Comments on: Leopard Fix: Solidify your translucent menubar

By: Joshua Kaufman

Joshua Kaufman — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 08:59:24 +0000

Recently discovered solution: http://jwz.livejournal.com/817385.html

By: R. Murdouch

R. Murdouch — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:29:26 +0000

Thank God for hacks - the true vote of whats wrong and right. I hate the translucent menu bar even more than watching Shepard Smith rehearse being blown across the parking lot in a hurricane.
It looks like something from the drivers license DMV office. Good riddance.

By: Dave Hurley

Dave Hurley — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:35:12 +0000

Well, this might sound heretical to those who love to customize, but I have found that it's best for me to tolerate such changes for a while and see if I simply get used to it. Usually I do.

There are always little design irritations and things I miss when OSes update. I used to do things like you did and modify them back, but as a post-production freelancer and university instructor who frequently uses machines other than my own, I like to keep things stock and vanilla so that I'm not jarred or disoriented when I hop from system to system. I hate being tied to having to install a bunch of customizations to make a system feel "right" to me.

Also, on a more philosophical level, I don't like to let myself become stubborn about these things and "lock in" on stuff that I'm used to. I find that kind of mindset unappealing and counter-productive when I observe it in colleagues.

I upgraded my non-critical machine to Leopard on Friday and did not like the translucent menu bar (or 3D dock) much, but am already used to it here on Sunday night. No biggie.

By: Guillermo

Guillermo — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:08:46 +0000

You can just add a white bar on your desktop picture using Photoshop and that's it. Since that portion of the desktop picture is white, bye bye transparency.

You can create a workflow using a combination of PS actions & Automator if you're lazy.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:54:40 +0000

put the dock on the right or left and there’s no reflection. as long as there’s a white strip at the top of the background you shouldn’t have a problem with a translucent menu bar. This doesn’t fix the drop downs, but it works alright.

By: Joshua Kaufman

Joshua Kaufman — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:27:39 +0000

Wouldn't an easier fix be to have a desktop with a menubar background so that you don't have to run an app just to correct it? First person who makes available all of the system backgrounds with a corrective top menu bar will be a star.

By: Luke Noel-Storr

Luke Noel-Storr — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:24:42 +0000

Overall, I’m actually rather disappointed. I’m still using Tiger on my main machine, and I think I’ll stick with it for now. My main reason at the moment, is I really am finding Leopard causes much more eyestrain than Tiger ever did. I think the UI is generally just harsher on the eyes, the 3D Dock (with reflections and shadows all over the place) and translucent menu bar didn’t help, luckily I’ve now found hacks to solve both those issues.

My Top 5 Leopard Niggles: http://luke.thunk.it/post/17502462

and fixes for 3 of them: http://luke.thunk.it/post/17846369

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:56:31 +0000

I'm really loving Leopard, I never really found back-up software to be accessible and always thought the "One Touch Back-Ups" were a joke. With Time Machine my opinion of backing up my stuff has changed completely.

I love multiple desktops as well! I no longer have to use Expose or the minimize button when using Photoshop or iMovie. I definitely love Spaces!

Overall, I'm really satisfied with Leopard, It was definitely an upgrade worth getting.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:15:18 +0000

It widely depends on the background you use - which is irritating for those of us that rotate backgrounds. I went through and kicked out most of the ones that made it look crappy, and I can bare it now.

However, the new folder icons (specifically within the Home folder) are outrageous. Without color in the icons, it makes it much slower to figure out which one I want.

All in all, I'm fairly impressed. I'm sure it will grow on me.