Accessing Menu Bar Apps in Snow Leopard

I have quite a few apps accessible through menu bar icons such that many of them do not show up unless I'm in the Finder menu . . . which is very short compared to most apps I use. My question is how can I access the full range of menu bar icons when, for example, I'm working in say Scrivener . . . but without opening the Finder window itself?

Can you post screen shots?

Apps in the menu bar are always there regardless of the application that has focus.

Is it that you can't see the icons because of the size of the application menus? (in which case you must be running at a low resolution or have a huge number of menu bar apps!)

I guess it must be the low resolution I use . . . but I need that. I enclose a couple of shots that reveal my problem.

I don't know of a way to give menu bar apps higher precedence than the application menus.

Perhaps remove or hide those that you don't really 'need' (you can hide them from the user accounts preferences panel)

You could also get more space by limiting the date/time options you're displaying

Thanks for your help. I've whittled down some of the menu bar apps but it looks as though I need to remove more. Pity nobody seems to have come up with an app to address lack of menu bar space.

I suspect with the majority of users running larger resolutions it doesn't cause an issue on a large scale.

That doesn't mean there isn't a third-party tool out there to help though.

Maybe you're right. I've sent off an e-mail to MacFormat magazine to see if they've any ideas.

Something I've just noticed on your screenshot. Something that looks like iTunes player controls?
If that's what they are why not do away with them and just use the green restore button in iTunes to switch to the mini player and put that in the corner of your screen next to the dock?

Ha ha! I was just looking at removing those controls in favour of the iTunes mini player but the green restore button is news to me. I found Shift Command M. Thanks. That's a good start anyway.

I've reduced the date as you suggested and pruned a couple of other apps so everything is visible at all times. But I will continue to search for a way to create more space if that's possible. Thanks for your help.

I thought you might like to know I found a free app which does what I wanted. It's called NoMenuBar which goes in the Dock and when you click on it, it clears away the menus allowing swift access to all menu bar icons until such time as you click on on the app you are in. It works okay and allows me to keep the day, time and date. Thanks for your help. I like the iTunes Mini better than the controls I had on the menu bar . . . I think.