Macos – How to show menu bar in macOS with keyboard shortcut

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I'm on an 11.5" Macbook Air, so screen real estate is important to me. I currently have the menu bar set to auto-hide, but I want to be able to show the menu bar with a keyboard shortcut. Any ideas out there to do this without hacking something together?

Best Answer

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard
Move focus to the Menu Bar [default Ctrl ⌃ F2 ]

If you wish, you can then navigate the menu with the arrow keys - but it will pop the menu bar into view; Esc to close it without further interaction.

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Macos – Use the keyboard to activate the menu bar

From Mac OSX Keyboard Commands:

Full Keyboard Access (see Chapter 3)

  control+F1

    Toggle Full Keyboard Access on/off

  control+F2 (or control+M)

    Focus keyboard control on menu bar

  control+F3 (or control+D)

    Focus keyboard control on Dock

  control+F4 (or control+W)

    Focus keyboard control on active Window or cycle to next window

  control+F5 (or control+T)

    Focus keyboard control on toolbar

  control+F6 (or control+U)

    Focus keyboard control on palette (utility window)

  control+F7

    In windows and dialogs, switch focus to text boxes/lists/controls

  arrow keys

    Navigate active item

  return, enter, or spacebar

    Select highlighted item

  return or enter

    Select default dialog control (OK, Yes, No, Save, Open, etc.)

  escape

    Cancel action, menu, or dialog

control+F1 to enable Full Keyboard Access (only needed once), then

control+F2 (or control+M) is the command you are looking for.

Best Answer

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Macos – How to add a custom keyboard shortcut for a nested menu item

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