One of the biggest complaints made by new Leopard users is the semi-transparent menu bar. Depending on what wallpaper you have set on your monitor, it can get pretty funky up there.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but barely 3 days after Leopard’s release we now have a simple app that changes the menu bar to solid white.
OpaqueMenuBar from Eternal Storms seems to just simply put a white bar over the menu bar. The only negative thing I found was that on dual-monitors it puts the white bar across both monitors instead of just the “master” monitor that has the menu bar.
OpaqueMenuBar is free for the taking.
I can see where the transparent menu bar might not suit everyone’s taste, but personally, I like the new look.
I’m with Jeff, though options are always nice.
It’s certainly not as bad as the above image makes it out to be, that is from a dev build, correct?
Nevermind, it does seem to be as bad as the image indicates with brightly colored backgrounds.
Hello.
I have a question about the transparent menu bar.
I successfully installed Leopard on my Power Mac G4 Firewire Dual 1.25 ghz.
Leopard is running great on my computer and I have not found any problems.
My question is; the menu bar in my Leopard install never installed the transparent menu bar. The menu bar is the same as in Tiger.
Does this mean that there is a problem with the install, or is this an issue with the model of the Mac?
Any insight appreciated.
@Michael: That is indeed odd. I’d suggestion posting about your issue in our community where more folks will most likely see your question.
@Michael, If your computer doesn’t have enough horsepower to support the fancy animations and effects, you won’t see it.
I installed it on my 12″ Powerbook and it’s not transparent either.
I have it on my MacBook Pro and it’s transparent. Personally, I like the new look. But don’t really miss it on my Powerbook, as overall, it seems snappier.
Alternatively, you could just edit your desktop image to include a small white band at the top equal to the dimensions of the menubar. Technically the menubar stays transparent but it’s transparent on top of a white band so its a white menu or slate menubar or whatever solid color menubar you want.
I never noticed the transparent menu bar at first, but I had a background image that was black at top. I switched on the rotating image option, and now I see all the pretty colors. It may not be for everyone, but Apple should at least have an option to disable it.
[...] Hvertfall: Mac OS X Leopard. Den nye menylinjen med såvidt litt gjennomsiktighet er fet. Litt fresh med noe nytt, som ikke bare et hvitt. Apple har i det siste gått vekk fra en del hvitt, og begynt å bruke en del svart. Bland annet er eplet i venstre hjørne svart, som bakdekselet på de nye iMacene. Hvis du likevel ikke vil ha menybaren gjennomsiktig, kan den fises tilbake slik den er i Tiger. [...]
[...] theAppleBlog.com: Say goodbye to the transparent menu bar – There’s already a utility to get rid of the semi-transparent menu bar. [...]