#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR HOW TO#
#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR CODE#
#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR BLUETOOTH#

Once we know how to refer to the menu items, we can write the AppleScript code: set deviceName to 'Geoff's iPad' tell application 'System Events' tell process 'SystemUIServer' click ( menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 whose description contains 'Displays' ) set displayMenu to menu 1 of result if (( menu item 1 where its name starts with deviceName ) of displayMenu ) exists then - Not connected, so click the name of the device to connect click (( menu item 1 where its name starts with deviceName ) of displayMenu ) else - Connected, so click 'Disconnect' to disconnect click (( menu item 1 where its name starts with 'Disconnect' ) of displayMenu ) end if end tell end tell UI Browser showing menu path to iPad in Catalina In this case, I want to find “Geoff’s iPad” in the Displays Menu. Using UI Browser, you can find the scriptable menu elements as you click the menu.

For that you need an app like UI Browser. Script Debugger showing the Displays Menu in Catalinaīecause the Displays Menu hasn’t been clicked, its menu items aren’t visible, so Script Debugger can’t show you is the items in the Displays Menu. There’s only one system menu called “Displays Menu,” so menu bar item 1 whose description contains 'Displays' refers to the Displays Menu. There’s only one menu bar, so menu bar 1 always refers to the menu bar. Using the description property shown in the screenshot, we can make that a little more intuitive, and not have to worry about finding the menu bar item number, by calling it menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 whose description contains 'Displays'.

You can see in this screenshot of Script Debugger running under Catalina that the element hierarchy for the Displays Menu is System Events > SystemUIServer > menu bar 1 > menu bar item 17. I don’t have an OS older than High Sierra, so I don’t know if it was the same in older versions.) (SystemUIServer also controls the system menus in High Sierra and Mojave. In Catalina, the system menus (Bluetooth, volume and so forth) in the menu bar are controlled by the process SystemUIServer. The original version of the macro broke under Big Sur, which is what led me down this rabbit hole. My Keyboard Maestro macro for Sidecar for Catalina and Big Sur uses a UI script to activate Sidecar via the Display menu.

In addition to application menus, System Events can click system menus such as the volume menu and the Bluetooth menu. (This example is actually written from the bottom up, but you can see that it includes the path from the menu bar - menu bar 1 - to the menu item Export Playlist.) If you want the script to click a menu item, you usually can’t tell it to click the menu item directly as in the example above, you have to give it the path from the menu bar down to the item you want it to click: click menu item 'Export Playlist.' of menu 'Library' of menu item 'Library' of menu 'File' of menu bar 1. Often, the hardest part of writing a UI script is figuring out how to tell the process what to click.

For example, this code will click the Export Playlist… item in the Music app’s File menu: tell application 'System Events' tell its process 'Music' click menu item 'Export Playlist…' of menu 'Library' of menu item 'Library' of menu 'File' of menu bar 1 end tell end tell You manipulate user interface elements by telling System Events to tell another process (application) to do something. UI scripts use an application called System Events. Even if the app doesn’t expose a scripting interface, UI scripting works because it simulates button presses, keystrokes and other actions that you would perform if you were doing the task manually.

UI (user interface) scripting is a really neat macOS feature that allows you to automate almost anything using AppleScript. I learned much of this while updating my Keyboard Maestro macro for Sidecar to work with Big Sur, so most of the information is presented in that context. This post explores some changes in Big Sur that affect UI scripting, specifically UI scripts that interact with the menu bar.

#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR HOW TO#

#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR BLUETOOTH#

#MAC ALWAYS DISPLAY MENU BAR CODE#

Mac always display menu bar