If you work with multiple monitors, the following scenario might strike a chord: you’re busy working on a document in a secondary monitor, and you need to apply some software widget to the stuff you’ve just selected. You struggle to remember the keyboard shortcut but can’t; so you have to use the Menu Bar.
Problem is, the Menu Bar is back where your computer left it, on your primary monitor. Once in a while this might not be a problem, but if it’s a common occurrence in your workflow, it’s going to start getting irritating.
Binary Bakery’s MenuEverywhere is an application designed to solve this problem.
Once active, it puts a copy of the current active application’s menu at the top of the frontmost window, where you can reach it without having to swish your pointer between monitors. People working on two, or even three, large monitors might see the appeal in this.
But the location of the Mac’s Menu Bar isn’t something to be trifled with. MenuEverywhere’s approach is very, how can I put it, Windowsy. It goes against whole chunks of the design and ethos of OS X. Menus were put at the top of the monitor for a reason, and have stayed there ever since.
That said, not many people used multiple monitors in those early days, and that situation has changed. Monitors are dirt cheap, so it’s now a very common situation, especially for notebook users.
In use, MenuEverywhere feels a little strange, but there’s no denying that it can come in useful. My only criticism is that it seemed a fraction too slow – sometimes there would be moments when it struggled to keep up with any windows that were being moved around. It’s not a pretty app, either; functionality wins over form here, so if OS X’s aesthetics matter to you, MenuEverywhere might not be such a good choice.
At $7 you’ve not got a lot to lose, and the trial version is fully functional to give you a chance to really test it properly.
[xrr rating=70%]
Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He also writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. You can find out more at his website, and follow him on Twitter @gilest.
7 responses to “MenuEverywhere Really Puts Your Menu Everywhere [Review]”
Bought this, but stopped using it as it was consuming 40% of my macbook pro CPU