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4

When changing the volume on a Mac, you get a big ugly gray bezel showing the change in volume. This is super annoying when (say) watching a movie. Is there any way to disable this?

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3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote
+50

In automator, create a new service that takes no input. Give it a single action: Run AppleScript Enter the following AppleScript:

set x to get output volume of (get volume settings)
if x >  10 then 
    set volume output volume (x-10)
else
    set volume output volume 0
end if

Save the service with the name "Volume down", and bind the service to F11.

Create another new service that takes no input. Give it a single action: Run AppleScript Enter the following AppleScript:

set x to get output volume of (get volume settings)
if x < 90 then 
    set volume output volume (x+10)
else
    set volume output volume 100
end if

Save the service with the name "Volume up" and bind the service to F12.

Goodbye volume overlay.

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And thanks for the AppleScript blog posts, @Nathan Greenstein, that helped me to do this. I'm new to AppleScript. – Daniel Lawson♦ Nov 3 '11 at 0:01
1  
Awesome answer! What a great idea. Just FYI, those checks are unnecessary; the volume will automatically bottom out at 0 and top out at 100. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Nov 3 '11 at 0:26
up vote 2 down vote

There's no built-in method for doing so, but Googling brings up suggestions such as overriding the image used for it so that it's less obtrusive.

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The post you link to suggests modifying images in a folder that doesn't exist under Lion. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Oct 30 '11 at 17:12
Under Lion they are in /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources/Bezel‌​UI/HiDPI/ but the PDFs seem to be empty. – patrix♦ Oct 31 '11 at 18:28
up vote 2 down vote

Don't use the volume keys. If you change the volume with the menu bar control the overlay does not display.

Note you only need to activate the menu item, and then the cursor keys can be used to manipulate it

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Is there a way to do this easily from the keyboard? The question mentions watching a movie, and showing the menu bar isn't really an improvement over the bezel in that case. – Nathan Greenstein♦ Nov 1 '11 at 22:04
^F8 will move focus to the status menus...cursor across to the volume control and up/down to adjust. Make sure this setting is enabled in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts - Keyboard and Text Input – Kevin Nov 1 '11 at 22:11

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