explaingit

dwarvesf/hidden

13,956SwiftAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Hidden Bar is a tiny free Mac utility that hides unwanted menu bar icons to reduce clutter, letting you tuck icons out of sight and instantly reveal them with a click of an arrow.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Hides menu bar icons
      Reduces clutter
      Toggle visibility
    Installation
      Mac App Store
      Homebrew
      Direct download
    Requirements
      macOS 10.13 or newer
      Apple Mac
    Tech
      Swift
      Open-source
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Hide cluttered menu bar icons on a Mac to keep only frequently used ones visible at a glance.

USE CASE 2

Instantly reveal all hidden menu bar icons by clicking the toggle arrow when you need them.

Tech stack

SwiftmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
MIT licensed, use, modify, and share freely for any purpose including commercial use.

In plain English

Hidden Bar is a small free utility for Mac computers. Its single job is to tidy up the menu bar, the row of small icons at the top right of the screen. Over time that row can fill with icons from many apps and start to look cluttered. Hidden Bar lets you tuck some of those icons out of sight so the menu bar looks cleaner, and bring them back when you want them. The app is described as ultra-light, meaning it is meant to be small and stay out of the way. The README does not list a long set of features, because the tool is deliberately simple. Setting it up takes a couple of steps. After installing, you launch Hidden Bar, then hold the Command key and drag its icon along the menu bar to position it between your other icons. Everything to one side of that point can then be hidden. To use it day to day, you hold Command and drag icons to rearrange them, and you click an arrow icon to hide or show the items. There are a few ways to install it. You can get it from the Mac App Store, install it with Homebrew using the command shown in the README, or download the latest version directly from the project's releases page and drag the app into your Applications folder. The README notes that the version distributed outside the App Store is notarized, which is Apple's safety check, so it is safe to run. Hidden Bar runs on macOS version 10.13, also called High Sierra, or newer. The project is open-source, built mainly in Swift, and maintained with help from community contributors. It is shared under the MIT license by the Dwarves Foundation.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I just installed Hidden Bar on my Mac but I'm not sure where to drag the divider icon to set it up. Walk me through the initial setup step by step.
Prompt 2
How do I rearrange which icons Hidden Bar shows versus hides by dragging them on the macOS menu bar?
Prompt 3
I want to contribute a small Swift bug fix to Hidden Bar. Help me clone the repo and understand the basic project structure in Xcode.
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