OS X Yosemite is now available, and as with most new releases, there are a number of changes and improvements to be made. One of the most important changes is the addition of a new menu bar that can be customized to your liking. Butler is a utility that can be used to customize the menu bar in OS X Yosemite. Butler allows you to add custom icons, text, and buttons to the menu bar. Butler also provides a number of options for how the menu bar should look and behave. To begin customizing your OS X Yosemite menu bar, first open Butler and click on the Preferences button. In the Preferences window, you will find several options for how yourmenu bar should look and behave. The first option is called Appearance and it allows you to customize how yourmenu bar looks. You can choose between a standard OS X Yosemite interface or you can create your own interface using Butler’s built-in tools. The second option in Preferences is called Menus and this setting allows you to add custom menus to yourmenu bar. You can add any type of item you want including folders, applications, or even files! The third option in Preferences is called Buttons and this setting allows you to add custom buttons to yourmenu bar. You can choose between text buttons or images buttons. The fourth option in Preferences is called Icons and this setting allows youto create custom icons for yourmenuBar. You can choose between PNG or JPEG files when creating youricon file. The fifth option in Preferences is called Behavior and this setting allowsyouto customize howthe menus behaves when opened or closed by users (for example, by default itwill show all applications in the Menu Bar). Once you have customized all of these settings for yourOS X Yosemite menu bar, click on OK to save themand close Butler。You will now have a customizedOS X Yosemite menubar that looks great and behaves exactly as you want it to!
For instance, you can add a smart menu that shows you a list of running applications, another really useful feature for recent converts.
The Butler configuration screen lets you assign new items to different sections. Notice the Google search box is selected, and the default shortcut is ctrl+opt+G to focus the search box. There’s too much to show you everything, but read further for my current favorite features.
Assigning Hotkeys to Items
You can add a shortcut key to an item by selecting it and then choosing the Triggers tab on the right hand side. For example, I decided to assign a hotkey to the iTunes Start/Stop item.
Automating Keystrokes
Automating common tasks is one of my favorite pastimes, and Butler is no slouch in helping accomplish this. I decided to automate the task of filling in comment fields on WordPress blogs.
First, I added a Keystrokes item to the Hidden section and assigned a hotkey of opt+cmd+N, although you can assign any shortcut key you want.
Now for an extremely cool feature.. make sure the Keys tab is selected on the right, and then you can start typing keystrokes that you want to automate. In this instance, I entered in the following:
The Geek
Now if I click in the Name field and hit the cmd+opt+N shortcut I assigned…
And there we are, automation! This application is now a must-have in my toolbox.
Download Butler from ManyTricks.com
