← Documentation

The Menu Bar Panel

PanoPaper lives in the menu bar. Click its icon and a panel opens below it with everything you do every day; the icon stays highlighted while it is open. Press Esc, click the icon again or click anywhere else to close it.

Can't see the icon - in a crowded menu bar, or behind the camera notch of a MacBook? Open PanoPaper again, from Spotlight or your Applications folder, and the panel drops down.

What's in the panel

Choosing a camera

The panel shows a picture of each camera: NVRs and cameras in the order you gave them in Settings ▸ Cameras, each NVR's name above its cameras when you have several, and cameras without an NVR together after them, under IP Cameras. With two or more NVRs signed in - or an NVR and a camera without one - tabs above the pictures narrow the list: All shows every camera, an NVR's tab only its own, IP Cameras the cameras without an NVR; PanoPaper remembers your choice. The number keys choose the same cameras whichever tab shows. Under an NVR's tab, the All Cameras tile shows just that NVR's cameras in a grid. The pictures are live while the panel is open - a still from the last minute or so until the video starts. A 360° camera's picture looks as its View is set for that display - flattened, or its whole round picture (see 360° Cameras). The camera showing now has an outline in your accent color. Offline cameras are dimmed and say Offline; cameras your account may not watch are dimmed and say No Access - turn on their Livestream permission in UniFi Protect (see Which account to use). If the account may watch none of an NVR's cameras, the panel says so under the NVR's name. At the end, All Cameras shows every camera at once, in a grid (see All Cameras). Click the outlined picture again to turn the camera off: your normal wallpaper comes back. With only one camera, PanoPaper chooses it by itself, and its picture stays outlined.

With several displays, pick the display at the top first. The panel starts with the display whose menu bar you clicked.

The first nine cameras show a number, 1 to 9, and All Cameras the key left of 1 (` or §). Choosing a camera shows a box naming it, with "Connecting…" until its picture shows. Press a number while the panel is open to switch - on a clear desktop that works without the panel too, see Desktop Keys. The arrow keys move between the pictures, and Return or Space chooses one.

Right-click a camera's picture (or Control-click it) and choose 'Broadcast…' to open Settings ▸ Broadcast with that camera chosen. While a broadcast is live, 'Broadcast This Camera' switches it to that camera.

Instead of cameras, an NVR may say Signing in…, Not signed in, No cameras or Disabled in Settings ▸ Cameras. With nothing set up yet - or no NVR signed in - the panel welcomes you instead: it lists your NVRs and cameras that are not signed in (with why, if signing in failed) and the NVRs and cameras PanoPaper found on your network, each with 'Sign In…', plus 'Scan Again' to look once more and 'Add…' for one it did not find - 'Add UniFi NVR…' right there in the panel, 'Add Camera…' in Settings ▸ Cameras, which also takes a camera's RTSP URL - or, when it finds none, says so, with 'Scan Again' and 'Add…', and where to find an NVR's address: PanoPaper only finds NVRs and cameras on your Mac's own network segment, so one on another segment (a VLAN) is added by its address. UniFi Protect keeps an NVR's under Settings ▸ Control Plane ▸ Console ▸ Network Settings - reach it through unifi.ui.com if you don't know the address yet. If macOS keeps PanoPaper off your local network, it says that instead, with 'Open Privacy & Security': click Local Network there and turn PanoPaper on. They ask for the user name and password in a small window pointing at it, right there in the panel (and its address, for an NVR not found); once signed in, your cameras unfold into the panel. The very first time, a little glitter and a note that your cameras are all set come with them (during the free trial, it also says every PanoPaper Pro feature is unlocked): click a camera to make it your wallpaper, and the note says it is live on this desktop - and that each desktop can show a camera of its own. If PanoPaper does not open at login yet, it offers 'Open PanoPaper at login' right there, so your cameras come back after a restart. Its ✕ closes it. And when you close the panel the first time after that, a note under the menu bar icon shows where PanoPaper lives - click anywhere to put it away. Everything else about NVRs and cameras is in Settings ▸ Cameras. While there are no cameras to show - nothing set up yet, or nothing signed in - 'Full Screen', 'Hide Cameras', Audio, Recent Detections and All Cameras stay hidden.

