XMenu 4+

This is very handy, simple, helpful, free. It has the hierarchical menus that you can access from the top menu bar in the Finder. My favorite is the customizable (user defined) menu - that's what I use to keep regularly used folder, document/template items, and regularly used applications in. There is also a handy snippets feature. (Read through the description and the preferences pane after you install this app for more details.) To use the hierarchical menu(s), just click on the menu bar icon, and whatever you've put/set up in there is accessible within 1 click, and/or can be quickly and simply accessed by navigating hierarchical menu(s). I am one of those people who believe that the user interface in the old pre-OSX Finder was better designed and easier to use. The Dock is no replacement for the good old Apple Menu. This simple, free app returns some of that "navigability" functionailty back to OSX. This app is absolutely brilliant and super useful to have - it makes the Finder better. This functionality should actually be built into Mac OSX itself. Only improvements would be to have the option to add more to the custom menu, e.g., recent docs, recent apps, recent folders, etc. Or an option to show an application switcher menu (list of running apps) - like the old Finder had. Anyway, thank you DEVONtechnologies very much for your work and for making this excellent little app available, and for free!

I scanned the most critical list as I usually do and noticed that I couldn’t find a single one star rating that was true of the version I just downloaded. Then I noticed that the few complaints that weren’t from the “how do I use a mouse” crowd had been addressed in the 1.9.9 along with additional enhancements. As a long-time owner and extensive user of DEVONthink Office Pro, I’ve been delighted to see the quality of the applications that Devon creates. To add sugar to that they also help share excellent tools like this and EasyFind that make getting your tasks much more convenient. To see people complain that the app features can be done using other tools such as command line searches, writing small apps and using AppleScript are completely useless as reviews. With programming the Mac becoming more and more difficult for a wide variety of reasons and no attempts provide features that made quick and easy apostasy to auto assemble, and lack of features that were common on the Mac Classic OS. (Don’t get me going about the abomination called Automator) It was trivial then to use any number of drag-and-drop applications, databases (Double Helix), and of course, HyperCard stacks. So, to me, its very refreshing to see any simplification of tasks needed everyday.

It’s not just a matter of if a job is possible but how convenient it is accomplishing the task as well.

It wasn’t at all obvious to me how to get started with this application. I suspect the 1 star reviews came from people who gave up trying to figure it out faster than me.

When you first launch the app, a “help” window will open up. It’s basically a manual. Helpful if you’re already familiar with the basics and want to know the more advanced. Useless if you don’t know the basics. So just close that. It’ll automatically insert a tiny application icon (the A shape) all the way in the top right corner of the screen. To the left of spotlight and notification center, but to the right of the date and time. Click on that icon, then go into the XMenu submenu (it’s the first option in the main menu that drops down from the A.) Pick Preferences. Bam. It should be obvious how to use from this point.

Seems to work as advertised to me, once you figure that out.