Use the Open menu

With the Open menu you can open favorite and recent applications, applications located in the Applications or Utilities folders, and System Preferences panes. In addition to that, the Open menu lets you run AppleScripts.

To show the Open menu:

Click the blue button in the menu panel or menu bar or, if you have enabled it, press the Open menu keyboard shortcut.

Use the menu panel to display menus
Show Application Wizard in the menu bar
Use keyboard shortcuts to display menus

To open an application or run an AppleScript:

  • To open an application or run an AppleScript, choose it from the Open menu.

  • To force a 64-bit and 32-bit capable application to open in 32-bit mode, select it in the Open menu and press the Control key.

  • To open an application without restoring its windows, hold down the Command and Option keys and choose it from the Open menu.

Open menu items are described below. To add or remove items from the Open menu, open the Application Wizard pane in System Preferences and click Menus. Click the Customize Menus button and click Open.

Customize the Open menu

Groups

Groups let you access frequently used applications or AppleScripts and quickly open multiple applications at the same time.

To open all the applications belonging to a group, choose Open All from the group’s submenu. If you select the ”Choosable group menu items” checkbox in the Menus pane of the Application Wizard preferences, you can also open all the applications belonging to a group by selecting the group menu item in the Open menu.

Note: Application Wizard does not run AppleScripts when you choose Open All or select a group in the Open menu.

Create groups

Dock Applications

This submenu lets you open applications you have added to the Dock.

By default, Dock applications are sorted alphabetically. To list them in the same order as they appear in the Dock, choose Sort in Dock Order from the submenu.

Note: When applications are listed in Dock order, the Open menu shows Dock separators. If you have not added real Dock separators with the Terminal application, but are instead using dummy applications with empty or decorative icons, please rename each of them using sequences of hyphens (”-”, ”--”, ”---”, ... ).

Recent Applications

This submenu lets you open applications you have used recently.

By default, recent applications are sorted alphabetically. To list them from the most recent one to the oldest one, choose Sort Chronologically from the submenu. To change the number of recent applications, use the Number of Applications submenu at the bottom of the Recent Applications submenu.

To clear the Recent Applications submenu, choose Clear Menu from the Number of Applications submenu.

Applications, Utilities, and other folders

The Applications and Utilities submenus let you open applications located in the Applications folder and in the Utilities folder.

In addition to that, you can add other frequently used folders to the Open menu, so that you can quickly access the enclosed applications or AppleScripts.

By default, Application Wizard lists applications and AppleScripts in a non-hierarchical menu looking two levels deep into a folder, but you can change its depth using the Folder Depth submenu at the bottom of the folder’s submenu.

If you prefer hierarchical folder menus, select the ”Make folder menus hierarchical” checkbox in the Open pane of the Customize Menus dialog.

System Preferences

This submenu lets you open specific System Preferences panes or the System Preferences application.