, it doesn't physically disappear so all you are left with is an odd colored bar inside all your running applications, which is distracting.
If they wanted to improve it, they could just have made it smaller or better yet, allow the user to specify the size. Some programs I use take up the entire width of the menu bar and I'd happily shrink their menu down to 0.5-0.75 the height to fit more in.
I've given a lot of thought to the transparency they've added to the menubar, and my conclusion is that it actually makes sense.
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-10.5 interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
I can't agree at all.
First, I don't see it adding clutter. If anything, this new transparency will add clutter.
Right now I have both safari and Mail open. You can hardly notice the menubar. Mail is in the background, and the bar just blends in. the white is not distracting from the grey of Safari's window.
But, with a green background, as Apple is now using, it will be very distracting. Even though you can change the picture, unless you change it to a neutral color, the bar will always be distracting.
It's also true that it will be more difficult to read.
No matter how you like color, a white background will always be better for readability. a few points of grey is also fine, and dims the glare a bit. Otherwise, transparency is a big step backwards in usability.
This wasn't done to improve anything, just to make it look more "modern" and "new". It's part of the hype about how much Apple "improved" the finder. It's worse than the Downloads folder, which many of us have made for ourselves for years.
It seems strange that Apple would move back towards transparent menus. Early versions of Mac OS X were very transparent and over the years they drastically reduced the transparencies. So I don't know why they would go back. I hope there will be an option or a hack to turn off the menu bar transparency.
No matter how you like color, a white background will always be better for readability. a few points of grey is also fine, and dims the glare a bit. Otherwise, transparency is a big step backwards in usability.
I agree with all your points Mel. Black on light grey is probably best for reading text.
I've hacked my Dock (using Clear Dock) so it has a solid gray, opaque background. It makes it much easier to pick out individual icons. <rant>Personally I'd like the Dock to be like the pre-Leopard menu bar, a solid, opaque region stretching entirely across the screen (bottom or side) that every application including Finder considers off limits. Then the Finder icon and Trash could be pinned to corners of the screen where they belong and the empty space (if any) would be in the middle of the Dock (like it is in the menu bar) instead of the stupid thing changing size when you add/remove anything./<rant>
The new menu bar is gonna be opaque. Opaque, not transparant! Just like in "Numbers" (from the iWork suite).
I think it is a great & subtle move. But I'd love to add two more things to it:
1/ One can alter the opacity of the menu bar in the "system preferences menu" from opaque to solid.
2/ No matter how much I am in love with the opaque menu bar, it would be great if the menu bar would disappear like the dock. It will appear automatically from the moment your cursor hits the top of your screen.
I agree with all your points Mel. Black on light grey is probably best for reading text.
I've hacked my Dock (using Clear Dock) so it has a solid gray, opaque background. It makes it much easier to pick out individual icons. <rant>Personally I'd like the Dock to be like the pre-Leopard menu bar, a solid, opaque region stretching entirely across the screen (bottom or side) that every application including Finder considers off limits. Then the Finder icon and Trash could be pinned to corners of the screen where they belong and the empty space (if any) would be in the middle of the Dock (like it is in the menu bar) instead of the stupid thing changing size when you add/remove anything./<rant>
Sure. That's why Apple used black on white in the first place.
As far as icons on the menu bar go, There are several colors. Apple's keyboard icon, here in the Us is blur, white, and Red. The white is transparent, so the white of the menu bare shines through. It would look funky with green stripes. The Smart Reporter program for my HDDs has a green icon. Version Cue, from Adobe, is green and Red. Weather Pop Pro is an icon showing the time of the day, and weather, so it changes. iClock has the time set to red (my choice) so I can glance up and it will catch my eye, so that I don't have to look through the others for it.
With a transparent bar, all of this will be difficult to see, and so take more time to read. No matter what color companies change their icons to, there will always be some that won't be easy to see.
The new menu bar is gonna be opaque. Opaque, not transparant! Just like in "Numbers" (from the iWork suite).
I think it is a great & subtle move. But I'd love to add two more things to it:
1/ One can alter the opacity of the menu bar in the "system preferences menu" from opaque to solid.
2/ No matter how much I am in love with the opaque menu bar, it would be great if the menu bar would disappear like the dock. It will appear automatically from the moment your cursor hits the top of your screen.
Opaque means that you can't see through it. The menu bar in Numbers is light grey. Is that what you mean?
Opaque to solid, therefore, means that you would be changing it from non-transparent to non-transparent.
You mean hidden to opaque (or solid)?
