Calculate Quickly

Say you may need to make a quick calculation. You might want to calculate sales tax, VAT, or a foreign currency conversion; or perhaps compute a percentage, area, or volume. You can use Apple’s Calculator app, or any of a number of third party apps, but if all you need is a single calculation, LaunchBar can save you the time of opening another app or fumbling around on your desk for a physical calculator.

In this chapter, I’ll tell you how you can use LaunchBar to perform simple—and complex—calculations in a jiffy.

Invoke the Calculator

LaunchBar’s calculator is designed for simple calculations, when you just need a quick result, but it can also perform complex calculations. You can invoke the LaunchBar calculator in one of several ways. The method you use depends on which you feel most comfortable with:

• Use the Calculator keyboard shortcut: This is a direct shortcut—press it to open LaunchBar’s calculator field without first invoking the bar. If you use LaunchBar’s calculator often, this method saves a few keystrokes.

  To see what your shortcut is, or to change it, open LaunchBar’s preferences and click Calculator. The shortcut appears in the Keyboard Shortcut field. To change the shortcut, select the Keyboard Shortcut checkbox, click in the shortcut field, and type your own shortcut. (The default keyboard shortcut is the ⌧ key that exists on some full-size Mac keyboards. If your keyboard has the key, it will be located just above the 7 key on the number pad. If not, just redefine it to something you’ll remember.)

• Type an abbreviation: You can type an abbreviation, such as CALC, after invoking the bar. However, if you plan to also use Apple’s Calculator app, or some other calculator app, you may want to assign a specific abbreviation to that other app, so the one you use to invoke LaunchBar’s calculator doesn’t interfere.
• Type Command-=: If you type Command-= after invoking the bar, this brings up the Calculator field. You may find typing Command-= quicker than using an abbreviation.
• Just start typing numbers: When the bar is invoked, if you type at least two numbers, or one number and an operator, LaunchBar will switch to its calculator. You can de-activate this setting in LaunchBar’s Calculator preference pane: invoke the bar, click the gear wheel icon, choose Preferences, and then de-select “Switch to Calculator when typing digits.”
• Paste numbers when the bar is invoked: When the bar is invoked, if you paste a calculation (such as 2 + 2), or a series of numbers, LaunchBar will switch to the calculator. However, you may not want this behavior; you can change it in LaunchBar’s Calculator preference pane. De-select “Switch to Calculator when pasting a numeric expression.”

Perform Calculations

With the Calculator visible in LaunchBar (Figure 30), you can calculate. Type your equation, using operators such as +, -, *, and /, then press Return to get your result.

Figure 30: Calculating with LaunchBar. This is a simple calculation, but you can compute much more complex calculations as well.

LaunchBar shows the results of a calculation in large numbers. If you press Command-C, LaunchBar copies the result to the clipboard and dismisses the large display. You can then paste the result into any document.

Here are some tips for entering calculations in LaunchBar:

• Avoid using * (if you like): You may be familiar with using the  character for multiplication. With LaunchBar, you don’t need to; when you’re in calculator mode, LaunchBar interprets the x character as a multiplier. If you don’t have a numeric keypad with a  key, it’s easier to type x than to press Shift-8 for a * character.
• No more +: If you want to sum a series of numbers, you can eschew the + character. Enter the numbers with spaces between them—for example, 1 2 3 5 8 13—and LaunchBar adds them up.
• Skip ( and ): LaunchBar reads the [ and ] characters as ( and ). Use whichever you find easiest to type.
• Ignore +: You can use an easier keystroke to type the + character, which requires, on most keyboards, the Shift key. LaunchBar interprets the = character—on the same key—as a +. So type =, but LaunchBar inserts +.
• Save on .: LaunchBar interprets the backtick key to the left of the 1 key on the top keyboard row as a . (decimal point). So you can press that key to get a quick decimal point, without moving all the way down to the period key.
• Calculate more: When you’ve completed a calculation, if you want to perform a new calculation on those results, press any of the following keys before typing anything else: Tab, +, -, / or *.

  If you press Tab, LaunchBar’s calculator opens with the result selected. If you press one of the other operators, the Calculator opens showing the previous result plus that operator. For example, if the result of your calculation was 77, and you press the * key, LaunchBar will open the calculator showing 77*.

Calculate with Non-contiguous Selections

Say you’re reading a report with numbers showing sales, attendance figures, and prices. If you want to add certain numbers, you could invoke the bar and type them, but you can also take advantage of a little-known feature in Mac OS X: non-contiguous selections.

Double-click one number. Then press the Command key and double-click another number. Then do it again for more numbers if you wish. You’ll see that they are all highlighted (Figure 31).

Figure 31: Non-contiguous selections in a paragraph of text, and in a table.

Copy the selected numbers (Command-C), invoke the bar, then press Command-V. LaunchBar immediately calculates the sum of these numbers.

You can make non-contiguous selections in most OS X apps, and the numbers can be in tables, spreadsheets, or standard paragraphs.