Fill your Mac's menu bar with USEFUL info!

26 May 2017, 04:03

Speaking personally I love the Mac’s menu bar, which runs across the top of the screen. I think it’s one of many things that makes using a Mac so much more likeable and fun. It stays there no matter what (provided you don’t choose to hide it!), and the menu bar icons it contains show a host of useful info.

However, you can boost this information display even more using the steps described below. All use free tools so will cost you nothing.

Don’t forget two things while reading. First, see our piece about the free-of-charge Vanilla app that lets you hide menu icons. This can be incredibly useful if the menu bar gets cluttered. You can just hide away some of the less vital icons until you need them. Secondly, don’t forget that you can move and rearrange most menu bar elements by holding down the Cmd/Command key, then clicking and dragging each icon left or right. Some icons can’t be moved, though, such as the Notification Center icon.

Seeing your Wi-Fi name
Huge thanks to Apple Help Writer’s blog for creating this trick, which makes the Mac display the current Wi-Fi base station name (SSID) that it’s connected to.

Apple Help Writer’s instructions assume quite a lot of technical knowledge, so here in easy steps is how to set this up. There’s a little technical work involved but I walk you through it, and it only needs be done once.

Download the Hammerspoon app, and then drag it to the Applications list within Finder to install it.
Open Hammerspoon by double-clicking its icon. Don’t worry when it reports it hasn’t got a config file. We’re about to fix that.
However, one thing to do before even that is to click the Enable Accessibility button in the Hammerspoon preferences dialog box. Then click the Open System Preferences button in the dialog box that appears. When System Preferences opens, click the padlock icon at the bottom left, type your login password when prompted, and then put a check/tick in the Hammerspoon entry in the list you see. You can then close System Preferences.
Click the Hammerspoon icon in the top-right of the menu bar (its icon is that of a small hammer), and then click Open Config.
This will open a blank file in TextEdit, or perhaps a different text editor if you have one installed. Copy and paste in the following code into the empty file, and then save the file and close TextEdit (there’s no need to give the file a name or location – just click File > Save as usual):
```
wifiWatcher = nil
function ssidChanged()
local wifiName = hs.wifi.currentNetwork()
if wifiName then
wifiMenu:setTitle(wifiName)
else 
wifiMenu:setTitle("Wifi OFF")
end
end
wifiMenu = hs.menubar.newWithPriority(2147483645)
ssidChanged()
wifiWatcher = hs.wifi.watcher.new(ssidChanged):start()
```
Click the Hammerspoon menu bar icon again, and click the Reload Config option. The Wi-Fi name (SSID) will now appear in the menu bar. Hold down Cmd/Command and click it to move it to where you want it to be.

Additionally, you’ll also want to click the Hammerspoon menu bar icon, select Preferences, and ensure the following option has a check (tick) alongside it: Launch Hammerspoon At Login.

You should ensure there isn’t a check alongside Show Menu Icon (unless you plan to install further Hammerspoon scripts, which is actually well worth investigating).

In future, if you want to get rid of your new Wi-Fi name menubar indicator, load Hammerspoon from the Applications list of Finder. This will open a console window, into which you should paste the following:

hs.openPreferences()

This will open Hammerspoon’s preferences dialog box, as described above. However, this time remove the check alongside Launch Hammerspoon At Login. Then reboot.

Getting a better clock (and calendar)
The Mac’s built-in clock is useful but can be improved upon. How would you like to see the week number, for example, or have a pop-up calendar display appear whenever you click the clock?

Itsycal is the answer. Here’s how to get the best out of it.

Download Itsycal and drag it to the Applications list in Finder to install it.
However, before running it for the first time, we need to turn off the Mac’s own time/date display. To do so, open System Preferences (which you’ll find in the Applications list of Finder), then click the Date & Time icon near the bottom. Ensure the Clock tab is selected, and then remove the check alongside Show Date and Time In Menu Bar.
Open Itsycal. The only sign it’s running will be a day-of-month display added to the menu bar. Click this, which will cause the pop-up calendar to appear, and click the small cog icon around half way down and to the right. Then click Preferences.
Ensure the General icon is selected, and that there’s a check (tick) alongside Launch At Login.
Select the Appearance icon, and then remove checks from all three boxes at the top: Use Outline Icon, Show Month In Icon and Show Day of Week In Icon. However, ensure there IS a check/tick within the Hide Icon box.
In the text field above the Hide Icon checkbox, paste in the following and then hit Enter.
```
E d MMM  h:mm a
```
This will re-add the standard Mac day/date/time display – something like Mon 1 Jun 11.00 am.
Clicking the small question mark alongside the text area in the Itsycal preferences dialog box reveals other letters you can add to add more information to the menu bar time/date display. For example, to add the week number, you might add the letter w to the beginning or end of the combination of letters. Note that capital and lower case letters are important here!

Seeing battery time remaining—and more
In a recent macOS update, Apple turned off the ability to display the time remaining for the current battery charge. This is perhaps a good thing because allegedly it became inaccurate on more modern Macs. However, you can easily restore it – and add other information to boot. All you need is CoconutBattery.

Before using CoconutBattery, however, we need to turn off the Mac’s built-in battery status menu bar display. To do so, open System Preferences (which you’ll find in the Applications list of Finder) and then click the Energy Saver icon. Then remove the check/tick alongside Show Battery Status In Menu bar at the bottom left of the window.
Download CoconutBattery and then drag it to the Applications list in Finder to install it. Then open it.
You’ll see a display of useful details about your battery, but you can ignore this for now. Instead, open Coconut battery’s preferences dialog box by clicking the entry on the application menu, or tapping Cmd+comma.
Ensure the General icon is selected, and then put a check/tick alongside Launch At Startup. Instantly you’ll see a battery percentage display appear in the menu bar. Note how it’s accurate to one decimal place, unlike the built-in Mac battery life indicator.
Whatever appears in the Format text field determines the nature of what power figures CoconutBattery displays in the menu bar, and clicking the menu bar icon at the right shows the options. I use the following, which displays both the charge and battery time figures, along with an arrow that indicates whether charging or discharging is taking place (down means discharge, up means charging; note that CoconutBattery will take a few seconds to respond when a charger is attached/detached and isn’t instant, as with the built-in battery status menu option):
```
 %s %p% %r
```
Be sure to hit Enter after pasting in the above, or it won’t work!

Once done you can close CoconutBattery’s preferences dialog box, and quit the app. The menu bar icon will remain in place, and will appear each time you reboot.

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Fill your Mac's menu bar with USEFUL info!

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