Automatically hiding the menu panel

If the menu panel is in your way you can hide it and show it just when you need it by moving the mouse pointer to its position along the screen side.

To automatically hide the panel, click its background while holding the Control key and choose Turn Hiding On from the displayed menu. To have the panel always visible, move the pointer to the screen side to show the panel, click its background while holding the Control key and choose Turn Hiding Off from the menu.

Alternatively, you can also turn hiding on and off by opening the Application Wizard pane in System Preferences, clicking the General tab and selecting or deselecting the Automatically show and hide panel checkbox.