Configure a Quake-style dropdown Terminal in Mac OS X
31 Mar 2009 
4 Comments
Visor is a free Mac OS X Terminal add-on that provides a ‘Quake-style‘ drop-down HUD interface to the command line.
Visor installation requires that you download SIMBL (Smart InputManager Bundle Loader) and the precompiled Visor binary from its GitHub repository page:
Extract and install SIMBL, then extract Visor and move the “Visor.bundle” file to “~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/” (may may need to create this directory first).
Quit Terminal if it’s already running, then reopen it. You should now see a new Visor menu item in the menubar at the top of your screen, and Terminal will drop down from the menubar when activated.
To configure the keyboard shortcut for Visor, click the Visor menu item, choose “Visor Preferences“, and change the HotKey setting.
It’s possible to create separate Terminal windows from the Visor window by opening a new tab in Visor and dragging the tab elsewhere on your screen, or by right-clicking on the Terminal icon in the Dock and choosing “New Window“.
Separate Visor Instance of Terminal.app
Alternatively, there’s a way to create a separate instance of Terminal.app that will function in Visor mode and always be available (while not displaying as an icon in the Dock). To do this you will need to have the XCode Tools installed from your OS X installation discs (specifically, the Property List Editor tool).
Open a new Finder window and go to “~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/“.
Right-click on “Visor.bundle” and choose “Show Package Contents“.
Open the “Contents” folder, then open the “Info.plist” file with Property List Editor.
Expand the “SIMBLTargetApplications” item, then expand “Item 1“. Change the value of “CFBundleIdentifier” from “com.apple.Terminal” to “com.apple.Terminal_Visor“, then save and close the file.
In the Finder window, go to “/Applications/Utilities/“, right-click on “Terminal.app” and choose “Duplicate“. Rename the duplicated file to “Terminal_Visor.app“.
Right-click on “Terminal_Visor.app” and choose “Show Package Contents“, then open the “Contents” folder.
Open “Info.plist” in Property List Editor and change the value of “Bundle identifier” to “com.apple.Terminal_Visor“. Save and close the file, then run Terminal_Visor.app to make sure that Visor works properly.
Customize Terminal_Visor.app’s settings to your liking, then right-click on its icon in the Dock and click on the “Open At Login” option.
In the Finder window, go to “/Applications/Utilities/“, right-click on “Terminal_Visor.app” and choose “Show Package Contents“, then open the “Contents” folder.
Open “Info.plist” in Property List Editor and add a new Number entry at the bottom of the list called “LSUIElement” with a value of “1” (a checkmark).
Relaunch Terminal_Visor.app and it will run without a Dock icon. To make the Dock icon visible again, simply change the “LSUIElement” entry’s value to “0” (unchecked). To quit Visor completely, press ⌘-Q (Command-Q) while a Visor window is active.
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How can I enable Visor to do the HUD drop down for a Remote Connection window?
Unfortunately Visor is a Terminal-only add-on. I did a few searches now and couldn’t find a similar plugin for VNC or RDC, but if I do find one (or if I’m able to modify Visor to work with VNC / RDC) I’ll write a post about it for you.
Thanks!!!!! I was looking for this exact setup! Helped a lot, and was easy to follow. Getting rid of the dock icon and letting it always run in the background is so nice. Thanks again!
Not much to say but thank you for the clear and concise instructions. Visor minus the icon is a sweet setup indeed!