tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post8548735746221489524..comments2024-03-19T13:29:04.853-04:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: LaunchBar as a Quicksilver replacement?David Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-19676425446309312142008-08-26T05:23:00.000-04:002008-08-26T05:23:00.000-04:00Quicksilver obsolete seems to be contradicted by t...Quicksilver obsolete seems to be contradicted by this comment a few weeks later.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-29556966511339085922008-07-14T18:22:00.000-04:002008-07-14T18:22:00.000-04:00Another vote for Butler. I never got QS and Butler...Another vote for Butler. I never got QS and Butler seemed easier to use. Agree that it could be easier to set up. v5 might be shareware. <BR/><BR/>I also use QuicKeys, but updating has been slowing through multiple transfers of ownership, therefore I won't be paying for any more upgrades unless they really improve the program (no updates since Tiger). But I like the two letter shortcut keys, e.g., cntl-e, g might mean email address for george; suppose that could just be eg with Butler.<BR/><BR/>Anon 22Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-79291716053532881992008-07-09T15:17:00.000-04:002008-07-09T15:17:00.000-04:00@BenMeant launchbar - sorry.I wonder if anyone has...@Ben<BR/><BR/>Meant launchbar - sorry.<BR/><BR/>I wonder if anyone has any opinions on which is better - butler or launchbar?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-74089607676318009982008-07-09T15:14:00.000-04:002008-07-09T15:14:00.000-04:00@Benthanks for the additional comments on why QS w...@Ben<BR/><BR/>thanks for the additional comments on why QS works for you. it does take getting used to.<BR/><BR/>David - i found this over on macuser:<BR/><A HREF="http://www.macuser.com/software/you_better_sit_down_quicksilve.php" REL="nofollow">http://www.macuser.com/software/you_better_sit_down_quicksilve.php</A><BR/><BR/>acc'd to this, the alcor person is back in the saddle with QS.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-4350847296702735362008-07-09T15:02:00.000-04:002008-07-09T15:02:00.000-04:00@Ben: Some excellent tips in there Ben - thanks fo...@Ben: Some excellent tips in there Ben - thanks for putting them in!David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-78840990946275328832008-07-09T14:51:00.000-04:002008-07-09T14:51:00.000-04:00pardo wrote:"I still don't understand why spotligh...pardo wrote:<BR/><BR/>"I still don't understand why spotlight - included with the OS - is not a better option."<BR/><BR/>Because you don't understand the cool, easy things Launchbar can do that Spotlight cannot.<BR/><BR/>There are lots of these (take a look at the docs) but I will give you some of my favourites other than app/file launching.<BR/><BR/><B>Search templates</B><BR/>Let's say I want to do a google image search. Instead of running Safari, waiting for it to open, opening a bookmark, waiting for it to load, typing my search time and hitting go, I do as follows (in about a fifth of a second):<BR/><BR/>Command space. Type "gim" (for google images, but remember you use whatever letters you want, Launchbar learns from you what it should do). Anyway, I type gim then space, then my search term and return, and bang, up comes Safari with the search results. <BR/><BR/>So that's command space gim space country for a google image search on "country"<BR/><BR/>I have lots of sarch templates (Launchbar comes with a whole bunch) for things like IMDB, TV episode guides, stockphoto libraries and so on - anything I regularly search with.<BR/><BR/><B>Sending files to apps</B><BR/>Another cool feature. I'm working in the finder on my files, and I have a bunch of images I want to load in Photoshop. I could open Photoshop and load them normally, or I could drag them to a Photoshop icon on my dock (if I had one - I don't use the dock at all, hate it in fact.)<BR/><BR/>In this case, I select them, command space, type ps (my command for photoshop) and hold down the last letter. Launchbar sends those selected files to Photoshop.<BR/><BR/>I send files to applications constantly using this method, it's brilliant. Holding down the key "picks up" the files, launches the app and sends those files to it.<BR/><BR/><B>Safari history</B><BR/>command space sh, and you can now browser your safari history by day using the cursor keys, or peform searches within the history this to quickly find that site you visited last week but forget what it was called.<BR/><BR/><B>Applescripts</B><BR/>In Mail, I select my spam mails, command space kn and those mails are sent to Knujon for spam bashing. <BR/><BR/>Seriously - Spotlight is a decent file finder, and some will use it as an application launcher, but it's not a patch on Launchbar.<BR/><BR/>As ever with these things, you often don't see the need when it involves changing a workflow you didn't realise was "broken". But once you work with it, it becomes indispensable and you can't dream of using anything without it.<BR/><BR/>Going to the dock, eyeballing the app you want amongts the long row of icons, moving the mouse to it and clicking on it is a *lifetime* when you are launching apps constantly, and even when you've learnt the position of those regular apps you use, it's still a semi-concious process.<BR/><BR/>With LB, running apps is much quicker and becomes a subconcious activity - once you decided to run an app, a few keystrokes and it's running.<BR/><BR/>Seriously, it's absolutely essential to my workflow. I ope that gives you some ideas. There is much more stuff, but those things are some of my most essential workflow tools.