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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: Anonymous on Mar 19, '04 12:00:17PM

Try Butler - http://www.petermaurer.de/butler

It requires a little more configuration than LaunchBar, but it does more, and the preferences are a lot less obtuse than LaunchBar's.



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: terceiro on Mar 19, '04 12:45:54PM

Ditto. I have ditched LaunchBar (which costs money) for Butler (which is donationware). I *love* the fact that I also get multiple pastboards + universal iTunes hotkeys + fast user switching + + + + +. I'd complain about feature-itis, except they all work so darned well!

The one downside of Butler over LaunchBar is that Butler isn't an application switcher (nor can you browse files thru the abbreviation feature). It made the command-space keystroke even more useful and second nature. At the rate Peter's going, I wouldn't be surprised to see it added in a future release, though!



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: asan102 on Mar 19, '04 10:55:16PM

Actually, Butler can function as an application switcher. Just add the Running Applications smart item to your configuration. You can have it as a menu on the right side of your menu bar, with the icon that of the current app (or any icon you wish) just like OS 9. You can also set it to pop up right under your mouse at the tap of a hot key, or pop-up when you click on a screen corner.



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: Myrddin on Mar 19, '04 01:24:48PM

I agree, Butler is an excellent application. It's nice having a thin strip down the right side of my screen giving me easy access to my stuff.



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QuickSilver
Authored by: gschueler on Mar 19, '04 07:29:27PM
Quicksilver also beats LaunchBar (and is free), although I'll have to try Butler to see how they compare.

My own rapidly graying app CornerClick is basically the "hot corner" feature in Butler, with less functionality. I had been hoping the QuickSilver developer would adopt that feature :)

Butler looks good. QuickSilver has lots of smart interaction with other apps, using Mac OS X Services fully, which is nice. It also has a drag'n'drop shelf which comes in handy occasionally.

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QuickSilver
Authored by: asan102 on Mar 19, '04 10:59:48PM

The interfaces of Quicksilver and Butler are somewhat different, as far as the abbreviation feature goes, but the look of Butler is pretty customizable, and IMO it's a better UI – much easier to use, and cleaner. Plus, all the awesome other features it has...



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: jeremyrh on Mar 20, '04 04:44:49PM

Tried Butler, and it's true that it does more than LaunchBar, but in the basic functionof launching apps it's just a bit slower and less reliable - for me, anyway - so I'm stickig with LaunchBar



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: swilcox on Mar 20, '04 08:31:37PM

Are you sure you tried it long enough to configure the abbreviations feature. I have mine set up to do everything I want it to and it's faster than Launchbar. But LaunchBar is fine software too. My experience with QuickSilver so far is that it's still kind of crash-prone.



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You -can- beat LaunchBar
Authored by: aranor on Mar 22, '04 08:03:48AM

I've never had a crash with Quicksilver. I upgrade every beta, and it's always worked just fine. Quicksilver is a great app!



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