Classic Mac OS/Application Menu

The Application menu is located at the far right of the main menu bar, and displays the name of the current (frontmost) application, as well as its icon. Inside this menu are the following commands:

• Hide (name of application): This command hides all the windows of the current application from the screen, and brings to the front another application. The application so hidden is still running, and its windows are still open; you just can't see them.
• Hide Others: The converse to the above command, this command hides the windows from all applications except the current one.
• Show All: This command undoes the effects of the other commands in this menu. It restores all windows to visibility on the screen.

Below the Show All command is a separator, and below that is one item for each currently running application. (Since the Finder is always running, you will always see its name in the menu here.)

Customizing the Application Menu

Despite its apparent simplicity, the Application menu supports a deep array of customization options. The first choice is whether or not to display the name and icon of the current application, or just the icon. (You might choose to display only the icon when you have many other items in the menu, and you are running out of space.) To do this, click the small, textured grip-strip just to the left of the Application menu's icon. Click the grip-strip again to restore the name. You can even drag this strip to the right to create an in-between state where only part of the application name is displayed.