LaunchBar Features

For a detailed listing of recent changes see the Release Notes.

Powerful search, sub-search and browsing capabilities

• Ultra fast, adaptive abbreviation search technology (AASv4), delivers amazingly accurate results, even without any training
• Search in Spotlight
• Look Up in Dictionary
• Recent documents of selected application (e.g. type TED to select "TextEdit", then press right arrow to show all recently opened documents)
• Browse your Address Book contacts, contact groups and contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
• Bookmark & History Browsing (e.g. type SH to select "Safari History", then hit the right arrow key twice to see the most recently visited web pages)
• iTunes Library Browsing (by genre, artist, album or composer). e.g. type IT to select "iTunes", then right arrow to show the currently playing song, then right arrow again to find similar tracks
• File System Browsing (traverses folder aliases, the top level entry shows all mounted volumes)
• Sub-search while browsing with arrow keys, press the space bar to perform a deep sub-search
• Context Search: Select a search context by abbreviation (e.g. EA for "Email Addresses"), then sub-search within the selected context by pressing Space followed by a further abbreviation

Text Input

• An optional text field allows entering search strings or parameters
• Direct Input of URLs (either via Command-L or automatically by entering a dot character)
• Web Search (free editable search templates, e.g. select Google, press Space)
• iTunes Music Store Search (select iTunes, press Space)
• Pass parameters to AppleScripts and Unix Executables (e.g. select "ping", press Space).
• File Content Search (select plain text, rich text or html file, then press Space)
• Rename files, create new folders (Command-Shift-R, Command-Shift-N)

Opening items

• Open with… / Move to… (press the Tab key, select the destination)
• Built-in Finder Commands: New Folder, Rename, Duplicate, Get Info, Move to Trash, Eject
• Run AppleScripts and Unix Executables, pass string or file parameters
• Run Automator Workflows
• Terminal Support: "Open Terminal Here", "Run Terminal Command Here", "Run Terminal Command With"

Powerful configuration and indexing options

• Configuration interface, featuring unlimited undo/redo support
• Powerful, multithreaded indexing engine, performs index scans in background
• Lots of index scanners: Applications, iTunes Music Library, iPhoto Library, Network Locations, Preference Panes, Sherlock Channels, Watson Tools, Frameworks, Dock, Address Books, Bookmarks, Web Browser History, …
• Lots of configuration options to keep the index at a reasonable size (see the Options pane in the configuration window)
• Live index updates (e.g. when you add a bookmark in Safari or when you import songs to your iTunes Library, these items are immediately accessible via LaunchBar)
• Disabling of individual index items (Note: Multiple items can be enabled/disabled at once via context menu or space bar)
• Smart Groups: "Items Grouped by Kind", makes all items of the same type accessible via sub-search (e.g. "Applications", "RTF Documents", "Bookmarks", "Email Addresses", …)

Other features

• Speech Synthesis: Spoken feedback of any searching or browsing activities
• Switching Network Locations
• Playing iTunes playlists
• Text Clips (files with a ".clip.txt" or ".clip.rtf" extension). The file contents are inserted in the frontmost application
• "Show in Frontmost Finder Window" (Command-Shift-Return) in addition to "Show in Finder" (Command-Return)
• "Send to LaunchBar" System Service (Command-Shift-F), e.g. select a file in Finder, or select some text in TextEdit or Safari, then press Command-Shift-F