![]() It’s important to say that you can also extend LaunchBar with scripts and services, but I don’t find it as capable or easy to use as Alfred’s workflows. The second feature I prefer in Alfred is the extensive (and rather mind-blowing) extensibility. I know other people who have had the opposite experience, so your mileage may well vary. I tried tweaking the index and preferences for LaunchBar, but I never managed to make it as telepathic as Alfred. All I can say is that Alfred seems to grok the tangled bird’s nest that is my mind much better than LaunchBar. This is almost impossible to pin down precisely, and it varies between people. You need the way you act on files and other items to be second nature, so that you can use it without thinking. When you hit the activation shortcut and start typing, you need to see the thing you were thinking of come to the top. Despite this, I still much prefer Alfred for two reasons.įirst, with a command application like this, you really need it to be able to read your mind. I also like the fact that you can launch Services (including those you build yourself in Automator) with LaunchBar - in fact, I would really like to be able to do that with Alfred. The ‘Instant Send’ feature (whereby you select some text or a file and press and hold the launch hotkey to send the text/item directly to LaunchBar for it to act upon) is great, and a useful time-saver. LaunchBar is excellent and has a lot of very nice features. It was an interesting experiment, but it confirmed my feeling that Alfred is the one for me. I switched over on both my iMac and laptop to LaunchBar, read the book (which is very good and covers a lot of useful tips and tricks that you might not discover on your own), and generally lived with LaunchBar for a month or so. ![]() When LaunchBar 5 was released recently, along with an excellent Take Control book about the software, I decided to find out whether Alfred really was still the best for me, or whether I had been seduced (as is my wont) by the new and shiny. However, I really can’t leave well enough alone. ![]() Alfred felt immediately comfortable, and the excellent and easy to use extensibility ( particularly in Alfred 2) made me feel that I had finally found the one. At various points I’ve used Quicksilver, Butler, and finally Alfred. Years ago, I started with LaunchBar, and from that point on any computer I used that didn’t immediately pop up a command window ready to do my bidding when I hit cmd+space felt utterly broken. One of the bits of software that is essential to me on any Mac I happen to be using is a hotkey application that lets you launch applications, files and run scripts using the keyboard. Sometimes I just can’t help myself from tinkering with my workflow on the computer.
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