Menu Bar settings
The Menu Bar settings page: the Control Center shortcut, what the status item shows, its colour, today's totals, and the warning and block flash.
The Menu Bar page shapes the status item at the top of the screen: how much it shows, whether it is in colour, and when it draws attention to itself. The item and its menu are on The menu bar item, and the panel it opens on The menu bar panel.
Toggle Control Center
Section titled “Toggle Control Center”The first row is a shortcut recorder, Toggle Control Center. Record a key combination there to open and close Control Center from anywhere. Outbound doesn’t set one for you.
Preview
Section titled “Preview”Preview draws the item twice, once on a light menu bar and once on a dark one, and redraws as you change the controls. The traffic is a sample, not this Mac’s live rates. With Show today’s data on, the sample reads 2.4 GB. With Show blocked today on, the sample count is 3.
What the item shows
Section titled “What the item shows”Menu bar shows: five choices. The default is the capsule.
| Option | Shows |
|---|---|
| Status capsule with graph and rates | The shield, a small traffic graph and both rates, in one capsule |
| Icon, graph and upload/download rates | The shield, the graph and the two rates as separate parts |
| Icon and traffic graph | The shield and the graph |
| Icon and traffic history (last 2 minutes) | The shield and a graph of the last two minutes, so a short burst stays visible |
| Icon only | The shield alone |
Icon only also hides today’s data and the blocked count, and those two switches are disabled while it is selected.
Colour and add-ons
Section titled “Colour and add-ons”Show the status in color: on by default. On, the shield uses the protection colour: green while protecting, orange while paused or waiting for approval, red when the filter is off or the extension is missing. A pause adds a small pause mark. Upload and download use the traffic colours from Appearance. Off, the item is a template image in the menu bar’s own monochrome.
Show today’s data: off by default. Adds a small TODAY caption and the data used so far today. Disabled when the item shows Icon only.
Show blocked today: off by default. Adds a BLOCKED caption and today’s blocked count. With colour on, a count above zero is red. Disabled when the item shows Icon only.
The text under the controls: “Off draws the icon in the menu bar’s own monochrome, as most Mac utilities do. A warning badge appears when protection is off or the filter is missing.”
Warnings
Section titled “Warnings”Warn when protection is off: on by default. A warning badge (a small exclamation triangle) appears when the filter is off or the filter extension is missing. A pause, with the filter still installed, does not show it. See Pausing and turning off the filter.
Flash when a connection is blocked: off by default. A block flashes the item for 0.6 seconds. A second block inside one second does not start another flash. With colour on, the shield and the capsule use the block colour (system red) for that moment. With colour off, the item is drawn in black for that moment and is not handed to the menu bar as a template image, so the bar does not tint it; the capsule is not painted red.