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QuicKeys was listed in today's report on "Essential Utilities: Mac Automation Tools," but it was omitted from this article on launchers. QuicKeys can create docked toolbars with text or icon buttons to launch any file or application, to open a folder, or to trigger a macro. QuicKeys toolbars have tabs for displaying different sets of launch buttons. My Launch Toolbar has 15 tabs with 8 to 15 buttons per tab. The ability to trigger a macro is great for games that need screen resolution and bit depth changes: the macro resets the display before launching the game.

QuicKeys is a great bargain because it combines macro creation with launcher functionality.

For myself, I dont see the need for another app on my system to control what I need launched.
I use folders in the dock that hold specific groups of app aliases, like all my web apps ie bbedit, coda, iSale, another for writing and dev apps, another holds docs and manuals that I use regularly. And I use the startup for what I need in the background, Safari, Mail, Address book. And the nice thing is its easy to add additional aliases as I need to. When working on any project, I create a folder, add aliases once and put the folder in the dock and open what I need at the time.

DoctorT1, on 20 May 2010 - 09:32 AM, said:

Funny thing you should mention QuicKeys. I was thinking the same thing. Though I am a former Quicksilver and LaunchBar user, I find DragThing to be quite handy. But if I was less lazy, I would have just built my own toolbars with QuicKeys. As it is, it can do many things none of these others can do. It can run Applescripts right in the middle of actions. It can do what TextExpander can do to a degree, it lets you completely control your user interface and applications. I use it to log my hours each day in Peoplesoft. Almost anything you can do with a mouse and keyboard, QuicKeys can do automatically. And it can do things triggerd by events, time, buttons or fields on a web page, as well as many or other actions and functions.

For the price, it's the most powerful thing out there. More than worth it. As time goes by, I keep adding to my QuicKeys collection and using other utilities less. If you know Applescript and Javascript, you can do amazing things.

This post has been edited by leicaman: 20 May 2010 - 11:32 AM

jforjan, on 20 May 2010 - 09:38 AM, said:

I agree. And it's easy to add custom icons to alias folders (Get Info, drag a png image over the folder's icon, and drop it). Example: all my image editing apps have aliases with short names in a "Image Editors" folder and the folder icon is a pic of my digital camera. Put the folder on the Dock, Mouse-over the dock and the folder name appears. You can put aliases to subfolders in there, too. The only disadvantage is, subfolders don't pop open when you mouse-over them in the Dock pop-up; but it's not a big problem. And I don't have to buy anything or update anything. Simple, and fully supported by Apple.

I played with Quick Silver once or twice and swore I would never use an App Launcher.

Someone forwarded me a link to Alfred and I tried it for the first time a month or so ago. Since then I've become hooked.

Alfred's got my vote!

jforjan, on 20 May 2010 - 09:38 AM, said:

I entirely agree with you!

Over the years I have tried these desktop utilities at various times and even bought a couple only to abandon them after the novelty wore off. The only enhancement for the Mac user interface I ever used consistently was BeHierarchic on the classic OS.

It is my belief that most of these desktop utilities exist because they can, not because they actually bring any great benefits.

I am a great fan of the Dock in OS X and this I do feel is a major advancement over the classic environment because the problem with classic was that icons on the desktop would be covered by open windows, the Dock solves this problem. A couple of folders in the Dock containing aliases gives you all the launching you might want.

So, I suggest that people don't waste their time with these pointless utilities!

Good article. I use both Application Wizard and LaunchBar all the time. There's one trick I find really useful with Application Wizard. I assign each AW menu a keyboard shortcut then use steer mouse to assign a button on my Logitech Revolution to each shortcut. This way I can get each of AW's menus to pop up under my mouse cursor with the click of a button. When I'm in mouse mode (leaning back, hands off the keyboard), this allows me to access lots of functions and files very quickly. I know this only works for people that have mice with lots of buttons and a utility to configure them, but it's an extremely convenient way to operate with the mouse for those who do.

In OS 9, I used the Apple Menu and the Control Strip (remember that?) as primary launchers. In OS X, I simply loaded my dock and put the Applications and Utilities folders in the Dock for the ones I used less often. I didn't like the graphical launchers (including some mentioned in this article). When I decided that I needed more speed, I chose Namely in Tiger. When I hit Leopard, I found that Spotlight did as good a job as a launcher than anything I had used, so I have used it since. I've also been able to pare down my dock a bit and almost never use that Applications folder in the dock, even though the functionality is better than ever in the OS.