As far as I’m concerned, the days of the Start Menu, Quick Launch toolbar and launching programs from giant icons on the Dock in OS X are over. Two applications, AppRocket for Windows and Quicksilver for OS X have changed the way I use computers forever.
The concept behind these applications is simple–they eliminate the need for using the mouse to search for icons in menus or start bars to open applications, files and even web addresses. They make finding and playing a song as simple as typing the first few letters and pressing enter. Both applications are also “smart”–if you use one program several times, they remember it. For example, if I launch Photoshop, the first time I might have to type “photo” for it to sort through other programs beginning with the letters “pho.” After a couple times of launching Photoshop, I might only have to type the letter “p” to bring it up in the menu.
Both AppRocket and Quicksilver are started by hitting a hotkey–by default they use the very handy combination “alt+space” or “command+space”, which are very easy to hit with your left thumb. This brings up a small window (Quicksilver has several styles). You begin typing and instantly a list drops down with programs or files that either start with or contain the letters you’ve typed. To open the file or program just press enter and you’re done–AppRocket and Quicksilver vanish until next time you need them.
If you’re on Windows, AppRocket is $18 shareware. You can find it on www.candylabs.com.
On OS X, you’re lucky. Quicksilver is absolutely free. Quicksilver also gives you some added functionality. In addition to having several styles and cool, but subtle, animation effects, it also lets you easily move files (press space), gives you a clipboard that stores up to 9 recent copies, lets you easily compose email, browse albums and create playlists on the fly in iTunes (you can even view album art) and several other cool and useful features. Download it at www.blacktree.com
Once you use AppRocket or Quicksilver for awhile, I guarantee, you’ll never go back.
Just as a note… Both Quicksilver and AppRocket have competition from programs that offer similar functionality. For OS X there’s LaunchBar and in the next release of OS X (Tiger) Spotlight is built in, on Windows there’s KBStart, PC-Com and SlickRun, all decent programs but none provide the as much functionality as the two I’ve mentioned here.
