Add an option for the global menu to be automatically hidden

[grahamperrin]

Please, can we have an option for the menu to be hidden?

To appear on demand when the user points at the top of the screen.

Thanks

[probonopd]

The only way to hide the global menu bar is to run fullscreen windows. For example, F11 in Falkon. I don't think there was ever a way to hiding it altogether on the Mac, and it would be utterly confusing.

What use case would there ever be for there not to be a menu bar, besides fullscreen windows?

(If you really must, you can always kill it with Ctrl+Alt+Esc and clicking on it.)

[grahamperrin]

use case

I always use the global menu of KDE Plasma 5 like this – within an auto-hidden panel at the top of the screen:

2021-01-24.12.20.a.global.menu.in.KDE.Plasma.5.mp4

The wish to auto-hide the menu is essentially no different from the wish to helloSystem/Dock#4 auto-hide a dock.

[probonopd]

The wish to auto-hide the menu is essentially no different from the wish to helloSystem/Dock#4 auto-hide a dock.

...besides that on the Mac you can never hide the Menu, but you can hide the Dock ;-)

[grahamperrin]

on the Mac you can never hide the Menu

Has the feature been removed?

[probonopd]

...uh, must be new. At least in Classic Mac OS I was never aware of such an option.

How does it actually work, what do they mean by "automatic"?

[grahamperrin]

I don't have anything with macOS Catalina. I imagine that it's vaguely comparable to what's in my recording of KDE, but better. Maybe Apple takes care to not obscure any part of the frontmost window when dropping down the menu? Just a guess. We'll probably find an answer in the Wayback Machine.

Users began requesting the feature many years ago.

PS now I see, the feature landed long before Catalina; see for example How to Hide & Show the Menu Bar in Mac OS X.

YouTube has many videos demonstrating how to enable the feature. It would be interesting to have a video that demonstrates what (if anything) happens with a foreground maximised window when the menu drops down, but I'm not interested enough to dig deeper and find one :-) – search terms might be tricky.

[probonopd]

The menu bar extends across the top of the screen and contains words and icons that serve as the title of each menu. It should be visible and always available to use. Nothing should ever appear on top of the menu bar or obscure it from view.

Source: Apple Computer, Inc., 1992, Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines, First Printing, November 1992. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. ISBN 0-201-62216-5

[grahamperrin]

Sure, but then users requested the feature :-)

[probonopd]

Users will request all sorts of features ;-)
For now I think we have something sufficient for power users:

• Ctrl+Alt+Esc, click on the Menu
• Command+Space to start the Menu again

[KDGNOR]

Use This App Many Years On Mac for This Thing:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/38282/magicmenu

[grahamperrin]

Thanks @KDGNOR

https://www.cynosurex.com/Software/MagicMenu/

Origin: 2008

– fewer than six years after Apple's decree.

Magic!

[probonopd]

Did some research. Found a book that devotes a whole chapter to Hiding the Menu Bar and why it is generally a bad idea. Written by none else but Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, the authority on the early Human Interface Guidelines at Apple:

In September 1989 someone asked Apple:

Dear Tog: Please bring this issue into the light of day: What is the guideline concerning hiding the menu bar? I think that hiding the menu bar is fairly rude to a user in most cases, but it can occasionally be justified. (...) Apple explicitly does not offer a method for doing it that is guaranteed compatible with the future, thus implying that hiding the menu is a bad thing. Yet Apple is (1) pleased to use PowerPoint slide shows in front of the public that hide the menu bar and (2) ships a product that hides the menu bar, even gratuitously on occasion. Thanks for your help. —DENNIS AUSTIN

Tog answered:

Gee, Dennis, we thought we had been quite explicit about where we stood vis-a-vis the menu bar. And it worked out pretty well, too, until a certain Dennis Austin, author of PowerPoint, started hiding it! I wonder if he’s any relation?

He went on to explain:

I have seen only three circumstances that even ermotely suggest the menu bar should be hidden:

1. Presentation vehicles, such as PowerPoint's
2. Applications designed experssly for public use, such as point-of-purchase displays
3. Applications for the severly handicapped

Source: Tognazzini, B., 1992. Tog on interface. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

All of which seem to be addessable by full screen mode.

If you want to know the reason why Apple did not support hiding the menu bar (and told the PowerPoint author "you will figure out a way. We just don't want to make it too easy for you"), I really recommend this book.

[grahamperrin]

I don't doubt that some people view it as a bad idea.

Fast-forward twenty-nine years, to present-day realities.

… full screen mode. …

I rarely enter full screen mode. Five times a day, maybe.

I always hide my global menu.

https://old.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/m4a3w2/-/ includes links to two very recent discussions of Mozilla bug 1693028. Whilst some end user reactions misunderstand the nature of 1693028, there are:

• overwhelming expressions of passion about how the user should not only have control, but also maintain control over use of the pixels at the top of the screen.

[KDGNOR]

hide\secret option in Menu.app maybe then?

[probonopd]

Ctrl+Command+Esc, click Menubar to kill it.
Command+Space to show it again.

(Command is Alt on PC keyboards in helloSystem by default)