Apple is known for its minimalist design. However, there are many ways to tweak your settings to customize your Mac desktop. This article is for those who want to spice up or personalize their Desktop. There are many cool ways to easily change your Mac’s look and feel. All you have to do is adjust some macOS preferences according to your taste. Here are some ways to customize Mac desktop:
Macbook Customization1. Customize Your Wallpaper.![]()
To add Widgets to your home screen, enter “jiggle mode” and tap the icon in the upper left. Once in this mode, tap the ( + ) symbol in the upper left corner of the screen. Mac iPad iPhone Apple Watch TV Music iTunes HomePod iPod touch Apple Card Accessories Gift Cards Apple Store Open Menu Close Menu. Find a Store Shop Online Genius Bar Today at Apple Youth Programs Apple Store App Refurbished and Clearance Financing Apple Trade In Order Status Shopping Help For Education Open Menu Close Menu. Apple and Education. The largest part of the Dock holds shortcuts to your favorite apps. They’re easy to add, remove, or reorder by clicking and dragging the icons. To remove an app, drag it off of the Dock or into the Trash — don’t worry, it’ll still be available to in Spotlight or Finder. Now your home screen has different sized icons for a customized look. Note that at this time, you can only customize the following apps: Weather (with a premium subscription), Calendar, World Time.
The first thing you see when you open your computer is your desktop, and the first thing you’ll notice on your desktop is your wallpaper. Your wallpaper is your computer’s background, and of course you want to make it pleasing to your eyes. To change your wallpaper, follow these steps:
You can also set a picture you came across while browsing the internet as your desktop wallpaper. All you have to do is right-click on the image, and choose Set Desktop Picture. If you’re using an older version of macOS, choose Use Image As Desktop Picture.
You can also set your desktop wallpaper to change automatically. Select the folder from where you want the images to be drawn, tick off Change Picture, and then select the frequency. You can choose every hour, every few hours, or randomly. If you want a random interval, tick off the Random order box.
2. Add Spacers to the Dock.
Sometimes, going through all the apps on the Dock becomes confusing, especially if it is cluttered with many app icons. Adding a space in between the apps helps you identify the app icons easily.
To add spacers, we’ll have to add blank tiles by typing the following command in the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{“tile-type”=”spacer-tile”;}’; killall Dock
The Dock will disappear for a while and will reload with the invisible tiles in between icons. If you want to remove the invisible tiles, you can just drag them out from the Dock.
3. Make Your Dock User-Friendly.
If you want a better-looking Dock, start by cleaning it up. Remove the apps and Dock icons that you don’t use often. To remove the icons, drag them out of the Dock and release them when the Remove prompt appears. To modify the appearance of the icons on your Dock, go to System Preferences > Dock. You’ll see there the options to change the size of the icons, magnification, and position of the Dock.
4. Upload Your Own Icons.
Replacing your icons is one of the easiest ways to customize Mac Desktop. This is perfect for files and folders. Before you start replacing your icons on the Desktop, make sure your files are neat and organized. Clean up your junk files and folders with Tweakbit MacRepair so your desktop is easier to tidy up. https://javarenew835.weebly.com/civilization-revolution-for-mac-download.html.
Next, choose the replacement icon you want to upload. There are many icons you can download from the internet, just make sure that you download the highest resolution version of the file in GIF or PNG format.
To replace your icons, follow these steps:
5. Change the Color Scheme.
Color plays a huge role in the overall look and feel of your custom Mac desktop. Changing the color scheme can also improve readability.
If you want to change highlighted text from color blue to something else, follow these steps:
If you don’t want a colorful desktop, you can choose the Graphite color scheme for a monochromatic look. To switch to Graphite, do the following:
You can also change your menu bar to appear black. Go to System Preferences > General and tick off the box for Use dark menu bar and Dock.
To invert the colors on your screen, just go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display, and tick off Invert colors.
Customizing your Mac desktop does not only mean making it more aesthetically appealing. Some of these changes are necessary to improve readability or accessibility.
If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy Policy. Make your Mac invincible
Get Setapp, a toolkit with fixes for all Mac problems
Without a doubt, the menu bar is one of Mac’s great features. It’s condensed, easy to tap into on the fly, and displays much-needed information in real time.
But, with every new icon app added, things become a little more cluttered and usability takes another hit. Fortunately, it’s possible to edit the menu bar to rearrange and remove icons so that it’s able to suit your needs at any given moment. Read on for the best ways to make the menu bar on Mac truly yours.
A tool that perfects menu bar
Rethink the menu bar with this app. Bartender customizes one of the main parts of Mac's interface, efficiently.
How to rearrange items in menu bar
How much freedom you have to rearrange items in menu bar depends on which version of macOS you’re running. The users of macOS Sierra and later definitely have more creative license here than others. And if you are not there yet, it’s time to upgrade to the newest macOS anyway. https://potentaudio.weebly.com/bosch-tassimo-suny-tas-3203-user-manual.html.
Rearranging menu items in macOS
To move an icon in the menu bar, hold Command (cmd), then click and hold the icon to drag it across the bar. Simple.
There are no restrictions here — feel free to move icons anywhere you see fit. Don’t like the clock all the way over there on the right-hand side? Drag it to somewhere more suitable. Want to place the Setapp icon over to the area of the bar once reserved for first-party apps? Do it!
