Kirk McElhearn - Take Control of LaunchBar

This book was sponsored by Objective Development. Deep thanks go to Norbert Heger, Johannes Tiefenbrunner, Manfred Linzner, and Christian Ludl who took the time to explain more features in LaunchBar than wed previously imagined existed.

(Tip: All four names in the above paragraph were pasted in with amazing efficiency via LaunchBars ClipMerge!)

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Here are a few rules of the road that will help you read this ebook:

• Links: All blue text in this ebook is hot, meaning you can click (or tap) it, just like a link on the Web. If you click a link to switch to a different part of the ebook, you can return quickly to where you were if your ebook reader offers a back feature. For example, if you use iBooks in iOS to read the EPUB of this ebook, you can tap the Back to link at the lower left of the screen. Or, if you use Preview on the Mac to read the PDF of this ebook, you can choose Go > Back or press Command-[.
• Menus: Where I describe choosing a command from a menu, I use an abbreviated description that puts the name of the menu ahead of the command. For example, at the end of the previous paragraph, Go > Back means choose the Back command from the Go menu.
• Contextual menus: To describe opening a contextual menu, I usually tell you to Control-click an item on the screen, such as a file icon in the Finder. If your mouse offers a right-click option, or if you use a trackpad or other means of opening a contextual menu, you should feel free to use the method you prefer.
• Arrow: I use the word arrow as a verb often in this book. I use it in place of saying press the right-arrow key or press the down arrow key, saying instead, arrow right, or arrow down. The text is more elegant this way, I think.
• Typing in LaunchBar: I give many examples of letters you type in LaunchBar when searching. In order to show that they are letters you type, I put them in capital letters, such as SAF to launch Safari. You dont need to type capitals, though; LaunchBar doesnt distinguish between upper- and lowercase. By the way, you dont have to use my suggestions for abbreviations. You could type SF, SFR, or SFI for Safari, and LaunchBar will learn from that abbreviation, and know that you mean Safari.

Heres a taste of a few important LaunchBar terms:

• Invoke: Once LaunchBar is launched on your computer, in order to display its barthe small window that slides down from below your menu baryou invoke it with a keyboard shortcut. The bar is where you work with LaunchBar. I explain this important aspect of LaunchBar in .
• Index: LaunchBar knows a great deal about whats stored on your Mac because it creates its own index of these items. I touch lightly on this concept in .

Ive been using LaunchBar for nearly as long as it has been around on the Mac. Its the first utility that I install on every new Mac; with LaunchBar installed, I can get on with everything else I need to do.

In my 2010 Macworld review, LaunchBar 5 became one of the few apps to which Ive given the highest rating (5 mice). Previous Macworld reviewers (including this books technical editor in 2005) have also given LaunchBar a 5-mouse rating. Macworld editor Jason Snell said, in his 5-mouse review of LaunchBar 4 in 2007, When I use a Mac that doesnt have LaunchBar running, I simply feel naked. And Take Control publisher Adam Engst has happily admitted to being utterly addicted to LaunchBar since 2003, saying LaunchBar has worked its way into my neurons, and Im all the more productive because of it.

Whats the big deal? Why does this software elicit such fervent praise? LaunchBar is all about saving time by keeping your hands on your keyboard, as you can see in the following scenarios.

Launching an application:

• Without LaunchBar: You switch to the Finder, click Applications in the Finder window sidebar, and scroll to find the apps icon. You then double-click that icon. You could, of course, have the icon in the Dock and do this with a single click, but if its an app you use infrequently, you might not want to clutter the Dock with it.
• With LaunchBar: You press Command-Space, type a few letters from the apps name, and press Return.

Opening a file that youve edited recently in Pages:

• Without LaunchBar: You click the Pages icon in the Dock, and then navigate to the document from the Open dialog or choose File > Open Recent and select a file. Or you browse in the Finder for the document, potentially clicking through several folders before you find the icon and double-click it.
• With LaunchBar: You type PAG, and Pages appears in the bar. You press the right-arrow key to see recently used documents, arrow down to find the one you want, and then press Return to open it.

In both cases, LaunchBar provides quick access to applications and files. Whats more, LaunchBar learns from the abbreviations you type, so rather than forcing you to use its conventions, it adopts yours. The more you use LaunchBar, the better it understands what you want.