Section 1.7. Menulets Tray | Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual

1.7. Menulets = Tray

Most Windows fans refer to the row of tiny status icons at the lower-right corner of the screen as the tray , even though Microsoft's official term is the notification area. (Why use one syllable when eight will do?)

Macintosh fans wage a similar battle of terminology when it comes to the little menubar icons shown in Figure 1-4. Apple calls them Menu Extras, but Mac fans prefer to call them menulets .

In any case, these menu-bar icons are cousins of the Windows traythat is, each is both an indicator and a menu that provides direct access to certain settings in System Preferences. One menulet lets you adjust your Mac's speaker volume, another lets you change the screen resolution, another shows you the remaining power in your laptop battery, and so on.

Figure 1-4. The little icons at the upper-right corner of the Mac OS X screen are called Menu Extras or menulets. Almost every one is both a status indicator and a pop-up menu.

Making a menulet appear usually involves turning on a certain checkbox. These checkboxes lurk on the various panes of System Preferences (Chapter 13), which is the Mac equivalent of the Control Panel. (To open System Preferences, choose its name from the menu, or click the light-switch icon on the Dock.)

Here's a rundown of the various Apple menulets that you may encounter, complete with instructions on where to find this magic on/off checkbox for each.

Tip: The following descriptions indicate the official, authorized steps for installing a menulet. There is, however, a single folder on your hard drive that contains all 23 of them in a single window, so that you can install one with a quick double-click. To find them, open your hard drive

System

Library

CoreServices

Menu Extras folder.

: Open System Preferences

Network. From the "Show:" pop-up menu, choose AirPort.

Battery shows how much power remains in your laptop's battery (laptops only). To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Energy Saver, and click the Options tab.

Bluetooth (for connecting to Bluetooth devices, " pairing " your Mac with a cellphone, and so on). To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Bluetooth. The "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar checkbox appears at the bottom of the Settings tab.

Classic . Using this menulet, you can start or stop Classic (which is Mac OS X's "Mac OS 9 simulator," as described on Section 4.9.2.2), open the Classic pane of System Preferences, orthis is weirdview the contents of the Mac OS 9 menu. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Classic. Look near the middle of the Start/Stop pane.

Clock . This is the standard menu-bar clock that's probably been sitting at the upper-right corner of your screen from Day 1. Click it to open a menu where you can check today's date, convert the menu-bar display to a tiny analog clock, and so on. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Date & Time. On the Clock tab, turn on "Show the date and time."

Displays adjusts screen resolution; on laptops with a projector or external monitor attached, it lets you turn screen mirroring on or off. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Displays, and click the Display tab.

Eject disc . This one's the oddball : There's no checkbox in System Preferences to make it appear. The fact that it even exists is something of a secret.

To make it appear, open your System Library CoreServices Menu Extras folder as described above, and double-click the Eject.menu icon. Thats it! The Eject menulet appears.

You'll discover that the menulet's wording changes. It might say "Open Combo Drive," "Close DVD-RAM Drive," "Eject [Name of Disc]," or whatever, to reflect your particular drive type and what's in it at the moment.

Fax . This menulet reveals the current status of a fax you're sending or receiving, so you're not kept in suspense . To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Print & Fax, and click Faxing.

iChat . Here's a quick way to let the world know, via iChat and the Internet, that you're away from your keyboard, or available and ready to chat. Choosing the Buddy List command is also a quick way to open iChat itself. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open iChat (in your Applications folder). Choose iChat Preferences, click the General button, and turn on "Show status in menu bar."

PC Card . You can use this item to eject a PC card that you've inserted into the slot in your PowerBook, if it has such a slot. To make it appear, open your System Library CoreServices Menu Extras folder, and double-click the PCCard. menu icon.

PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) lets you control certain kinds of DSL connections. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Network. From the "Show:" pop-up menu, choose Built-in Ethernet. Click the PPoE tab button.

PPP lets you connect or disconnect from the Internet. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Network. From the "Show:" pop-up menu, choose Internal Modem. Click the Modem tab button.

Remote Desktop is a program, sold separately, that lets teachers or system administrators tap into your Mac from across the network. In fact, they can actually see what's on your screen and move the cursor around. The menulet lets you turn remote control on and off, send a message to the administrator, and so on. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Sharing, and click Apple Remote Desktop.

Script menu lists a variety of useful, ready-to-run AppleScript programs. (AppleScript is a fairly easy programming language that lets Mac programs share information with each other and act on it appropriately. These scriptsone searches and replaces text in a folder full of file names , one prepares a handsome sampler poster of the fonts you have installed, and so onare intended to show off AppleScript's flexibility. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open your Applications folder, and open the program called AppleScript Utility.

Sync is useful only if you have a .Mac account (Section 5.4.2)but in that case, it's very handy. It lets you start and stop the synchronization of your Mac's Web bookmarks, calendar, address book, keychains , and email with another Mac across the Internet, and it always lets you know the date of your last sync. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences .Mac, and click Sync.

Text Input makes it easy for you to switch among different text input modes . You're probably most familiar with the normal keyboard. But what if your language, like Japanese Kanji, has hundreds of symbols in it? How will a 26-letter keyboard help you then? You'll need a floating palette of all of these symbols, and this menulet summons and dismisses such palettes. Details on Section 13.14.2. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences International. Click the Input Menu tab.

User identifies the account holder (Section 12.1) who's logged in at the moment. To make this menulet appear (in bold, at the far right end of the menu bar), turn on fast user switching , which is described on Section 12.7.

Volume , of course, adjusts your Mac's speaker or headphones volume. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open System Preferences Sound.

VPN stands for virtual private networking, which is a system of letting you tap into a corporation's network so you can, for example, check your email from home. You can use the menulet to connect and disconnect, for example. To find the "Show" checkbox : Open the program called Internet Connect (in your Applications folder). Click the VPN button.

To remove a menulet, turn off the corresponding checkbox described above (or just drag the menulet off of your menu bar while pressing the key). You can also rearrange menulets by -dragging them horizontally.