Mac Tip: Translucent Menu Bar In Mac OS X Lion

This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.


How To: Translucent Menu Bar In Mac OS X Lion

By default your Mac’s Menu Bar which is located at the top of the display will be translucent allowing you to see a partial area of the background behind it. This view is shown in the image below:

If you are like me, you tend not to like this view and would prefer a solid grey gradient as shown below:

In order to make the subtitle change you will need to navigate to System Preferences then go into Desktop & Screensaver. At the very bottom of this window in the Desktop tab you will notice an option for Translucent Menu Bar as highlighted below:

You will noticed I have deselected this option. By doing do my menu bar will be a solid grey gradient. Selecting the option will make the menu bar translucent.

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Mark Greentree

Mark Greentree is the principle blogger and podcast creator of Everyday Mac Support. His aim is to inform users at all levels of experience how to get the most out of the Apple hardware and associated software. He is the lead host of Not Another Mac Podcast, an Apple based round table discussion with Mac users and experts from all over world.