Access Your Files in Mac Menu Bar

If you’re looking for a way to swiftly access your important/favorite files, without using the Desktop or the Dock then a new app called, XMenu, gives you another method.

XMenu is a tiny app that allows you to access files and folders via the Mac menu bar. The application is vastly customizable in terms of changing the locations, menu layout, and size. A few types of files accessible with XMenu are Documents, Text snippets, Home folders, and Apps, all from different drop-down menus sitting within your system menu bar. This is just as handy as your Dock icons or your Dock stacks that you can setup.

Download the application and place it within your Applications folder as you would with any app, then go ahead and launch it. Once you have opened XMenu you will see a new icon appear in your menu bar near the clock. Clicking on this icon will display the contents of your Applications folder, as this is the default setup for the freshly installed XMenu. To add more folders or remove the current one simply right-click the new icon and select ‘Preferences’, you will then be greeted with the admin panel where you can configure XMenu. The menus section allows you to set the Home, Documents, and Snippets selections, and when chosen they will appear instantly in your menu bar. Underneath the menus section, you can enable customized menu labels, follow links, and sort lists by their name.

The icons section allows you to modify the way the lists are displayed, with/without icons, the size of the icons, etc.

XMenu works on Mac OS X 10.5 and higher. You can find it here.