The only icon that cannot be tampered with is the Notification Center. Apple has decided this must remain in the far right corner of the menu, which is fair enough — it looks good there.
Rearranging menu items in OS X versions (El Capitan and older)
Movement of icons in old versions of macOS is reserved for selected apps only: Bluetooth, audio, Time Machine, WiFi, battery, clock, and user switching. Spotlight and Notification Center must stay put, as must all third-party apps.
![]()
To move icons around within the designated area, once again hold Command, then click and hold the icon to drag it.
How to remove icons from the top bar on Mac
If there are items in the menu bar that you feel don’t belong there, hold Command, click on the icon, and drag it outside of the menu bar.
Note: this only works for first-party icons.
It is possible to remove third-party icons from the top bar on Mac by clicking on them and selecting “Quit” or “Close,” but this will stop the app from working until you reopen it.
Some apps give the option to remove icons from the top bar on Mac in their settings: [chosen app] > Preferences. However, a lot of apps won’t. To fully customize which icons appear in the menu bar, you should use a third-party app like Bartender.
If you’ve removed the first-party app and you’d like it back on the menu, it can be re-enabled in System Preferences.
How to add icons to the top bar on Mac
If you’re missing a specific system icon in the Mac’s menu bar, you can add it through System Preferences. For instance, to enable the Language icon, select Language & Region in the preference pane, click Input Sources, and check the box next to “Show Input menu in menu bar.”
Add menu bar extras
Because the menu options like Clock and Ink can’t be found in System Preferences, you might need to use the System folder as well:
You can easily remove any of the icons by holding Command and dragging it outside of the menu bar as described above.
How to customize and tidy Mac menu bar
It’s possible to change the look of the default menu bar items in System Preferences and third-party apps’ ones in their respective preferences. Most of the time, you’ll be able to at least switch the color to black and white.
Change how the date and time are displayed in the menu bar
In the right corner of your menu bar, click on date and time to Open Date & Time Preferences. Go to the Clock tab and unlock the preferences by entering your administrator password, so that you can make changes. To customize the look of the clock, choose between two different time display options: Digital or Analog. You can also tick the boxes for “Show date” and “Show the day of the week.”
To instantly toggle between different display options, click on date and time in the menu bar and choose “View as Analog” or “View as Digital.”
How to use your battery status on Mac
Keeping track of your battery life from the menu bar takes a few simple actions and yet is vital to Mac’s performance.
Click on the battery icon and tick Show percentage to see how much battery power you have left. In the same drop-down menu, you can check the programs that are using significant power in case your battery is draining too fast. To optimize battery usage, select “Open Energy Saver Preferences” and adjust sleep settings.
Toggle between fast user switching icons
There are three different options on how the Fast User Switching menu can be displayed in your Mac’s top bar – as a full name, account name or icon. Here’s how you do the customization:
Shoe Customization AppShow Wi-Fi status in the menu bar
Adware cleaner mac chip. To enable the Wi-Fi icon in your Mac’s top bar, go to System Preferences and select Network. Tick the box next to “Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar.”
How to replace menu bar app icons
If you want to have custom icons in your Mac’s menu bar, there’s a way to replace the default ones. To change the icon of a third-party app, find it in Applications, right-click to open a context menu, and choose “Show Package Contents.” Go to Resources folder to find the defaults – these can be used as templates for the new icons. Once you have a custom icon ready, simply copy it into the same Resources folder.
The same works for system icons, except you won’t find all of them in Applications. Here’s the path for you to take: Hard Disk > System > Library > CoreServices > Menu Extras. Once you’ve found the item you need, click on “Show Package Contents” and navigate to the icon via [MENUITEM.menu] > Contents > Resources.
In both cases, it’s a good idea to create backups of the default icons before replacing them – just in case you’ll need them later.
Hide menu bar items
One low-key feature on Mac is the ability to auto-hide menu bar. To do this, open System Preferences > General. Check the option to “Automatically hide and show the menu bar” and the menu bar will immediately disappear.
To get the menu bar to show up again, simply move the cursor to the top of the screen and hold it there for a second. Now you can access the menu whenever you need it and enjoy an extra bit of screen real estate when you don’t.
Customizing the menu bar with Bartender
If you want more control over how the menu bar looks and what it does, you should consider using the Bartender app.
Bartender lets you hide icons without quitting and rearrange icons in a way that better suits how you use the menu bar — something particularly useful if you’re running an older version of macOS.
App icons can be displayed when updating, shown in the Bartender Bar only, or hidden completely and accessed easily using a built-in search function. It’s even possible to toggle through and activate items using keyboard navigation.
If you’re someone that prefers a minimalist look, the app gives you the option to remove the Bartender menu item, leaving you with a crisp, clean menu bar.
Overall, the Mac menu bar is there to help you improve your productivity by giving you quick access to the apps and tools you need. Using the tips above, you can customize the menu bar in a way that works for you. Best of all, you can get full access to Bartender and over 150 more high-quality macOS apps on Setapp, with a 7-day free trial to get you started. So why not get your menu bar organized now?
Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
Read on
Sign Up
Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy.
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |