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CNET Editors' review
LaunchBar is a popular and long-lived productivity-enhancing app that can literally change the way you use your Mac--and that change can come gradually, as you learn the app's many tricks and secrets, bit by bit. At its most basic, LaunchBar is a completely keyboard-based way to find and open anything on your Mac with a few quick keystrokes. But its functionality goes far beyond that, letting you use keystrokes to manipulate files, send e-mails, search Web sites, and control apps like iTunes.
LaunchBar has an almost invisible interface, and you invoke it with--of course--a keystroke, which by default is Command-Space, the same one shared by Spotlight. You can almost think of LaunchBar as the ultra-pro version of Spotlight, and like Spotlight it pulls up suggestions as you type in characters (Mail for m, for example) and you open a specified app or file by pressing return. For the most part, the similarities end there: you can type in a few letters of a contact and that will pull up their address book entry, or with a quick couple of arrow keys, you can open a new e-mail to them or start an IM conversation. You can quickly search Wikipedia, Google, IMDB, or Merriam-Webster (or pretty much any site you want, using customizable search templates) before even opening your browser, and access a huge list of built-in actions that can let you do everything from restarting your Mac to pausing iTunes to making a TinyURL with just a couple keystrokes. LaunchBar even serves as an ever-present scientific calculator (just start typing numbers), a clipboard history (giving you access to up to the last 40 items with a couple taps), and a plain-text event and to-do creator for iCal. Best of all, LaunchBar learns from your behavior and helps you get to your most-used apps and actions more quickly.
LaunchBar's biggest drawback is probably the sheer breadth of its features, and you can still find surprises after using the app for years. That said, LaunchBar can have a huge impact on your work flow even if you're using just a fraction of its capabilities--and the app's excellent documentation can let you drill down as far you want. Some apps offer similar features (including a few free ones), but none come close to delivering LaunchBar's stability and adaptability. LaunchBar may not be cheap, but in terms of productivity, it can offer a huge return on investment. It's the kind of app that you wonder how you ever lived without.
Publisher's Description
From Objective Development:
LaunchBar is an award winning productivity utility that offers an amazingly intuitive and efficient way to search and access any kind of information stored on your computer or on the web. It provides instant access to your applications, documents, contacts and bookmarks, to your music library, to search engines and more, just by entering short abbreviations of the searched item's name.
You just hit Command-Space to bring LaunchBar's input window to front, enter an arbitrary abbreviation, and as soon as you start typing LaunchBar displays the best matching choices, ready to be opened immediately.
Start applications, open documents, invoke system services, compose emails or navigate the web - LaunchBar will be your essential servant.
What's new in this version:
- Improved detection of Google Chrome and Chromium bookmark files (bookmarks within profiles are now supported).
- Improved Automatic Software Update.
- Fixes an issue with iTunes playback. With the "Play from Album" option set, only the album's first track was played.
- Improved playback of tracks with no album.
- Fixes an issue with indexing of symlinked Preference Panes.
- Fixes an issue causing dialogs to appear underneath the search result lis... See all new features
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All versions:
4.7 starsout of 7 votes
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Current version:
0 stars Be the first to review this product -
My rating:
Write review
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"LaunchBar is the best!"
Version: LaunchBar 5.1.3
Pros
Easy to use and most convenient.
Cons
None come yo mind
Summary
Most useful app.
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"A must have product"
Version: LaunchBar 5.1.2
Pros
When I work on my PC I miss this application. Being able to launch an application rapidly is a big time saver. I do not use all the features, just the launching of applications.
Cons
Nothing negative
Summary
Buy it
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"Works Great"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0.4
Pros
After you understand that it wants to understand you, its on!
Cons
Not with this app
Summary
It is great. Spend time with it in your 30 day trial. It can seem complicated at first but it is the smoothest "do anything you want with a few key stokes" app ever. I love being able to move files around in the back with just a few strokes (no more dragging).
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"Great Product"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0.4
Pros
Works as advertised
Cons
None that I can think of
Summary
Great Product
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"Unparalleled"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0.4
Pros
More useful than any other.
Cons
None I can think of.
Summary
An indispensable application for fast navigation through the hierarchies of drives, files, folders.
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"Must have"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Hate being on a computer without it. -
"Superb product."
Version: LaunchBar 5.0.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
When I use other Macs I am lost without this software.
LaunchBar can do what other launchers do but the other stuff is just amazing. I haven't used spotlight directly in nearly two years (which is a blessing) and the ability to jump between locations, folders, programs and projects easily without having to think cannot be replicated easily using another launcher as far as I know.
Superb! -
"Easy to use; gets you to an app or doc very quickly."
Version: LaunchBar 5.0rc4
Pros
So easy to use; it's intuitive.
Cons
Difficult to configure sometimes for those apps or docs that the program does not automatically jump to with its own very base AI.
Summary
Great addition to the finder. Gets you to the program or document that you want very quickly. If you're a touch typist, or if you prefer to use your keyboard to get where you're going, Launchbar is a must-have app.
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"The MUST have util!"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0rc3
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The most useful utility I know! -
"Essential piece of software"
Version: LaunchBar 5.0 beta 3
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Not sure where the previous reviewer is coming from but in my experience, with well over 100,000 documents on my drive, Spotlight is virtually useless. Being able to locate key folders and documents almost instantly, without having to scroll through endless lists is just "expected behaviour" from this fantastic application. Now, with all the other add-ons - access to the Services menu in particular - makes this the very first application I install during a clean system install.
Wouldn't run a Mac without it.
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