LaunchBar Quick Start

This book has a normal table of contents, so you can scan that to see what topics are covered and jump to any topic from there. However, you may find it helpful to approach the ebook not linearly, but based on your situation. Here are some ideas for avenues of approach to the content in this book.

You want a quick summary:

Download the cheat sheet. Put it on another device or in another window while you read this book, or print it out. You can also find the Cheat Sheet at the back of this book.

You’re new to LaunchBar, or want to review the basics:

• Start with Meet LaunchBar. This chapter introduces the LaunchBar interface and the five superpowers, and walks you through a few preferences that you should configure right away.
• Get initiated with superpower #1 in Abbreviation Search.
• Next, see common uses of LaunchBar as you learn the remaining four superpowers: Browsing, Sub-search, Send To, and Instant Send.
• Continue with the rest of the book, reading topics that interest you. Once you’ve gained some experience, read the last chapter, Customize LaunchBar, to fine-tune LaunchBar.

You’re somewhat experienced with LaunchBar:

• Read about superpowers #4 and #5 in Send To and Instant Send.
• Find out how to Use Actions to control your Mac, and how to Use Services to access the features of one app from within a different app.
• Learn how to copy and paste multiple items in Save Time with Clipboard History.
• Absolutely read Customize LaunchBar. Make sure the preferences are right way for you, and then Control the Index to ensure that you can find what you want in LaunchBar.
• Go further with Do Amazing Things with Files & Folders. Even experienced LaunchBar users may not know all the ways they can manipulate and act on items.
• Consider learning how to do these tasks from the bar: Search the Internet, Control iTunes, Work with Contacts, Calendars & Reminders and Calculate Quickly. Consult the table of contents or the list at the end of 1,000 Things to Do for more that you can do.

You want to learn what’s new in LaunchBar 5.5:

• Type Less with Snippets covers the new text-insertion feature.
• LaunchBar has added a number of actions that work with Apple’s Automator, which you can use to send the results of workflows to LaunchBar. Use LaunchBar-Automator Workflows discusses this.
• LaunchBar 5.5 has many small enhancements that I don’t call out in the text, but which make the program more powerful than ever. You can review them in Objective Development’s Release Notes.