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08096339482538897753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-46467469859644124542008-07-09T13:22:00.000-04:002008-07-09T13:22:00.000-04:00After reading your blog and lamenting QS, I decide...After reading your blog and lamenting QS, I decided to take another look at both LaunchBar and Butler.<BR/><BR/>I've always loved the software that Peter makes and, in the end, I've decided to give Butler an extended test.<BR/><BR/>He is working hard on Butler 5, a "major" update but I'm finding 4 has more flexibility than I remembered though setting it up is complicated...it doesn't come set up to automatically catalog your documents folder, for example, though it does, of course, catalog your apps.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-52535064037888013642008-07-09T09:54:00.000-04:002008-07-09T09:54:00.000-04:00David - The noun/verb concept was lost on me until...David - <BR/><BR/>The noun/verb concept was lost on me until I saw it in action in a QS video - going to look at the LB one now and see what it does.<BR/><BR/>BTW - I agree completely with the notion of wanting to switch when the "official" support decides to move on. So far, the concept of paying for apps (ones I consider not major apps), has been hard to swallow BUT I am seeing how the commercial vs. free often times is better. 1password for example.<BR/><BR/>Thanks again for your insightful posts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-69052083526093094912008-07-09T09:41:00.000-04:002008-07-09T09:41:00.000-04:00Quicksilver isn't dying.http://www.43folders.com/2...Quicksilver isn't dying.<BR/><BR/>http://www.43folders.com/2008/07/08/quicksilver-updateErik Fisherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10058703068010096361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-78655951177308816712008-07-09T08:56:00.000-04:002008-07-09T08:56:00.000-04:00@SD: The advantage? The authors are motivated to c...@SD: <I>The advantage? The authors are motivated to continue working on the product, making it compatible with new OS releases and popular applications.</I><BR/><BR/>My statement is indeed a generalization but I stand behind it. If a company makes a living at something and it's a major product line you stand a better chance of getting updates to that product than you do if you are counting on people doing it purely for passion. One day that person simply decides they are passionate about something else and they move on to the next thing.<BR/><BR/>There are of course exceptions to that but having been in software development as long as I have I found that people care most when their livelihood depends on the product they produce.<BR/><BR/>@Pardo: The biggest difference is the context. With Spotlight I find an object and execute it: an application, a document, etc. With QS and LB I can perform different actions on the object instead of just the default. The other reason—the one that bothers me most with Spotlight—is that the index can become corrupt and sometimes it simply cannot find the application or document that you know is there. That reliability is a killer for me and it's happened just often enough for me to lose confidence that it is actually working.<BR/><BR/>If you don't have a problem with Spotlight's index becoming corrupt (maybe I'm just unlucky) and the concept of Noun/Verb actions on items doesn't give you any real value then Spotlight is great.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-90051683484625632372008-07-09T08:23:00.000-04:002008-07-09T08:23:00.000-04:00David - I still don't understand why spotlight - i...David - <BR/><BR/>I still don't understand why spotlight - included with the OS - is not a better option. Why should anyone PAY for something that is included already? <BR/><BR/>I have been pretty down on QS since I got my MBP last month. I didn't get the value until I watched a few videos to understand it more.<BR/><BR/>What is so different about LB over spotlight? Maybe that could be another blog post for you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-81135853655852126872008-07-09T05:29:00.000-04:002008-07-09T05:29:00.000-04:00"There is a huge advantage to using commercial sof...<I>"There is a huge advantage to using commercial software that you pay for "</I><BR/>I completely disagree. For instance Unsanity's shareware is still not updated for Leopard: http://www.unsanity.com/products/compatibility<BR/><BR/>And I have a lot of freeware developed by guys that love programming and provide updates as soon as needed...SDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05774078476512355231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-7544655419337848142008-07-09T04:46:00.000-04:002008-07-09T04:46:00.000-04:00A quick note for larrinski, if he/she is still rea...A quick note for larrinski, if he/she is still reading ...<BR/><BR/><I>but I like my UI to be in the middle of the screen, not up at the top. Let me customize the UI and I may consider it...</I><BR/><BR/>Press Ctrl-Space (or whatever you have it set to) to invoke Launchbar, click on the Launchbar and drag it to the middle of your screen, where it will now appear each time it is invoked, until you drag it somewhere else.<BR/><BR/>There ya go ... now you may consider it ... :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-43848987007519382092008-07-09T04:08:00.000-04:002008-07-09T04:08:00.000-04:00Right now there are some fresh betas on googlecode...Right now there are some fresh betas on googlecode page of Quicksilver, Some news builds and new version in preparation.tmilovanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12028044316703076426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-25223319208007848282008-07-09T00:22:00.000-04:002008-07-09T00:22:00.000-04:00It's pretty sharp in that it will run applescripts...It's pretty sharp in that it will run applescripts (without your having to save them as applications). I switched from Launchbar to QS, but got back into Launchbar after Alcor recommended switching away. The memory footprint is lower, too.nonjohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04776033963092916772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-80779259391197551872008-07-08T23:41:00.000-04:002008-07-08T23:41:00.000-04:00Have you ever tried Butler?Pretty nice and it's do...Have you ever tried Butler?