Today’s Question: In the Develop module of Lightroom Classic, I no longer see the menu across the top where, for instance, it would select File and I could obtain a dropdown menu and export. I can right-click on the image and obtain those commands and export, but I wonder what else I am missing with the menu bar gone from the top of my screen. How do I restore the ability to see that menu?
Tim’s Quick Answer: In this situation you can view the menu bar in Lightroom Classic by moving your mouse pointer to the very top of the screen and holding it there until the menu appears. You can then restore the menu bar by choosing Window > Screen Mode and then choosing either “Normal” or “Full Screen with Menubar”.
More Detail: Lightroom Classic includes a couple of full screen view options so you can have the interface take up the entire display rather than having Lightroom Classic in a window. One of the full screen options causes the menu bar to disappear, but you can bring the menu back by hovering your mouse pointer at the very top of the display where the menu would otherwise normally appear.
You can cycle through the three options by holding the Shift key on the keyboard while pressing the “F” key. Each time you press Shift+F you will change screen modes, with the three options being “Normal”, which causes Lightroom Classic to appear in a window, “Full Screen with Menubar”, which has Lightroom Classic take up the entire screen, but with the menu bar at the top of the display, or “Full Screen”, where the menu bar will be hidden so Lightroom Classic can really take up the full display area.
You can also select one of these options by choosing Window > Screen Mode from the menu, followed by the preferred setting.
In this case I suspect you accidentally pressed the Shift+F keyboard shortcut, causing the display to cycle to the full screen option with the menu bar hidden. It is worth noting, by the way, that there is also a full screen option for the current image, where the single image can fill the screen without any of the Lightroom Classic interface shown. To toggle that full screen viewing option on and off you simply press the “F” key without holding the Shift key.
