..comes a deficit in menu bar space. Although unsupported by Apple, many third-party applications use the menu bar as an alternative for the Dock. Apps like Google Notifier, Twitterific, and Synergy all use the menu bar as the primary means of accessing the application and preferences, as well as for notifications (Google Notifier) or controllers (Synergy). The problem, however, is in build-up. Sure, you might say to yourself, there’s enough room in my menu bar for one more application (TuneTagger, let’s say). And for those of us blessed with a 30″ Cinema Display, menu bar clogging will never be an issue. But for the rest of us, those lugging around a 13″ MacBook or using that old 800×600 CRT with their Mac mini, menu bar clog is a real issue. Just look at Merlin Mann.

Counting Apple’s menu bar items, there are 20 items in Mr. Mann’s menu bar. Merlin has a problem. Fortunately, we have a solution. Let’s take a look at my menu bar.

Wow! Only five items! How do you do it, Richard? How do you overcome the sweet sweet siren call of the beautiful menu bar applications?

The truth is, I don’t. Like a suicidal teenager hiding his cut-covered arms with baggy shirts, my problem is there, hiding just beneath the surface, just a click away from revelation. Like Merlin, my menu bar is as filthy and grimy as the hazardous material dumps we all know Steve is hiding from us. And like Steve’s secret junkyards, there’s always a way to shove your problem deep down under the bed. I call it the Two Step Program.

Step 1: Turn it off.

Quite a few applications have options in their preferences to turn off the menu bar icon. Usually those that do have an easy way to otherwise access the contents of those menus, so removing the icon doesn’t mean you have to miss out. Adium, Growl, Quicksilver, there’s a button in the preferences of each of them, and poof, another sign of your addiction is gone. Consider removing some of Apple’s menu extras as well, some, like Bluetooth and Ink, are unlikely to be used for long streches of time, so consider Command-Dragging them out of your menu bar to watch them poof out of existence.

Step Two: Cover it up.

Within the zip file below, you’ll find nothing. Nothing at all. On closer inspection, you’ll see that it actually contains three transparent image files. Herein lies my trick. Replace the menu bar icons with the transparent ones.

1. Quit the application you want to “fix”.
2. Navigate to it in your Applications folder, Ctrl-Click, and choose “Open Package Contents”
3. Open up Content, then Resources. The Resources folder contains pretty much everything interface-related in the application, and it’s here that we’ll find the icon we seek.
4. Find the icon. Each application is different in how its icons are labeled. For example, in CoverSutra, the regular icon is called “statusicon.tiff”, and the alternate icon (what gets displayed when you click on it in the menu bar) is called “alternateStatusItem.tiff”
5. Drag all the different menu bar icons in Resources to a new folder, or zip them up.
6. Download this file and open it up in a new window.
7. Duplicate the icons as needed, rename them to exactly what the files inside the application were named, than drag them over to the Resources folder . Make sure the extension is the same as well, if not, change it with Preview’s Save As.
8. Open ‘er up! If all goes well, you’ll see nothing at all in your menu bar, however, if you click to the left of the leftmost icon, you’ll be able to access the menu just like normal.

As an added advantage, applications like Google Notifier and FacebookMenu can still display your new mail and messages, since they use a number, rather than the icon to express it.

There you go. Thanks to the Two Step plan, you’ve safely hidden your addiction, and no one will ever be the wiser. As an added bonus, you’ve prettied up your Mac. So share a screenshot in the forums, flaunt your seemingly Herculean willpower in abstaining, and take no heed next time you stumble across a new application that want to take more valuable space.