We need to see the menu bar, because it's small, and when we shoot our curser up to it, we tend to aim directly at the item we want. If it were hidden, we would miss, and have to slide the curser over. Too much.
Opaque means that you can't see through it. The menu bar in Numbers is light grey. Is that what you mean?
Opaque to solid, therefore, means that you would be changing it from non-transparent to non-transparent.
You mean hidden to opaque (or solid)?
We need to see the menu bar, because it's small, and when we shoot our curser up to it, we tend to aim directly at the item we want. If it were hidden, we would miss, and have to slide the curser over. Too much.
friend of mine has that now, with some program that hides the menubar like the way the dock can be hidden. the result is that whenever he is working in a program there is always a sliver of the desktop along the top of the screen showing through. he doesn't mind it, and i'd assume this will be the effect of the Leopard menubar also, so at least one person i know doesn't see the issue with it.
i'm more interested in the GUI design logic that got the developers to all agree to change the menubar anyway. it appears Apple is stubbornly holding it's position on the matter, so it must hold some sort of significance, like maybe retraining users UI work experience for an even greater GUI mod which will eventually be coming.
MS has been yakking about a radical new interface change for years now... not including Vista, but something after that.
Comments
What I'd like to know is if you can turn OFF the Menu bar transparency. Frankly, I think a transparent menu bar is a ridiculous idea.
No, there's no option for that.
What you can do, however, is bring your desktop picture into photoshop, scale it to your current screen res, and put a white bar the same height as the menu bar up at top. It'll make the menu bar look solid white.
The only problems with that are that you have to do it for each desktop picture you use, and that if you change resolutions the bar will either be too short or too tall, making it look bad.
There's also a 3rd party app that makes it opaque. Frankly it's pretty lousy, but i'm sure better ones will come in time.
Judging from this screenshot, it looks like the arrows are too high now. \
I think this will be a symptom of the new vectorized interface. If you resize a PDF, the lines of text wobble about but if you do this on a bitmap of text, it doesn't. Maybe vectorized images only use whole pixels whereas bitmaps would just get more blurry on non-whole pixels.
Are there screenshots of the new menu etc?
Link
Is it just me???
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-10.5 interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
can't wait for the .mac syncing of my widgets between my laptop, iPhone and Apple TV. This is going to be cool.
Shhh!!! Spoiler alert!
Geez!
only if you're Bruce Leroy...
Who's the master?!
I've given a lot of thought to the transparency they've added to the menubar, and my conclusion is that it actually makes sense.
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-OS X interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
Not really, whether or not it helps to disappear into the background, it doesn't physically disappear so all you are left with is an odd colored bar inside all your running applications, which is distracting.
If they wanted to improve it, they could just have made it smaller or better yet, allow the user to specify the size. Some programs I use take up the entire width of the menu bar and I'd happily shrink their menu down to 0.5-0.75 the height to fit more in.
I've given a lot of thought to the transparency they've added to the menubar, and my conclusion is that it actually makes sense.
1. We know the menubar is at the top of the screen. That's obvious.
2. When compared to pre-10.5 interfaces, it becomes clear that menubar adds visual clutter to the workspace. Making it transparent helps it to disappear into the background without detracting from its usefulness. See Point #1.
I think as people use 10.5, they'll grow to prefer the transparent menubar.
I can't agree at all.
First, I don't see it adding clutter. If anything, this new transparency will add clutter.
Right now I have both safari and Mail open. You can hardly notice the menubar. Mail is in the background, and the bar just blends in. the white is not distracting from the grey of Safari's window.
But, with a green background, as Apple is now using, it will be very distracting. Even though you can change the picture, unless you change it to a neutral color, the bar will always be distracting.
It's also true that it will be more difficult to read.
No matter how you like color, a white background will always be better for readability. a few points of grey is also fine, and dims the glare a bit. Otherwise, transparency is a big step backwards in usability.
This wasn't done to improve anything, just to make it look more "modern" and "new". It's part of the hype about how much Apple "improved" the finder. It's worse than the Downloads folder, which many of us have made for ourselves for years.
A bad idea.
Does anyone know who wrote the music for the initial MacOSX startup?
I guess they're going to change it, doesn't really fit well with the flickering splattery things that they have now on the startup video.
It's Bytecry by Weevil. You can find it on the iTunes store, unsurprisingly.
10.3 had Eple by Röyskopp, and before that it was Sofa Rockers by Sofa Surfers.
