SecondBar puts your menu bar on a second monitor
The menu bar is a quintessential piece of the Mac "experience." On the left, it shows all of the menu items for the currently active application; on the right, it shows icons from various menu bar application programs: the date/time, WiFi status, MobileMe sync status, and many, many more.The whole idea is to make the menu items easy to find and easy to "hit" with a mouse, by being connected to the top of the screen (Fitts's law and all that). But what if you have two monitors? Suddenly the menu bar might be all the way over on the other side. Yes, I realize that complaining about using a Mac with two monitors might be the quintessential "first-world problem," but the more minor irritants you can remove from life, the better.
SecondBar is an app which will extend your menu bar to a second monitor. I've been using it for a while and it works pretty well for what the author describes as an "alpha" build.
There are a few caveats:
- It may crash more than a regular app (although it's been fairly stable for me)
- It requires Snow Leopard
- It replicates the "left side" of the menu bar (app-specific menus) but not the menu bar "extras" from the right side (there is a clock)
⌘ + alt + control + = "Maximize to Left Half" will maximize the current window at half the width of the current monitor, and move it to the left side of the monitor.
⌘ + alt + control + = "Maximize to Right Half" will maximize the current window at half the width of the current monitor, and move it to the right side of the monitor.
⌘ + alt + control + ↑ = "Maximize current window" will maximize the current window to fill the entire monitor. Note there is no corresponding command to "un-maximize" the window, which has to be done using the mouse.
Using the Left and Right commands with ⌘+tab switching is an easy way to view two documents side-by-side, and the "fully maximize" feature is something that is often requested, especially by Windows switchers. While it may not be something that you use all the time, I find that it occasionally comes in very handy.
SecondBar is a free download.
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The menu bar is a quintessential piece of the Mac "experience." On the left, it shows all of the menu items for the currently active...
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I've been using this on my 17" MacBook Pro with a 30" Cinema display for a few months now and I think it is absolutely brilliant. Can't remember where I came across it, but since the install it has been fairly stable, crashing maybe once a week. I change my setup many times a day going from home to the office, to see clients and back to the office and back home and it just works...
March 31 2010 at 9:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply@intaminfan628 — if I knew of one, don't you think it's likely that I would have mentioned it ;-?
@Eric Elinow — It doesn't support more than one (extra) monitor yet. But it is meant to support them eventually. Not sure if it will support your particular setup though.
@Pascal — yes, you're missing something. This isn't about having one menu bar on one monitor on the other. It's about having a _second_ menu bar (hence the name :-) on a 2nd monitor
Tj,
Thanks for the quick response. I was mainly curious because it would be great to have this kind of functionality across the 3 larger "proper" screens, as I'd exclude the displaylink/7" Mimo since that display is mainly for skype/adium/vlc/itunes controllers and not much else. When you get to the point of having more than 1 additional monitor (in theory) in the code, I'd be happy to give it a test.
Eric
http://www.codedevl.com
I've used a dual monitor setup for years with a PowerBook/MacBook Pro and external monitors. My solution for covering screen real estate quickly and accurately has been to use a trackball.
I just flick the ball and the cursor flies across both screens. Simple.
My favorite is the Kensington Expert Mouse. 4 programmable buttons and the scroll ring, which is FAR better than a scroll wheel. It ain't cheap, but it's built well and works perfectly.
http://us.kensington.com/html/2200.html
Am I missing something? This feature is available in display preferences already. You can simply drag your menubar to whichever monitor you want.
March 31 2010 at 9:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt wasn't a matter of moving the menu bar from one display to the next, it is about duplicating the menu bar (at least the application specific portion (not the status items, wifi, keyboard type, time machine icon, processors, etc)) on multiple monitors simultaneously.
Eric
http://www.codedevl.com
Ah, okay. My mistake. Thanks for pointing that out.
March 31 2010 at 9:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWhat about those of us who have more than two monitors. I currently have a total of four hooked up to my development machine (one 23", two 24"'s, and a 7" Mimo USB DisplayLink). They are individual monitors and not using some multiple-monitor-as-on-display hack either. I gather it hasn't been tested on systems such as mine, but based on the code written, will that be an issue (e.g. is it hardcoded to be only one additional menubar, or is it dynamic based on number of displays?)
Eric
http://www.codedevl.com
Is there another program out there that does the same thing, but is not an alpha build?
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