#Launchbar auto start windows#

I wish Launchbar could detect which windows of a particular application are open since that's the only time I ever use the dock. Janu11:27 EST #1 This is a brilliant product.Granted, typing Command-Space, b, Return isn’t as quick as typing F6, but my fingers can stay on the home row and I can’t touch-type the F keys anyway. to avoid conflicting with application-level keyboard shortcuts. With other utilities I ended up settling for F5, F6, F7, etc. I can use normal letters like “i” for iCab, “m” for Mailsmith, “it” for iTunes, “b” for BBEdit, “pb” for Project Builder, and “amu” for my ATPM Mirror Upload script. Further, while 30 items on a DragThing dock start getting out of hand, LaunchBar easily scales up to hundreds of applications and folders.Īnother benefit over other launchers is that the abbreviations can be mnemonic. The docks and shortcuts were always slightly out of sync between my two machines. When I used DragThing, each time I installed or upgraded an application I’d have to put the new icon into one of the docks and reassign its keyboard shortcut. Because LaunchBar periodically scans for new files and learns my abbreviations automagically, I never waste time futzing with it. I found that one of the best parts of LaunchBar is that you can configure these settings once and forget about them. LaunchBar has a configuration window for setting the items it searches, and a preferences window for configuring various appearance and behavior settings. This is especially useful for entering folder paths into Terminal, though it can also be used as a faster way to navigate open file dialogs in some applications. If you type Command-C, you can copy the path of the current item to the clipboard. If you instead use Option-Return, LaunchBar opens the file and hides all your other applications. Type Command-Return instead of Return to select an item, and LaunchBar reveals it in the Finder. There’s no need to search through different application folders or to further fill your already bulging Dock.īut if you spend a little time reading the online help and tips, you’ll be surprised and pleased to find that this simple little utility packs quite a punch. For starters, you can access any application on your system with just a few keystrokes. The advanced features are accessed by simple variations of the above techniques, and you’ll get a lot of mileage out of just using it as a launcher. LaunchBar is simple to use, and except for configuring the preferences I’ve already described its entire interface. On OS X, I’ve been using the system Dock instead of DragThing’s process dock, but the system provides no built-in means for me to mimic DragThing’s other functions.

On OS 9, I used DragThing to create a process dock and a tabbed dock with applications that I frequently drop onto, and also to assign hot keys for launching applications. FinderPop has many uses, but I most often used it for opening deeply nested folders and applications. Spring-loaded folders let me start dragging a file, tunnel through folders until I find where it should go, and have the resulting window clutter disappear when I release the mouse button. Popup windows give me quick access to drag and drop targets while keeping them out of view. drawers), spring-loaded folders, and FinderPop.

#Launchbar auto start mac os#

What I miss are Mac OS 8/9’s popup windows (a.k.a. I keep the windows for my frequently accessed folders open at all times. As of version 10.1, the OS X Finder does a tolerable job of remembering window and icon positions, so lately I’ve been using the Icon and List views almost exclusively. But although I’m proficient in both styles, neither works as smoothly as I’d like. I’ve tried using the OS X Finder like I used the OS 9 Finder, and I’ve tried the NeXT-style Columns view. To me, the most important of these is the Finder.

#Launchbar auto start mac os x#

Mac OS X still lags behind OS 9 in many areas.