Launchbar vs Quicksilver
 

Hi all
I have only used launchbar so far, but have heard that Quicksilver is better and easier.
Can I have opinions of persons about the two apps.
SS

I use launchbar and I must say the new version Beta 4 is very impressive, try it.

Does it still shows the launbar thing as an icon on Dock?
I am trying Quicksilver and it seems very good, I guess better than launchbar. Give it a try and let me know, It is free as well.
SS

By default the dock icon is there but there is a way to remove it in their tips and tricks section, it does not bother me so I never bothered to remove it but a friend has it and it bugs him, he removed it with no issues.

Butler

Complex, but amazing, app. It does everything LB or QS do, and much more. I love it :)

-rob.

How have i never heard of this? I just downloaded Butler and i really don't know how i used my mac without this!

Butler
 

I use Butler, I find it very intuitive and it solves all of my launch needs. It even comes with a dictionary and google search that you can put right in the menu bar. I have all of my running application in the menu bar so I can just click on an open application if I need to get to it. It also has key command equivalent as well as quick search.

thx
RLC

Does it not make it like windoze!! Is there much difference between selecting apps from dock and Menu?
I will give it a try tomorrow!! However, I find Quciksilver better than Launchbar.
SS

Who the heck wants that? I think we all bought Macs to escape Windows..

Ah, but you can use it just like LB or QS -- I hit cmd-opt-space, and type in an abbreviation. But I can also hit cmd-opt-ctrl-F (for Fast) and get the fast user switching dialog (VERY cool). Or shift-command-Help to search macosxhints. Or etc. Very powerful.

And I rely on the multiple clipboard support; cmd-ctrl-opt-Z shows me the last seven I've used, then just hit 0 through 6 to paste one of the seven.

-rob.

Are these features in butler? Can I bring up web search box in QS quickly? I guess that is the only option I need which I have not figured in QS or LB yet.
SS

Yes, they're in the 4.0 beta series (which have been quite stable on my machine). Butler is also 'free' (donationware), which is amazing. But the true power is that you can create all of your own shortcuts. The macosxhints one is included, but nearly any site you can search can become a pop-up searchable shortcut. As can commands -- I've set control-option-E to activate (or switch to) Excel, for instance.

What the heck... Here's another vote for Butler. I discover something great about it nearly everyday. Very cool app.

(I have tried and liked Quicksilver and LaunchBar, too but Butler just seems to be a bit more of a winner to me.)

Not like windows
 

It is not like windows. It basically lets you launch your applications anyway you want to do it from abbreviation to short keys. I have never had a problem with it. There are two features that I like the best. One is that I can launch my applications as individual application or as a group. It doesn't care. The other feature is that I can use short keys to run scripts, open application, close application, etc. Remember, you can you Butler to assign short key to commands in applications as well such as itunes. Butler doesn't take up any additional space since it is incorporated in the menu bar. In addition, the bookmark organization is great feature also. There is really so many things that Butler can do that all I can say is try it and see for yourself.

Another happy Butler user here :)

Quicksilver
 

I gotta say that having tried all three (including the new launchbar), QS comes out on top for many reasons. It looks better (bezel mode looks awesome, and, for the minimalist, menu mode is a god-send), is more customizable, and is free. But I think what really makes it shine is its action system. I can copy files, move files, do anything with them, in just a few keystrokes and all in a very intuitive and user-friendly manor. That's pretty amazing. I haven't had a single crash or bug encounter, and it has the features of the other two combined. Def. gets my vote.

-william

Butler still king of the hill.
 

rob g: It's cool to see you got sucked in by the power of Lauchbar / Butler since I posted the hint on the main site sometime ago. I think Butler rox, esp the websearches, but I have to say that of late I have felt it a bbit of a dog when it is starting up. It seems to take an age on my PBG4 867, which it shouldnt. For this reason I went searching on a QS vs LB thread to see what others thought.

I am reluctant to go back to another other than butler tho coz it just does so much and is so configurable once you understand the concept. I could not live without built in iTunes support or the websearches, and tho LB supposedly has websearches in the v4 beta, it dont do itunes :(

Anyway...bottom line - butler is about the best launching util there has ever been, and it is so cusomizable it can be made to suit anyones tastes :)

Quicksilver new beta
 

Some sick new features on the new launchbar beta 21- check it out:

iTunes browser play actions (you can now play an artist or album. LB doesn't do this)
Improved file grabbing and dropping
Better support for inline text objects
Additional terminal integration
Better icon memory management
Path Finder support improved
Preliminary Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, iCab, Opera, and Sogudi bookmark support

-william

Hiya
I think I like QS as well. However, what I liked about butler was the ability to put a google search box in Menubar. Is there any other program which can put that search box in the menu bar?
SS

Not sure about doing that with QS but better yet (save the screen space), just define a search template in QS for google. Search templates are hella useful (i have one for Mac OS X Hints, Versiontracker, etc.), and dont take up any space.

-william

How do you do that? Do you bookmark google or what? and for this forum?
SS

Hmm
 

Butler gets my vote. What? It wasn't included?

Don't forget, Butler also has the dictionary and thesaurus ,Fedex tracking, weather and much more in the same search box with Google in the menu bar.

I'm really diggin' Quicksilver.

Running into a small snag though and maybe someone in this thread can help since so many people are using it.

I can't get the clipboard to clear in Quicksilver. I can clear it but it doesn't get rid of clipping 0 and when I relaunch the clipboard all the spaces are filled again with what I cleared. It's just filled and won't add any new copies. Any suggestions on this one? Thanks.

How do you install Butler. When I saved -butler.dmg.gz, double clicking on it doesn't mount it. Stuffit opens and close without doing anything?
Any suggestions.
SS

I don't know what browser you're using, but I know that when I used to download Butler updates with Firefox I would have similar issues as yours. When I download the file with Safari, however, the disk image mounts perfectly. If you are NOT using Safari, I would recommend you use it for the Butler download.

I tried with Safari. Still the same problem? :confused:

Anybody know how to turn off/remove the menubar items for Butler, or uninstall the app all together?

To turn off the menu bar items in Butler you need to remove any top level items and put everything in the invisible folder. Any other folders will appear as menus. you can disable Butler just by going into the config page and pressing quit. Obviously if you have set it as a startup item you need to take that out too.

If you are having trouble getting into the config page look at the manual, as I can't remember what the default key combo is to pull up the preferences window. I have it as the first item in my control panels menu.

Bottom line is, this is a powerful bit of software and it pays to read the documentation to get a fuller understanding of things.

I also note that clearing the clipboard keeps clipping 0 and that relaunching restores the clipboard. It probably writes back to the disk/preferences when you quit. Only going into ~/Library/Application Support/QuickSilver/Shelves and deleting QSPasteboardHistory.qsshelf gave me a clean clipboard. However, I don't have your other problem. Once mine fills, the last one is removed as I add a new one. As long as I can always add new ones, then I don't think I'll care if the old clippings are still on the clipboard. Only if some clippings contain sensitive material would I care I guess...in which case I could delete the clippings file mentioned above, or quickly copy to the clipboard 10 quick 'dummy' clippings.

I guess I'd suggest submitting it as a bug or feature request and it would likley get fixed.

O'Reilly article
 

To add to the discussion here, there is a new article on the O'Reilly MacDevCenter web site that compares various launchers:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...launchers.html

Okay, so just drag it on top of Stuffit Expander. That should open and expand it. :cool:

Go into the Butler preferences, and under General select the Docklet option.

Thanks. Clearing the .qshelf file and restarting Quicksilver seemed to solve my problems.