Customize Touch Bar In Mac Book Pro 2016

Customize MacBook Pro

The Mac Book Pro was launched with an amazing feature called Touch Bar. It is one that is thinner than the Mac Book Air. The Touch Bar replaces the function keys and adjusts to the software on which a laptop runs. It could also be easily customized. It can be achieved in the same way as the toolbar on any Apple application on Mac.

Follow the steps below to customize the touch bar in Mac Book Pro.

1. To customize the Touch Bar whether it displays App Controls, Control Strip or both :

Customize MacBook Pro

 

Go to “System Preferences”, then click on the “Keyboard” section. Make sure you’re in the Keyboard pane. Two menus can be seen in the drop down that are related to it. They are :

  • Touch Bar shows
  • Press Fn key to

‘Touch Bar shows’ decides whether the Touch Bar will show just App Controls, an Expanded Control Strip, or a mixture of the two. The combination of the two is the choice by default.

Customize MacBook Pro

‘Press Fn key to’ selects what the Fn key does to the Touch Bar. Here, the default is to bring up the Function keys, but if you select ‘App Controls’ or ‘App Controls with Control Strip’ in the menu, you can make the Fn key show or expand the Control Strip. And if you select ‘Expanded Control Strip’, you can make the Fn key show the app-specific controls.

Customize MacBook Pro

2. Customizing to display the controls for each app :

Customize MacBook Pro

Selected apps will let you bring up a palette of functions onscreen. You can do this within the app itself. For that, go to Finder, then select View > Customize Touch Bar. All you need to do is click-and-drag your useful function down to the bottom of the screen, whereupon it will appear in the Touch Bar. The existing controls will vary slightly to indicate that they are open to editing. This is similar to the app icons in iOS when you’re moving apps around.

To change the controls in other apps, open each app in turn and find the option to customize the Bar. It won’t be necessarily located in the same section of the menu as in Finder. But looking under View, or in the app’s preferences, would be a good place to start. However, remember that not all apps allow the Bar customization.

Finally, you need to make sure that your chosen app is displaying the default controls at the moment you select the customization option. It hasn’t switched to some other set of controls because of an unusual context. Otherwise, you’ll just customize the controls for that context, not for the general use of that app.

3. Customizing in Safari :

Customize MacBook Pro

Firstly, ensure that the default Safari controls display so many options. Some are back and forward buttons, open tab thumbnails etc. We can alter the settings for Safari.

To customize the controls displayed by the Touch Bar in Safari, go to View > Customize Touch Bar. New options include Add Bookmark, Reader, Share, Tab Overview, Home, History, Favorites Bar, Autofill, and Sidebar.

4. Customizing in Notes :

Customize MacBook Pro

You can change the controls in Notes. But currently, there aren’t any additional controls to add. So you have to move the controls around, removing the ones you don’t like (typing suggestions can be turned off here), or adding spaces between them.

Click on Notes and select View > Customize Touch Bar, then drag-and-drop the controls you want into the positions where you want them.

These are some of the ways to customize the Touch Bar of the Mac Book Pro 2016.


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