LaunchBar and Alfred actually become more personalized as you use them. Some use cases for an application launcher include launching apps, launching bookmarks, launching AppleScripts, performing custom searches on various sites, doing quick mathematical calculations, opening files, getting at the recently-opened files within a certain app, accessing the clipboard history, performing actions on files (like grabbing a document and attaching it to an email, or resizing an image), and more.īottom line, what makes an application launcher such a critical tool is that it’s the fastest way launch and act on common apps, documents, bookmarks, and more.īut it doesn’t end there. The whole point is fast launching and fast actions. It should come up instantly when prompted, it should respond instantly, and I should never feel lost or confused when using it. If ever there was an app that needed to be as frictionless as possible, it would be the application launcher. There are plenty of other apps I spend more time in, but none I use more frequently than my application launcher. In 2011 I spent several months using Alfred, and I’ve switched over to it on occasion since then as well to stay abreast of its development. My first application launcher was Quicksilver, but when it farted out on Snow Leopard in 2009 I switched to LaunchBar. I spend about 6 of my working hours at my Mac, which equates to using LaunchBar about once every 10 minutes. On average, I bring up LaunchBar about 40 times per day when I’m working at my computer. Without LaunchBar installed it’s like I’m at a friend’s house, trying to navigate to the kitchen in the middle of the night and I can’t find the light switches and I keep stubbing my toes on the furniture. Whenever I do a clean install of my Mac (which is less often these days), the first application I download is LaunchBar.īecause to me, my application launcher is how I get around my computer. Want to launch an app on your Mac? There is, ahem, an app for that. I honestly don't know, so I'll wait for others to answer to this too.For the persnickety power-user, there is but one way to navigate around a computer: with the keyboard. That'd be pretty cool if it were featured in Alfred. Or is keyboard maestro / text expander a better app for this function? Ex: when I type "b", have it replace the text with the beta symbol, or replace "beta cells" with "Glucagon - Insulin + beta cells". I use it both with Calendar and FantastiCal.Īs I'm typing in (for example) Outlook or Word, have keyboard shortcuts to long strings of text or symbols I won't to keep typing out. Input "new event" and have it open calendar I guess it should be possible to build a workflow for To Do too, if it's not done yet. I use Reminders and can totally do that with Alfred. Input "new task" and have the launcher open Microsoft To Do with a new task box ready to type But maybe in the official forum or in you can find something.įor the email I'm pretty sure Alfred can do that. I honestly don't use Alfred to text preople, so I don't know of any workflow out there that does this. Input "text John Doe" and have iMessages open up on Mac, with a message composed to John Doe" Alfred also has stuff which is not there in LB - proper implementation of snippets, for example. It makes up for all the technical stuff it is still missing. Alfred has both a developer, interested in the future of product, and a pretty big community. Invest in Alfred now and look at LB only if there ever is a LB7. It saddens me for a product with a long history to die a slow death, but that's how it is. Objective development is busy selling the LittleSnitch snake oil (Oh, ZoneAlarm! I miss you, you useless peace of trash! You, and my youth!). There is no (and never was) kind of community work, also no commitment regarding the future. If even such little change is too much effort, the product is dead. I fixed it for me and reported it - it is literally a change of 1 code line in AppleScript. For example, Actions (LB pendant to Workflows in Alfred) for iTunes were broken, because the application name changed to "Music" in Catalina. You may think that it is a mature product with no bugs, but it is not. ![]() I consider it being abandonware at this point. ![]() (Alfred uses a semi-graphical approach, LB is code only). Writing actions can be more or less difficult, dependent on how close you are to being an actual programmer. Ex-LB user here: Launchbar, in my opinion, has a more rounded and integrated approach.
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