LaunchBar 5.0

LaunchBar is an excellent app launcher and manager for the Mac. It is one of those applications that save you lots and lots of time, yet you rarely remember it is running.

Of course, LaunchBar's primary function is to launch applications. You can call it by pressing a hotkey combination. I have mine set to Ctrl + Space bar. When you do that, the LaunchBar window will appear at the top of the screen. You can automatically type in the first few letters of the application that you want to run and it will be listed there. Pressing the Enter key will launch it. You can browse different results with the arrow keys of your keyboard.

One of the best features LaunchBar has to offer is that it allows you to create search templates. For example, the app comes built-in with a few templates. One of them is Wikipedia. If you want to search for anything on Wikipedia, you simply have to call LaunchBar, type "wik", then space, and then type your search. The results will be opened in your default browser.

You can also use LaunchBar as a file browser, calculator, to call contacts, send e-mails, attachments, etc.

I noticed that I am only using roughly one or two of the features that LaunchBar offers. It has great guides on how to configure the app and customize it to do whatever you want it to. Developers always update their apps with new features and there is a nice switch guide for QuickSilver users.