Docs / The menu bar and Mission Control
The menu bar and Mission Control
DeskSay has no Dock icon. It lives in the menu bar, and it draws desktop names over Mission Control. Both are there so you can tell where you are without opening anything.
The menu bar item
The menu bar item is the part of DeskSay you see all day. It sits at the top right of the screen and says which desktop you are on. You do not have to click it, open the Board or press anything: the name is already there.
You should seeThe name of the current desktop in the menu bar, or an indicator row, depending on the style you choose.
Desktops you have not named still appear. A desktop with no icon or colour of its own is given one derived from its name, and the Board, Settings and the menu bar all draw the same one, so a desktop looks the same everywhere. See names, icons and colours for how to set your own.
The four styles
Pick one in Settings, On Screen.
The other menu bar settings
Four more settings sit beside the style picker, all in Settings, On Screen.
- Maximum width. How much room the item may take in the menu bar. Long names are shortened to fit.
- Use desktop colours. Draws the name, the indicators or the icon in each desktop's own colour rather than the plain menu bar colour.
- Show every display's desktops. With more than one screen, include the other displays' desktops in the item, not only the desktops of the display the menu bar is on.
- Hide dimmed desktops from the indicators. Dimming a desktop keeps its name but takes it out of the indicator row. Use it for desktops you keep but rarely switch to.
Dim is set per desktop, in the Board or in the menu, and it does not remove the name. See names, icons and colours.
The dropdown
Click the menu bar item and the menu opens in this order.
- Show the Board. The same grid you get with Option and 1. See the Board.
- The desktops themselves. Every display's desktops are listed, with a Current: line naming the desktop you are on for that display, so you can read the menu on a Mac with two or three screens without counting.
- Listen. Starts voice recognition, the same as the voice shortcut. See voice.
- Rename Current Desktop. Names the desktop you are on without opening the Board.
- Jump Back. Returns to the desktop you came from.
- Note for This Desktop. Opens the note kept with this desktop.
- Run. The automations for the current desktop, ready to start by hand.
- Settings. Opens Settings.
- Show the Tour. Runs the six-step guided tour again.
- Check for Updates. Asks the update server now rather than waiting for the daily check.
- Quit DeskSay.
Notes and automations have their own page: notes, time and automations.
The submenu on each desktop
Each desktop in the list carries a submenu. It holds the things you would otherwise open the Board for.
Mission Control labels
Open Mission Control and DeskSay draws each desktop's name over its thumbnail, so the strip along the top reads as your names rather than Desktop 1, Desktop 2, Desktop 3.
The settings are in Settings, On Screen:
- On or off. Turn the labels off and Mission Control looks as it did before.
- Font size. How large the name is drawn over the thumbnail.
- Only label desktops you have named. Leaves the unnamed ones alone.
- Use the desktop's colour as the label background. Draws the label on that desktop's own colour instead of a plain one.
Mission Control keeps macOS's own numbering. When DeskSay says Desktop 3 it means the third tile in your order on the Board, which is not always the third thumbnail in Mission Control.
After the trial
If the 14-day trial ends and you do not subscribe, the menu bar keeps working. The item still shows the desktop you are on, the dropdown still opens, the Mission Control labels stay, and your names, notes, automations and time records are all kept. What is limited is switching: 30 switches a calendar month until you subscribe. See the licence page.