First off, this tip does not work with all menu bar items, only Apple-provided menu bar items (like the clock, WiFi status, iChat, etc.) and select third-party application menu bar addons. This reason behind this how to do with how developers add an item to the menu bar: only items through OS X’s SystemUIServer will work with this tip. 

Back when I first switched to the Mac, I couldn’t for figure out a way to move the items on my Mac’s menu bar around. The only way I could figure a way to do it was to manually enable/disable them in the order I wanted them to be displayed. This tip is a simple solution to that problem.

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For those who visit OS X 411 regularly, you may have noticed there haven’t been many recent posts, in fact this is the only post made for October 2008. The reason behind this is time. I haven’t had time to write articles. I do plan to continue writing, its just that I’ve had a lot to do with school, work and other projects. I expected this to happen and enabled user registration. This means you can write an article for OS X 411 (visit the write an article page for information on how to write).

Stay tuned…

A simple time saving tip that I’ve found useful is to quit open Applications without switching to them first. I’ve got two time saving ways to accomplish that task, first through Mac OS X’s built in Application switcher (Command + Tab) and secondly the Mac OS X Dock.

The Application switcher built into OS X and accessible through Command + Tab, this allows you to quickly switch between open Applications. By striking Command + Tab once and holding down the Command key you’ll see something like the screenshot above with icons for each running Application on your Mac. Pressing Tab again will cycle forward through the list while Shift + Tab will go backwards. A nifty trick is to hit the Q key while you have an Application highlighted in the Application switcher; you’ll notice that the icon fades out, the Application has just quit.

Using Mac OS X’s Dock is also an easy shortcut for quitting Applications. Right-click an open Application and choose Quit from the menu. If you’ve got an Application that has locked up and is not responding right-clicking the Application’s Dock icon will reveal a Force Quit option (much easier than opening the Force Quit window).

As of today, OS X 411 now allows anyone to register for an account and submit articles to be published on the main blog. Anything you write that clears review will be published for the whole Mac community to see.

It’s simple to sign up, choose a username and supply an email address, we’ll then send you a temporary password for you to login with. Once your account is made you’ll be able to write and submit articles for our editors to review. For more on this process, visit OS X 411’s write an article page.

If you have news, tips, tricks or a how-to that has something to do with Apple’s Mac OS X, share it with the world: get it published on OS X 411.

More: Write an Article or Register for an Account.

LicenseKeeper from Outer Level is one of those programs that everyone who has more than one purchased program can use. LicenseKeeper is a product key/license key manager, it stores lots of information on each license added to its database, you can attach emails and other documents plus information about an application’s developer.

LicenseKeeper will keep track of all your licenses in an easy to use application. When you first launch LicenseKeeper you’ll be greeted with the option to check for updates and send anonymous information to the publisher. To add a new application there are two ways, create it manually or import the application’s .app file to LicenseKeeper. If you use the second option LicenseKeeper will automatically add the version number, application icon and developer information. All this can be added or modified manually, and of course you’ll have to add the license key to the application record.

Outer Level has a trial version of LicenseKeeper available with a limitation on the number of entries you can have kept by LicenseKeeper, if you choose to buy a copy for yourself LicenseKeeper will set you back $19.95 USD from Outer Level’s store. If you’re like me and keep a plain text file with all your license keys, LicenseKeeper is an effective way to organize your license keys in a searchable database with some added bonuses like information about an application’s developer if the need for support arises.

Read more: LicenseKeeper from Outer Level.

Exposé, the application window switching and hiding feature built into OS X  is something you either love or hate. But this article on Exposé is not about its flaws, but instead a cool hidden feature that easily lets you cycle through the open windows of applications open on your Mac.

How to use it: Start Exposé (All Applications or Application Windows) and while its displaying all your open windows hit Tab. Each time you hit Tab, Exposé will cycle from one open application to another, basically switching which application’s windows it’s displaying. If you’re in All Applications mode this will switch Exposé to Application Windows mode, and each subsequent press of Tab will move you to the next application (Shift + Tab to go backwards). Even if there are no applications open with more than one window, this will still cycle through highlighting one window at a time. Pressing Enter will exit Exposé and bring the the selected window/application to the front (Escape also works). A screen shot of this Exposé feature in action can be seen below as well as two videos at the end of this post.

There is no mention of this feature in System Preferences, it seems like one of those things that you’ve got to find for yourself. By default you can enter the Application Windows mode with F10, but this allows easy access to Application Windows from All Applications as well as another nice way to switch applications from Exposé.

I’ve got two videos of this in action, the first shows this trick with single-window applications only while the second shows multi-windowed applications mixed in with single-window applications.

• Expose Tab Trick (Single-Window) 1.1MB
• Exposé Tab Trick (Multi-Window) 3.6MB

I’ve noticed most people drag an external disk to the Trash in order to unmount/eject a drive from their Mac. Thats not the only way to safely eject a disk from your system though… I can’t claim this tip saves any time, but its one I use quite often when I’ve got several application windows open, this tip is how to eject a disk through the Finder window (instead of the Desktop and the Trash located on the Dock).

Each ejectable disk has a small eject icon next to it in the left sidebar of Finder, this is highlighted in the image above (click on it to enlarge). A simple click on this eject icon will unmount the disk from your system and allow for removal without data loss (providing it ejected without an error). You’ll know its been ejected from your Mac when the disk disappears.

There are other ways of ejecting a drive from your system, using Disk Utility is one, and another method is by selecting a disk in Finder and using Command + E (while a drive is selected).