There is a lot of software available for decorating a Macintosh desktop, but why stop there? Menu Bar Pattern is a control panel that enables you to extend decoration into the menu bar.

As the name implies, you can give the menu bar its own background pattern. There is also a transparent mode which allows the desktop pattern or picture to show through the menu bar.

The control panel includes a bitmap editor for creating patterns of up to 256 colors.

System requirements:

• Macintosh with Color QuickDraw
• System 6.0 or higher. (Has been tested with Systems through 7.5.3.)
• Monitor capable of 16 or more colors.

Menu Bar Pattern contains both 68K and PowerPC patches.

For more complete information, read the documentation enclosed in the download archive.

Menu Bar Pattern is shareware. $7.

Click here to download Menu Bar Pattern 1.3.3 (127K).

Some users have also contributed patterns for use with Menu Bar Pattern:

• Click here to download Mikey's Menu Bar Patterns (17K).
• Click here to download Mikey's Menu Bar Patterns II (6K).
• Click here to download Milner's Patterns (72K).
• Click here to download Shiva's Patterns (275K).

1.3.3 - a) Fixed a problem in which creating a new pattern could leave a previous pattern selected. b) Fixed a crash that occurred if you try to edit a pattern immediately after creating it. (Think C 7.0.5, CodeWarrior 9)

1.3.2 - Fixed a problem in which truncating certain imported patterns would corrupt the preferences file and crash the machine. (Think C 7.0.5, CodeWarrior 9)

1.3.1 - Fixed an intermittent out-of-memory problem on some systems caused by the control panel's pattern list being unable to load patterns from the preferences file. (Think C 7.0.5, CodeWarrior 6.0)

1.3 - a) Made patch code PowerPC native. b) Fixed problem with occasional crashes in Import dialog. c) Moved preferences and patterns to a separate file. (Think C 7.0.5, CodeWarrior 6.0)

1.2.4 - Fixed an intermittent problem between the MBP init and extension managers that display the extension name along with its icon at startup time. (Think C 7.0.3)

1.2.2 - Fixed a bug in Import. (Think C 7.0.3)

1.2.1 - a) Some new keystrokes added. b) Menu bar height indicator added to FatBits area. (Think C 7.0.3)

1.2 - Transparent mode added. (Think C 6.0.1)

1.1 - a) Conserve memory by disposing patterns that are not visible. b) Exact colors used in Pattern Editor. c) Color Picker used in Pattern Editor. (Think C 5.0.4)

1.0.4 - The trap change of 1.0.3 had some displeasing effects, especially in relation to SuperClock!, so reverted to original scheme. (Think C 5.0.4)

1.0.3 - a) Changed the traps being patched in order to have a much smaller effect on overall system performance. [However, this causes the Finder, when launching an app, to display the app name on a white menu bar instead of a patterned one.] b) Corrected a bug in the way patterns are saved after editing [especially noticeable on 8x8 patterns]. c) Truncate patterns that are larger than 32x64. (Think C 5.0.3)

1.0.2 - Fixed a problem with the Installed pattern not being saved as such. (Think C 5.0.3)

1.0.1 - Fixed a problem with incorrect colors in the Pattern Editor. (Think C 5.0.3)

1.0 - Original release. (Think C 5.0.3)