Howdy, y’all. I’m trying a little experiment today: a screencast that I whipped up to show switchers and other Mac newcomers how to manage the OS X menu bar. Just click on the embedded player below to check it out. Show notes are located beneath the video, and I’ll post some thoughts about the screencasting process separately.

I’d love to hear what you think. Please leave a comment here, or email me at stuart@thenewbig.com.

Show Notes

• Turn off the translucent menu bar in Leopard 10.5.2 by opening the Desktop & Screen Saver Preference Pane and unchecking the box next to “Translucent menu bar.”
  


• Many menu items can be turned off by clicking on the icon and then clicking the bottom-most menu item
  


• Move icons using Command+Drag (left or right). Remove icons by Command+Drag off menu bar. (thanks to this forum thread on MacWorld.)
  


• iStat Menus is available at iSlayer.com
  


• Caffeine (to keep your display awake) is available from Lighthead Software.
  


• Slim Battery Monitor by Colin Henein can be found here.
  


• And you can download Free Ruler from Pascal.com
  

Brett Terpstra discovered a wicked cool keyboard tip for those of you running OS X 10.5, something I never would have thought to look for: per-keyboard modifier key settings. Just go to System Preferences, Keyboard & Mouse, the Keyboard tab, and then click the Modifier Keys button at the bottom left. You can then select the keyboard you want to re-map from the top of the page.

I just got a new Logitech cordless ergonomic keyboard and had already resigned myself to mentally swapping the option and command keys. Now, I can save those precious synapse firings.

Which reminds me… why aren’t there any ergonomic Bluetooth keyboards?