In the Web Edition, a camera you choose is for the Space you are looking at; other Spaces keep theirs. See Choosing Cameras.

In the free version, every tile shows “UNLICENSED” across its picture, like the cameras on your desktop. See The free version.

A day or two after you set PanoPaper up, a tip may point at a camera's number once: how the desktop keys switch cameras - and later one at 'Full Screen'. 'Learn More…' tells more; 'Got It' puts it away for good. A tip about something you already use never shows.

Hiding the cameras

'Hide Cameras' brings back your normal wallpaper on every display and stops all video - handy before you share your screen - without forgetting your cameras. While they are hidden, its button is highlighted and says On, and the menu bar icon is dimmed. Click it again to bring the video back. The cameras stay hidden after you quit and open PanoPaper again. A shortcut of your own does the same from any app - record one in Settings ▸ Shortcuts ▸ Hide Cameras; the button's tool tip shows it. Choosing a camera also brings the video back. While no display shows a camera, there is nothing to hide and the button is dimmed.

Full Screen

'Full Screen' shows each display's camera over the whole display, above everything: your windows, the desktop's icons and widgets, the menu bar and the Dock. It is the wallpaper itself, risen to the top - the same picture, zoom and view, without the dimming or fade you chose for behind your windows. macOS's volume and brightness indicators still show over it.

Press your Full Screen shortcut again, press Esc or click anywhere to go back - started from the panel, the panel opens again. Showing All Cameras, a click on a tile switches to that camera instead. It stays on until you end it, even when your Mac sleeps. Switch to another Space and Full Screen goes on with that Space's camera - or ends, if the Space shows none. A click on a camera in the list along the bottom switches to it as well, and All Cameras at its start shows the grid.

To change the volume, move the mouse: a slider appears at the right edge of the main display, halfway up, with the speaker under it to mute the audio. It sets Volume, the level Full Screen plays at (Settings ▸ General ▸ Audio), and fades away once the mouse rests for a few seconds. A click on it does not end Full Screen. All Cameras plays no audio, so it shows no slider.

While a detection shows at the top of the screen, the button and the shortcut show the camera that saw someone.

For a shortcut of your own, record one in Settings ▸ Shortcuts ▸ Full Screen - with an extended keyboard, a spare key such as F17 is handy.

Only the windows out of the way, icons and widgets staying? That is macOS's Show Desktop: F11 (on many keyboards fn-F11), or a shortcut of your own in System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ Mission Control ▸ Show Desktop.

Recent detections

With Detections on, the panel lists the last five people and animals your cameras saw in the past hour, newest first: what, which camera, and when - Now while they are still there. Click one to watch that camera in Full Screen. The list starts empty each time PanoPaper opens; while it is empty, the panel leaves it out.

To fold the list away without clearing it, click Recent Detections; it then shows how many there are, and a click unfolds it again. PanoPaper remembers which way you left it.

To empty the list, click the ✕ at the right of Recent Detections. It turns into 'Clear All' when you point at it. To take away just one detection, Control-click it (or right-click it) and choose 'Remove'. That menu also has 'Show in Full Screen' and 'Clear All'. Someone you cleared stays off the list even while they are still in view; the next time a camera sees someone, they show up as usual.

A new version and the trial

At the bottom, the panel may show a row or two:

The first two have a ✕ at their end that turns into 'Clear' when you point at it. Clearing the update puts it off until PanoPaper's next daily check; clearing the New in Version version row puts it away without opening the release notes.

Click ⋯ at the top right of the panel - or right-click the menu bar icon, or Control-click it:

What the icon shows

To move the icon to another place in the menu bar, hold ⌘ and drag it. PanoPaper remembers where you put it.