<BR/><BR/>Pretty nice and it's donation ware.Donhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13484273157643252474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-61874736023189586262008-07-08T20:54:00.000-04:002008-07-08T20:54:00.000-04:00Funny, I almost left a comment in your last post o...Funny, I almost left a comment in your last post on Quicksilver about my return to LaunchBar after using Quicksilver for a while. <BR/><BR/>I'd been using LaunchBar since the beta of version 4 back in 2004, but I really liked a few of the Quicksilver plugins, so I switched. <BR/><BR/>A few months ago, I got tired of the instability of QS on my machine (I assume that various incompatibilities introduced by Leopard and by apps after the last QS release were to blame). I switched back to LaunchBar, and I'm still very happy with LaunchBar.<BR/><BR/>I've realized that the features I used most in QS (app launch, Spotlight, Google, IMDB, etc. searches) were implemented just as well (or better) in LaunchBar, and that the other features (e.g., e-mailing the selected file) I didn't use much anyway.Andrew Fadenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05426249474722922100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-61332332171106695172008-07-08T20:43:00.000-04:002008-07-08T20:43:00.000-04:00I absolutely *love* Launchbar. it's the one utilit...I absolutely *love* Launchbar. it's the one utility I almost can't use a Mac without, and is the first thing I install.<BR/><BR/>I've *tried* to like Quicksilver, and I understand it has some great features, but compared to the elegance of Launchbar, it never felt right.<BR/><BR/>Launchbar does exactly what I need - lets me launch stuff, lets me send files from the finder to applications, lets me quickly search safari history and other items, lets me use search templates to quickly run web searches in popular website resources, and so much more, without getting in the way.<BR/><BR/>For me, Launchbar is a Mac's best friend, and absolutely *essential*...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08096339482538897753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-47390839431255311742008-07-08T19:30:00.000-04:002008-07-08T19:30:00.000-04:00Also, take a look at the free PTHPasteboard as a r...Also, take a look at the free <A HREF="http://pth.com/products/pthpasteboard/" REL="nofollow">PTHPasteboard</A> as a replacement for Quicksilver's multiple clipboard and shelf.Hendrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00440554493209332488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-70961489743518778312008-07-08T19:26:00.000-04:002008-07-08T19:26:00.000-04:00The LaunchBar documentation has a section describi...The LaunchBar documentation has a section describing how to get rid of the dock icon (and Cmd-Tab icon). It is in the "Tips&Tricks" section at the very bottom.Hendrikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00440554493209332488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-3907723047194886772008-07-08T18:52:00.000-04:002008-07-08T18:52:00.000-04:00I will keep using Quicksilver until it doesn't wor...I will keep using Quicksilver until it doesn't work anymore. I don't use a huge amount of plugins, and none of the ones I use are broken, so the old adage of "don't fix what isn't broken" works for me right now. I have been using Quicksilver for a couple of years and don't see the reason to switch just yet...<BR/><BR/>I have played with the demo of Launchbar, but it didn't wow me. It may seem picky, but I like my UI to be in the middle of the screen, not up at the top. Let me customize the UI and I may consider it...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-27845080554764234572008-07-08T18:51:00.000-04:002008-07-08T18:51:00.000-04:00Quicksilver continues to do its work just fine for...Quicksilver continues to do its work just fine for me. I'll continue using it as long as possible. Who knows. It may be better than whatever the phantom Alcor plans. LaunchBar will be there (probably) when and if it's needed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-78458583696279613932008-07-08T17:37:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:37:00.000-04:00@Quix: I really love Quicksilver and would like to...@Quix: I really love Quicksilver and would like to see development on it continue but at this point I can only go by what Alcor has said. The fact that LaunchBar is pretty capable and commercially supported means I should be able to count on it moving forward too.<BR/><BR/>That's not to say I wouldn't reconsider Quicksilver (or whatever Alcor ultimately releases) when it's available.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-7328621789733703842008-07-08T17:23:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:23:00.000-04:00The comment about Alcor intending to make Quicksil...The comment about Alcor intending to make Quicksilver obsolete seems to be contradicted by this comment a few weeks later:<BR/><BR/>"the creator of Quicksilver (Alcor) is working on a complete re-write of the frameworks of Quicksilver and should hopefully release it soon"<BR/><BR/>http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver/browse_thread/thread/54ef512dc8490b88#<BR/><BR/>What is the truth? I have no idea. I would sure hate to see Quicksilver fade into oblivion though. It's a tremendous OS X addition.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com