Can auto-hide for the application menu be turned off in Unity?

Question

Will there be a way to disable auto-hide behavior of global application menu in Unity. While I would prefer to have this behavior disabled by default (as it is bad UX), it looks like it's here to stay, so I'm wondering if, as a user, I will be able to turn it off.

Answer 1

This is currently not possible in 11.04 or 11.10

You can disable the global application menu entirely as an option:

• Does Unity support disabling the global application menu?

Answer 2

12.04

The global menu cannot be prevented from autohiding.

Unlike previous versions of Unity where opening an application never showed the global menu, in 12.04, the global menu appears for two seconds after an application has been launched before fading.

... you can also delay the autohiding of the global menu for up-to 10 seconds

gconftool-2 -t int -s /apps/compiz-1/plugins/unityshell/screen0/options/menus_discovery_duration 10

or via gconf-editor:

and I won't mention ccsm!

12.10

There is an implementation bug-report which has some speculative suggestions as to the global menu including the ability to have the ability to always turn-on the global menu

Global menu in general (not only in Unity) is very unergonomic on large screens (see the attached screenshot) because if you have a small window somewhere near the low right corner you have to move the cursor all the way up to to panel to reach the menu. I understand why the global menu was used for the netbook edition (it saves space and most windows are maximized), but since Unity is intended to be for the desktop edition there should be an option to switch to the traditional position of the app menu. It would be welcomed by many desktop users.

A commonly suggested solution is:

[ ] Global Menu on
[ ] Global Menu off
[ ] Global Menu only for maximized windows

The default is usually suggested as either the first (on) or last (on only for maximized windows).

---

Desired change:

Implement the 'Enhanced Menu' project for 12.10. This project will address the issue described in this bug and also issues described in the duplicates of this bus. Note this is the 'official' bug that tracks the implementation of this project.

The following options will be added to 'System Settings/Appearance':

Menus
Location: Global/Local
Visibility: Hidden/Always displayed

More details to follow during the 12.10 cycle... ;-)

... so watch this space!

Answer 3

The is suggested in the following bug. As a user you can vote for it.

Menus are hidden by default