How To Hide and Show the Menu Bar On Your Mac

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at how to control when the Menu Bar, on your Mac, is visible or hidden. 

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Now sometimes when using your Mac you notice there is a Menu Bar at the top of the screen and sometimes it is not there. There's a setting to control this. But before we get to that it is important to understand the difference between Desktop Mode and Full Screen Mode because it really matters when it comes to whether the Menu Bar is there or not. 

So when using your Mac you may see a variety of different windows on the screen. If you see windows like these then you are in Desktop Mode. However, if you were to click on the green button here, or hover over it and choose Enter Full Screen, or perhaps use the View Menu and Enter Full Screen or the Keyboard shortcut for that, then you are now in full screen mode. In this case we're in full screen mode using a Safari browser window. To really understand Desktop Mode and Full Screen Mode it's important to try out Mission Control, even if you don't use it normally. The default keyboard shortcut is Control, not command but Control, and then Up Arrow. Then you can see at the top here all of your spaces. In this case I have two spaces.  A Desktop space, you could tell because it has the word Desktop under it, and a Full Screen space. You can tell because it has the name of the App that corresponds to the window there. Sometimes there are two apps. That means you're using Split View Mode which shows two windows instead of just one. But Split View and Full Screen work the same in this case. You can have many Desktop spaces and many Full Screen spaces. But to you really get an overview of what you're dealing with at the current moment go into Mission Control, like I am right now, and you could see a list at the top. 

Now you may notice here on my Desktop space I've got a Menu Bar. But if I move over to the Full Screen space, which I'm going to do using Control and right arrow, then you could see I have no Menu Bar here. So it is hidden in this case. Notice when it is hidden you can bring it up. It's still there. You just need to move your Pointer all the way to the top of the screen and then you can see the Menu Bar will drop down and you can use it as normal. But if you move the Pointer away from the top of the screen the Menu Bar is hidden again. Whereas here on the Desktop space it is always there whether the pointer is at the top, at the bottom, or anywhere. 

Now to Control when the Menu Bar is visible and when it is hidden you would want to go into System Settings and then go to Desktop & Dock. Then scroll down to the Menu Bar section. Now you've got your first item here which gives you four different options for whether or not the Menu Bar is hidden. Notice the wording here. Automatically hide and show the menu bar. So if this is On the Menu Bar is automatically hidden and shown when you bring the pointer to the top. If this is Off then the Menu Bar is always visible. It is a little confusing because it could seem to be the opposite. If you're thinking of On being the Menu Bar visible and Off being the Menu Bar hidden that's wrong. It's when this is Off that the Menu Bar is visible because it is hiding that we are talking about. 

So the four options are: 

Always, in which the Menu Bar will be automatically hidden in both Desktop and Full Screen modes. 

On Desktop Only where the Menu bar will be automatically Hidden only if you're in a Desktop Space but not the Full Screen space.

Then you've got the Default Option which is the Menu Bar is always shown on the Desktop but is automatically hidden in Full Screen mode. 

Then you've got Never meaning that the Menu Bar is always visible. It is never hidden in either mode. 

So, for instance, if we were to choose Always notice that the Menu Bar is now hidden here on the Desktop. If I go to the Full Screen space instead of using Control right arrow I'm going to use 3 fingers on my trackpad and swipe over. You can see it is hidden here in the Full Screen space as well. If I were to switch to On Desktop Only you could see it is hidden on the Desktop and it is visible in Full Screen mode. If I were to choose Never now the Menu Bar is always visible in Desktop Mode and in Full Screen Mode. So you can choose which one of these four settings that you want. As I mentioned before in Full Screen Only is the default. So you would always see here In Desktop mode and it's automatically hidden in Full Screen mode. 

Now in addition to moving your Pointer to the top to bring up the Menu Bar note that you can also bring it up by using a variety of keyboard shortcuts that activate the Menu Bar so you can use it. So in System Settings if we go to Keyboard and then Keyboard Shortcuts then go to Keyboard here on the left there is a shortcut for Move Focus to the Menu Bar. In this case it is Control F2. Note that you have to check the function key setting here. If this is Off you'll need to use the fn or Globe Key in addition to F2. Otherwise it is going to be the brightness control key. 

So here in Desktop mode if we use Control F2 notice how the Apple Menu is now active. I can use the arrow keys to move back and forth, down arrow to go down, and I can use Spacebar to select something. If I go to Full Screen Mode here notice the Menu Bar is hidden but Control and F2 will bring it up and select the Apple Menu there just like before. So you can force the Menu Bar to appear with Control F2 and a second Control F2 will make it disappear. So if you just wanted to check something, like say the time at the upper right hand corner, you could do so with Control F2 to turn it On and Off. 

Another way to get there is to use Shift Command and then the question mark key. That is the same as Control F2 except it goes to the Help Menu not the Apple Menu. You can still use the Arrow keys to navigate around and you could start typing now because you're automatically in the Search field for Help so it is a really handy thing to know. But what it also  does is it brings up the Menu Bar even when it is hidden without you having to go and use the mouse or trackpad. Another Shift Command and question mark will Hide the Menu Bar. 

So take the time to look at this setting in System Settings and decide which one you want to use. If you can't decide just stick with the default as it is probably the one that makes the most sense. You want the most space in Full Screen Mode and you probably don't mind having a little bit of the top of the screen taken up with the Menu Bar when you're using Desktop Mode. But if you always like to see the Menu Bar then select Never. If you always like to Hide the Menu Bar then select Always. 

I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.