I have one document I need to reference often. It’s currently a Google Doc. I have it bookmarked so it’s not that big a deal to pull up when I need it. But it would be slightly more convenient if I just had an icon in the menu bar I could click that would reveal the document in an overlay.
Is there a tool that will do that? I could export the document as a local file instead of a web page if that changes the answer.
Closest I can think off is using DefaultFolder X and putting the document in a target folder. It will still be a 2-click solution.
You could also create a PDF and drag it into the dock area next to the bin and it will stay there available with 1 click
Using Fluid, create a menu bar SSB with the desired doc as the home page.
I second the vote for Fluid.app which can not only create a Single Site Browser (SSB) for just that page/doc, but it can also put it into the menu bar. It’s $5 but well worth it. I believe there’s a free trial too.
The standard Mac way is to put a link to the page in the Dock, not the menu bar. Go to the page of interest, click in the URL field to make the site’s icon appear, then drag that icon to the Dock (in the section where Downloads and Trash are, not where the apps are). See this longer explanation.
Of course, Apple isn’t the boss of you. Just because it wants you to use the Dock doesn’t mean you have to. But if you want to use the menu bar, you’ll have to use one of the third-party solutions above.
I thought there was an app that did this, and I just came across one that does… however, it has not been updated in 2 years and the Twitter account has been idle for 2 years as well.
So, let the buyer beware. Homepage here and app is sold through the Mac App Store:
I used an app years ago to put whatever I wanted in a menubar menu. It’s called Moofmenu and I see it is still around and M1 compatible too. It worked flawlessly for me for a long time.
available at www.lobotomo.com
Question about MoofMenu.
I dragged a zip file into my menu.
On a webpage where there is an upload form I tried to drag the zip file from MoofMenu, but it is not draggable.
Is there a way to make this work?
Another really good and free app for this is Xmenu.
How about a pinned tab in Safari?
I’ve tried several apps that do this. XMenu, Hungrymark, Shortcut Bar, HighTop. I second XMenu which has already been recommended. It is the most responsive with the lowest system resource usage, and it’s free. It’s from the people who make DEVONthink, which is quite popular on this forum.
And, it will save you a gesture compared to the other ones, if you have a mouse and use it optimally. Bear with me here.
The way most people use the menu bar and right-click menus, is they click once to open the menu, then click again to select an option. But there is a much better way to use the menu. You click (or right-click), hold the mouse button down, hover over the menu item you want, and release the mouse to select it. One click, instead of two clicks. This works on most native Mac menus. And it works in XMenu. But it doesn’t work in the other three I mentioned.
Edit: I just tried MoofMenu. Had to, when I saw it was from the maker of IPSecuritas which is OG Mac software. MoofMenu gets my approval too for low system resources and one-click usage working correctly. Looks like a great app.
These are all great suggestions. But unless I missed it, they all look like they’re menubar shortcuts to the file but the file itself will still open in whatever its default application is. What I want is the menubar to have a pinned window that shows the contents of a file – a text file, rtf, etc. Not sure I saw that feature in these. (And maybe I’m not explaining it right anyway).
Looks like I’m going to have to learn to code.
Did you check out Fluid.app, mentioned by @tjluoma ?
For $5 you should be able to add the page to the menubar.
Check this out…
Yeah, for some reason when the page in question is a Google Doc, Fluid gets caught in a crash loop.
I’d report that to the Fluid developer.
Have you tried Unite? Does same as Fluid and has option for statusbar app (minimllisation) mode and also ability to create mobile app version. Works well with Brave as well…
I created a MPU app on M1 this way to get to this forum. Works better than installing iPad app DiscourseHub on M1 as it doesn’t scale to the open window
with a third party app like Keyboard Maestro, you can pin anything (URLs, Apps, complete workflows) to its status menu and activate them anytime
If you hold Option+Command and drag the file onto the menu bar, that should work. To remove it, it’s the same keyboard combo and drag it off.
