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The Black and White Menu Bar Show

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John Hill

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Sep 16, 2021, 5:21:44 AM9/16/21
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Anne and I have identical iMacs, both fully up to date, with very similar
software histories.

Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
white.

Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.

Anyone help me here?

John.

--
God made the integers; all else is the work of man.

Richard Tobin

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Sep 16, 2021, 6:20:04 AM9/16/21
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In article <shv2b7$e68$1...@dont-email.me>,
John Hill <watco...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
>white.
>
>Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.

On older MacOS there is "Use dark menu bar and Dock" under
System Preferences > General, but I don't know what it is on
recent versions.

-- Richard

Chris Ridd

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Sep 16, 2021, 7:20:04 AM9/16/21
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On 16/09/2021 10:21, John Hill wrote:
> Anne and I have identical iMacs, both fully up to date, with very similar
> software histories.
>
> Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
> white.
>
> Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.
>
> Anyone help me here?

Is it dark mode being set on one?

--
Chris

Bruce Horrocks

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Sep 16, 2021, 5:45:24 PM9/16/21
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On 16/09/2021 10:21, John Hill wrote:
> Anne and I have identical iMacs, both fully up to date, with very similar
> software histories.
>
> Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
> white.
>
> Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.
>
> Anyone help me here?
>
> John.

I've had that happen randomly for no obvious reason. A reboot cured it.

--
Bruce Horrocks
Surrey, England

John Hill

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Sep 17, 2021, 11:05:30 AM9/17/21
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On 16 Sep 2021 at 10:29:11 BST, "Alan B"
<alanrich...@nospamgmail.com.here> wrote:

> On 2021-09-16, John Hill <watco...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>> Anne and I have identical iMacs, both fully up to date, with very similar
>> software histories.
>>
>> Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
>> white.
>>
>> Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.
>>
>> Anyone help me here?
>
> Maybe something in System Preferences -> General or System Preferences ->
> Accessibility -> Display

nothing obvious :-(

J.

--
An infinitely complex system can fail in an infinite number of ways.

John Hill

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Sep 17, 2021, 11:06:06 AM9/17/21
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Nothing there now :-(

J.

John Hill

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Sep 17, 2021, 11:06:43 AM9/17/21
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No, both are standard.

J.

--
You're not an old dog until you can't learn new tricks

John Hill

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Sep 17, 2021, 11:10:55 AM9/17/21
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Shut down - power disconnect for 30 secs - reboot - no effect.

J.

--
Classic computing: Computers do what you tell them to do, not what you want them to do.
Modern computing: Computers do what they want to do, no matter what you tell them to do.

John Hill

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Sep 19, 2021, 6:45:28 AM9/19/21
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On 17 Sep 2021 at 16:10:53 BST, "John Hill" <watco...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> On 16 Sep 2021 at 22:45:21 BST, "Bruce Horrocks" <07....@scorecrow.com> wrote:
>
>> On 16/09/2021 10:21, John Hill wrote:
>>> Anne and I have identical iMacs, both fully up to date, with very similar
>>> software histories.
>>>
>>> Yet her menu bar is white lettering on black, and mine is still black on
>>> white.
>>>
>>> Presumably there is someting in System Prefs for this, but I cannot find it.
>>>
>>> Anyone help me here?
>>>
>>> John.
>>
>> I've had that happen randomly for no obvious reason. A reboot cured it.
>
> Shut down - power disconnect for 30 secs - reboot - no effect.
>
> J.

The mystery remains resolved, the problem unsolved.

Anne says she is OK with the white on black, and I've no desire to delve in
the esoteric secrets of Big Sur.

Thank you all for your time and trouble.

J.

Bruce Horrocks

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Sep 19, 2021, 9:33:25 PM9/19/21
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One last thing: do you have a predominantly light desktop
picture/background and Anne have a predominantly dark one? The menu bar
text changes between white/black in order to maintain a contrast against
the background.

If so you can override this (sort of) by going to System Preferences ->
Accessibility -> Display and tick/untick Reduce Transparency.

I have a dark blue-ish screen background and with that box ticked I have
a black on light grey menu bar. If I clear it I then get a white on even
darker blue menu bar.

John Hill

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Sep 21, 2021, 12:03:05 PM9/21/21
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That was the answer! Both iMacs are supposed to have Reduce Transparency
ticked; somehow it had got unticked on Anne's. I've no idea how; she does NOT
fiddle about with system prefs.

Thank you for sorting this one.
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