In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to customize the Control Center and menu bar on macOS.
With macOS Tahoe, the Mac's Control Center and menu bar have become more customizable, with the ability to add, remove, and reorder a greater variety of items.
To add an item to the Control Center or menu bar, click the “Edit controls” button at the bottom of the Control Center dialog, focus on the item you want to add either in the list of suggestions or the “More controls” grid, and choose "Add to Control Center" or "add to menu bar" from the Actions menu (accessed by pressing VO-Command-Space). Note that you can use the search field, or click a category in the “Available controls” group to narrow down what’s shown in the “more controls” grid.
To remove an item from Control Center, focus on it and choose "Remove" from the context menu (accessed by pressing VO-Shift-M). To remove an item from the menu bar, focus on it and choose "Remove" from the Actions menu.
To move an item in Control Center, press VO-Shift-F3 to turn cursor tracking off, focus on the item, route the mouse pointer to it by pressing VO-Command-F5, and mouse down on it by pressing VO-Command-Shift-Space. Then, move to where you want to move the item to, route the mouse pointer by pressing VO-Command-F5, and mouse up by pressing VO-Command-Shift-Space. Note that this may not always work reliably, depending on the positions of controls being reordered.
To reset Control Center to its default layout, go to System Settings > Menu bar, and click Reset Control Center.
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Tyler: Hey AppleVisors, Tyler here with a quick tip for how to customize the Control Center and Menu Bar on macOS. With macOS Tahoe, the Mac's Control Center and Menu Bar have become much more customizable with the ability to add, remove, and reorder a greater variety of items. To do this, you'd go into the Control Center and hit the Edit Controls button at the bottom of the dialog. You can also find this button in System Settings by selecting the Menu Bar category and clicking the Edit Controls button in the scroll area. To demonstrate, I'm going to go into Control Center on my Mac with VL Shift O. VL Globe Right, jump to the bottom.
VoiceOver: Edit controls. System dialogue. In system dialogue, content is empty. Drag the controls to place in the control center or menu bar. System has new system dialogue.
Tyler: Okay, so here we are in the edit controls dialog. At the top we have the search field. We can search for a control.
VoiceOver: Available controls group
Tyler/VoiceOver: this is where you can categorize what you see in this dialog. For some reason it jumps down to vision accessibility at the bottom, so I'm going to jump to the top with VL Globe left. All controls selected. Battery, Connectivity, Desktop and Finder, Display and Brightness, etc. Suggestions will depend on what macOS thinks will be helpful based on how you use your Mac.
VoiceOver: Scene or accessory toggle button. Actions available. Alarm button. Stopwatch button. Tile windows left and right button. Run shortcut button. Start screensaver button. Voice memo toggle button. Quick note button. Recognize music toggle button. Actions available. More controls grid.
Tyler: The More Controls grid is where all items that can be added to the Control Center and menu bar are displayed. If you selected a category above, only controls in that category will appear. It's currently focused on Focus, meaning it's already in Control Center. If I VL left, that’s Focus. If I VL right, those are other items. I'm going to stop interacting and find the Alarm control in the suggestions. I'm going to access the actions menu with VL Command Space. Every actions menu has the item name, Add to Menu Bar, and Add to Control Center. I'm choosing Add to Control Center.
VoiceOver: Search control. Search text field. Drag the control to place it in Control Center or menu bar. Done button.
Tyler: Okay, Alarm has been added to my Control Center. Some items—like Run Shortcut—require additional setup. So I'm going to find Run Shortcut and choose to add it. Now I need to select which shortcut to use. I found that I need to stop interacting and re-interact to get VoiceOver to focus correctly. Here we are on my list of shortcuts. I'm choosing one for a smart plug. Hitting Done finishes the addition. Now Run Shortcut has been added to Control Center. I'm jumping to the Done button at the bottom and returning to Control Center. Here are the controls—Alarm is added, Run Shortcut is added. If I want to change something about these controls—delete, add to menu bar, or change size—I press VL Shift M. Sizes determine appearance visually; not sure if they affect VoiceOver. Other menu items include Edit, Copy to Menu Bar. I'm going to copy it to the menu bar now.
VoiceOver: Press VOM twice for the status menu. Run shortcut.
Tyler: If I want to run it, I hit VO Space. If I want to remove it from the menu bar, I use the actions menu via Command Space and choose Remove. Now it's removed. To remove an item from Control Center, go into Control Center, find the control, and choose Remove from the context menu. To reorder controls: 1. Focus the control 2. Press VO Shift F3 to turn cursor tracking off 3. Root the mouse with VO Command F5 4. Mouse down with VO Command Shift Space 5. Move to the desired location 6. Root mouse again 7. Mouse up with VO Command Shift Space. Though I’ve found this not always reliable. I'm also not aware of a VoiceOver method for reordering the menu bar. If you've customized Control Center heavily and want to reset it, go to System Settings → Menu Bar → Reset Control Center. The button is near the bottom, so I use VL Globe Right to jump there. Hitting Reset returns everything to default. That's a quick tip for customizing Control Center and the menu bar on macOS. Parts of this could be more refined from a VoiceOver standpoint, but it’s mostly doable. Hope this was helpful. Peace.