After watching the Youtube of the new intro video, it reminded me of The Doctor Who titles...
Link
Is it just me???
Snap! Cupertino clearly loves Dr Who and HG Wells!
http://www.manytricks.com/blog/?id=10
Plus I heard that tinkertool will have control for it as well.
No matter how you like color, a white background will always be better for readability. a few points of grey is also fine, and dims the glare a bit. Otherwise, transparency is a big step backwards in usability.
I agree with all your points Mel. Black on light grey is probably best for reading text.
I've hacked my Dock (using Clear Dock) so it has a solid gray, opaque background. It makes it much easier to pick out individual icons. <rant>Personally I'd like the Dock to be like the pre-Leopard menu bar, a solid, opaque region stretching entirely across the screen (bottom or side) that every application including Finder considers off limits. Then the Finder icon and Trash could be pinned to corners of the screen where they belong and the empty space (if any) would be in the middle of the Dock (like it is in the menu bar) instead of the stupid thing changing size when you add/remove anything./<rant>
I think it is a great & subtle move. But I'd love to add two more things to it:
1/ One can alter the opacity of the menu bar in the "system preferences menu" from opaque to solid.
2/ No matter how much I am in love with the opaque menu bar, it would be great if the menu bar would disappear like the dock. It will appear automatically from the moment your cursor hits the top of your screen.
only if you're Bruce Leroy...
good one man
I agree with all your points Mel. Black on light grey is probably best for reading text.
I've hacked my Dock (using Clear Dock) so it has a solid gray, opaque background. It makes it much easier to pick out individual icons. <rant>Personally I'd like the Dock to be like the pre-Leopard menu bar, a solid, opaque region stretching entirely across the screen (bottom or side) that every application including Finder considers off limits. Then the Finder icon and Trash could be pinned to corners of the screen where they belong and the empty space (if any) would be in the middle of the Dock (like it is in the menu bar) instead of the stupid thing changing size when you add/remove anything./<rant>
Sure. That's why Apple used black on white in the first place.
As far as icons on the menu bar go, There are several colors. Apple's keyboard icon, here in the Us is blur, white, and Red. The white is transparent, so the white of the menu bare shines through. It would look funky with green stripes. The Smart Reporter program for my HDDs has a green icon. Version Cue, from Adobe, is green and Red. Weather Pop Pro is an icon showing the time of the day, and weather, so it changes. iClock has the time set to red (my choice) so I can glance up and it will catch my eye, so that I don't have to look through the others for it.
With a transparent bar, all of this will be difficult to see, and so take more time to read. No matter what color companies change their icons to, there will always be some that won't be easy to see.
Who's the master?!
Sho-nuff! Kiss my Converse
The new menu bar is gonna be opaque. Opaque, not transparant! Just like in "Numbers" (from the iWork suite).
I think it is a great & subtle move. But I'd love to add two more things to it:
1/ One can alter the opacity of the menu bar in the "system preferences menu" from opaque to solid.
2/ No matter how much I am in love with the opaque menu bar, it would be great if the menu bar would disappear like the dock. It will appear automatically from the moment your cursor hits the top of your screen.
Opaque means that you can't see through it. The menu bar in Numbers is light grey. Is that what you mean?
Opaque to solid, therefore, means that you would be changing it from non-transparent to non-transparent.
You mean hidden to opaque (or solid)?
We need to see the menu bar, because it's small, and when we shoot our curser up to it, we tend to aim directly at the item we want. If it were hidden, we would miss, and have to slide the curser over. Too much.
Opaque means that you can't see through it. The menu bar in Numbers is light grey. Is that what you mean?
Opaque to solid, therefore, means that you would be changing it from non-transparent to non-transparent.
You mean hidden to opaque (or solid)?
We need to see the menu bar, because it's small, and when we shoot our curser up to it, we tend to aim directly at the item we want. If it were hidden, we would miss, and have to slide the curser over. Too much.
friend of mine has that now, with some program that hides the menubar like the way the dock can be hidden. the result is that whenever he is working in a program there is always a sliver of the desktop along the top of the screen showing through. he doesn't mind it, and i'd assume this will be the effect of the Leopard menubar also, so at least one person i know doesn't see the issue with it.
i'm more interested in the GUI design logic that got the developers to all agree to change the menubar anyway. it appears Apple is stubbornly holding it's position on the matter, so it must hold some sort of significance, like maybe retraining users UI work experience for an even greater GUI mod which will eventually be coming.
MS has been yakking about a radical new interface change for years now... not including Vista, but something after that.