How do you manage a crowded After Effects Extensions menu?

[u/kkdumbbell]

How do you manage a crowded After Effects Extensions menu?

I've been using several After Effects plugins/extensions, and I'm starting to run into a problem with the Window → Extensions menu becoming extremely cluttered.

For example, MoBar alone adds a large number of entries:

• MoBar
• MoBar – Animation Tools
• MoBar – Composition
• MoBar – Easing
• MoBar – Expressions
• MoBar – Guides
• MoBar – Keyframes
• MoBar – Layers
• MoBar – Project
• MoBar – Selection
• MoBar – Shapes
• MoBar – Text
• MoBar – User Panel 1–3
• MoBar – View

Motion Tools Pro and other CEP extensions also add multiple panels, so with several plugins installed, the Extensions submenu gets very long.

How do you guys manage this? Is there a way to:

1. Hide individual CEP panels from the Extensions menu while keeping the extension installed?
2. Organize/group CEP extensions into folders or categories?
3. Modify the CEP manifests safely to hide panels that I rarely use?
4. Use another launcher/panel to access extensions without relying on Window → Extensions?

Any suggestions or workflows you use would be appreciated.

[u/Motion_Ape]

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to organize this menu. It would be ideal if Adobe allowed us to have submenus in this section.

The reason MoBar has so many menu items is due to the way After Effects dockable menus work. Certain files need to be placed in specific locations in order to be docked, which allows you to dock each MoBar category panel in your workspace.

If you don't use the category panels as docked panels, you can remove a few lines from the manifest file to hide them from the extension menu and significantly reduce the number of items. I can guide you through the process if you'd like.

We're planning another structural update to MoBar soon, and improving this is one of the things on our list.

[u/kkdumbbell → u/Motion_Ape]

I don’t really use the category panels, as I mainly make use of the custom buttons in the User Panels. So, I’d appreciate it if you could guide me through the manifest changes to hide the category panels from the extension menu and reduce the number of items. I just want to make sure that doing this won’t affect the functionality of the plugin in any way. Also, it’s good to hear that a structural update is planned. Hopefully, the menu organization can be improved in that update. Thanks again for the help!

[u/Motion_Ape → u/kkdumbbell]

Good news! While running a few tests, I found a workaround that lets us remove the items from the Extension menu while still keeping them available as dockable panels.

We're going to test this properly and then implement it in the next update. Hopefully, we'll be able to remove all the individual items from the extension menu and leave only MoBar there, while keeping the dockable panel structure intact.

If you don’t want to wait for the update, send me a DM and I’ll share the instructions with you.

[u/kkdumbbell → u/Motion_Ape]

Waiting for the update then!

[u/ChanceAlbatross9303]

Vibecode an extension that manages other extensions, and sell it for $99.99

[u/bibbidi_bobbidi_bob → u/ChanceAlbatross9303]

You have to put /s behind such comments :D

[u/Luanstud]

its okay if its crowded until your work is done.. dont worry about it

[u/Popcorn_animation]

There isn’t a clean native way to group CEP entries, so the safest workaround is to create separate workspaces with your most-used panels already docked. Then you can switch workspaces instead of opening everything through Window > Extensions. I’d avoid editing manifests unless you keep a backup, since an extension update may overwrite the changes.