LaunchBar 4 beta
Like many out there, I’ve been using the LaunchBar 4 beta for about a week now. I’m pretty impressed by the new features, though it’s taking some time to get all my LB 3 shortcuts recognized. With all the new options available in LB 4, it often seems like the application/e-mail address/document I’m looking for has been pushed off the end of the scroll-list. The fix for this is the same as it was under LB 3 — select the desired target with a more specific search and LB will display that target for subsequent, more general searches.
I think I’m going to really like the new Search Template feature. I’m mostly a Safari person now, but I still miss OmniWeb‘s search shortcuts. Granted, I don’t miss them enough to pay for iSeek, but I was pleasantly surprised to get this functionality in LaunchBar.
Bill Bumgarner has posted a handful of useful Search Templates on his site. Kevin Callahan also contributed some of his own templates to the MacOSX-Talk mailing list.
Another goodie I found in the documentation — the shortcut for iTunes also acts as a Search Template for the iTMS. Hit the space bar and the iTunes shortcut is replaced by a search field.
I needed to check the spelling of a word that wasn’t in BBEdit‘s dictionary, so I took the opportunity to add my own shortcuts:
- Dictionary.com
- http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=*
- Thesaurus.com
- http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=*
Nothing earth shattering, but I’ve probably just severely curtailed my future usage of OmniDictionary and Nisus Thesaurus.