LaunchBar is a kick ass OS X application. How’s that for a lead-in?
So now that I have your attention, I have to tell you about my new favorite OS X application. LaunchBar is a swiss army knife application launcher. If you have used Quicksilver to quickly launch applications on your Mac, you should know that the original author of Quicksilver now recommends LaunchBar.
LaunchBar gives you instant access to files, applications, bookmarks, address book entries, basically anything you might need quick access to throughout your day, all without lifting your hands from the keyboard.
Rather than spend time reinventing the wheel. This post shows some tutorials from the a German blogger which should give you some sense of the power of LaunchBar.
This first video gives you an overview of LaunchBar, compares it to Quicksilver and explores some of it’s main features.
Address Book is an address book for Apple’s Mac OS X. It features various syncing features and integrations into the rest of the OS.
Address Book has two viewing modes: View Card and Column, and View Card Only. The user can switch between modes with a control in the upper-left portion of the window under the close box.
In View Card and Column, the Address Book window is divided into three panes. The first pane has the title Group. This pane lists All, Directories, and each user-made group. Users can add new groups by pulling the File menu down to New Group, or typing Command-Shift-N.
When selecting All or a user-made group, the second column has the title Name. It lists the names of the people with cards in that group, or all the names if the selected group is All, in alphabetical order by first or last name, depending on user preference.
The third pane has the card corresponding to the selected name. The card can include information, some of which the user can classify into customizable categories like Home and Work. Many of the fields can have duplicate entries, for example, if the person the card describes has several email addresses. The user can edit the fields by pressing the edit button below the bottom-left of the third pane. Default fields include:
Picture
Name pronunciation
First name
Last name
Job title
Company
Phone number
Email address
Home page
Birthday
Instant messaging username
Address
Related Names
Note
Address Book can search LDAP (network) directories. Users customize these in the LDAP tab of the preferences. Users search these by selecting Directories in the first pane, selecting a directory or All in the second pane, and typing their search in the search box above the top-left of the third pane. Results appear in the third pane.
Earlier, I explained how to install applications under OS X. It’s a pretty straight forward process. Uninstalling applications is nearly just as easy.
In most cases, uninstalling an applications is as simple as dragging the application from the Applications folder to the Trash. It is this simple because OS X applications bundle the program and all of the supporting files inside the application image. If you want to go a little deeper than read on…
There may be occasions where application programs leave things behind. They could be support files, plug-is, preferences, etc. They are generally harmless but, if you ever reinstall an application it is useful to know that there are there.
Tracking them down and eliminating them is easy, if you know where to look. In general, support files are located in these areas on your system.
Home Directory -> Library -> Preferences
Home Directory -> Library -> Application Support
Library -> Preferences
Library -> Application Support
The first two directories are for application files specific to you, the second two directories are for all the users of your system.
This sample video shows you how to uninstall MailPlane, a GMail front end application.
If you’re nervous about messing around with your Library directories, you can always try an application designed for removing OS X applications. AppZapper, looks nice but I haven’t tried it myself.
This is a bit of a quickie tip but I scratched my head on it for a few hours one day.
If you use Office:Mac Excel, you may from time to time need to capture multiple lines of information into a cell. If you come from the Windows world, you will quickly come to realize that Alt+Enter doesn’t work.
If you want to insert a new line in Excel for the Mac, select the cell, type your first line and press Alt+Cmd+Enter.
Updated Jan 2010 – This used to be a list of my 10 favorite apps, I find I’m using a lot more each day to make my life easier.
After you have time to play around with the applications built into the Mac, you might be wondering what else is out there. Here is my list of essential applications that I use everyday to make my Macbook more productive.
Adium – great cross platform messaging client. I prefer it to iChat because it cleanly manages all my accounts
Cyberduck – FTP application. If you manage a website you are going to want this program
Things – an awesome task list application. It’s great if you follow the GTD methodology. I’ve tried dozens of todo list applications and this one is the best
Anki – Flash card program that uses spaced repetition to help you remember your facts
Screenflick – inexpensive screencasting software. I use it to create the videos for this site
Seesmic – very cleanly designed Flickr desktop client. There are many of these programs, I liked the interface for this one
TweetDeck – I’ve dumped Seesmic for Tweet Deck, I like the layout and the support for multiple accounts
Transmission – Bittorrent client, download content from the Internet, fast.
VLC – if you download a video using Transmission and you need to play it, this application plays everything
1Password – great password manager, integrates with Firefox and Safari to keep all your passwords in a encrypted safe
Quicksilver – great companion to Spotlight. Use Quicksilver to launch applications and run scripts without lifting your hands from the keyboard
LaunchBar – took over the duties of Quicksilver. Quicksilver, you were fun but sadly, you’re not well supported anymore. LaunchBar was endorsed by the original creator of Quicksilver and it rocks. Allows you to drive your Mac without using the mouse. Get, Love it.
VMWare Fusion – As much as I love OSX, I still occasionally need to run Windows applications. VMWare Fusion is the way to do it.
Unison – This is a great program for downloading binaries from USENET news groups. It’s really cool because it supports NZB files. If you don’t know what any of this means, check out newzbin.com.
Mac Office – the king of all office suites. I use it everyday and well, it’s really the best player out there.
If you have any favorite Mac applications that you can’t live without, tell us about them.
