I thank you for reading the above in the right spirit. I shall be glad to assist you with your queries. I will also post more drawbacks of using LaunchBar. Basically, the idea in LaunchBai is to avoid tabbing. So most thing that are done with two panes in Quicksilver are done with one pane LaunchBar like I explained in point 7 above. Similarly, actions which require three panes in Quicksilver are completed in two panes. Also, remember that in second pane you can bring files as well as actions.
Let me show you some examples of third pane/menu: Here's an extract from LaunchBar help: Press Command-G to transfer the current Finder selection to LaunchBar Press Tab to trigger “Send to…” (This does not mean second pane. Pressing tab itself means "Send to…". It is their style of writing.) Select the desired target application, type e.g. TED to select TextEdit (This is the second pane. So what would have taken three panes in Quicksilver, takes two panes here) Select a file (via abbreviation search, browsing, Command-G, etc.) Press Command-C to copy its file-path Select a folder Press Command-V to get a menu with possible file operations (Move, Copy, Make Alias, etc.) Use the up/down arrow keys or the function keys to select the desired file operation (This Command-V drops the folder on the file, this dropping can also be done on applescripts. So basically you search a file, copy it, bring the applescript and drop the file with Command-V. All in the first pane.) Alternatively, you can do this: select a file/folder, press tab, select folder, return and the third menu willl pop up. (Here's a screenshot of "drag" action that appears above. After pressing return the third menu appears showing the actions: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/872430/Quicksilver%20Scripts/Picture%201.png So basically, LaunchBar understands that if you have a file/folder in first pane and folder in second pane, then you want to perform actions like move to/copy to etc. You don't have to select the action first like in Quicksilver) Press Command-G to transfer the current Finder selection to LaunchBar Press Tab to trigger “Send to…” (This does not mean second pane. Pressing tab itself means "Send to…". It is their style of writing.) Select the desired target application, type e.g. TED to select TextEdit (This is the second pane. So what would have taken three panes in Quicksilver, takes two panes here) Here's are some more examples of how two panes can do what three panes did in Quicksilver: This will open a new message window with attachment. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/872430/Quicksilver%20Scripts/Picture%203.png This open a new TextEdit document with the text typed in first pane. Just compare it with the number of steps that are required in Quicksilver. (unless you resort to applescripting) http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/872430/Quicksilver%20Scripts/Picture%204.png Here's the "append to" action which takes only two panes. First you enter the text in text mode and then you select the text document in the second pane. That way, LaunchBar understands that you want to perform an append to. http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/872430/Quicksilver%20Scripts/Picture%205.png Now the question arises, what if you wanted to do "Prepend to" instead of "Append to". The answer is as follows: 1. There is no "Prepend to" action in LB. 2. If I write an applescript, this is how I would do it. type the text in first pane which i want to prepend press tab bring up the file in second pane press Cmd+c bring up the action in second pane type the text i want to prepend in LaunchBar bring the text file that you want to prepend to press cmd+c (its path will be copied to clipboard) now bring applescript in that same pane (LaunchBar compulsorily has a limited "Reset search after" time. The maximum is 3 seconds. You can't disable it like in Quicksilver. So you have to get used to it and things get really faster. Thats why you can get the applescript in the second pane quickly) The applescript will take take from the first pane and append it to the path of the file which is in the clipboard. This applescript is also an example of how you do away with applescript dialog boxes completely for taking the second argument. If you have any specific concerns regarding an action involving three panes that you think cannot be done with LaunchBar, let me know. I will find out if it can be done. Now time for Drawbacks: 1. In Quicksilver, you could bring up a file in first pane and press "Cmd+Shift+<letter>" that could execute the action in the second pane which was default for that <letter>. No such thing in LaunchBar. 2. You also had a "Capitalize keys modified action in command window". No such thing in LaunchBar. 3. Its worth repeating. No comma trick. They (LB users) rely on the the clipboard method to collect files. And then apply action in the second pane. That is why there is limited search time after which your search query is reset. That way you get used to it and start to collect items faster. But that will take time especially if you are like me who disabled the "reset search query" in Quicksilver as soon as you installed it. 4. After you execute an applescript, LB does not immediately hide itself unless you start the applescript with "tell app "LaunchBar" to hide. Sometimes such delay in hiding is observed while running "actions" from the second pane too. 5. I need not feel it important. But I have seen many Quicksilver users complain about this: "No access to menu bar items" of the Current Application like in Quicksilver. 6. Getting used to the LaunchBar "Catalog" called "Index" will take quite some time. I found it quite complicated to understand. But you can exclude folders, file types etc (Whenever you read anything in this thread, remember that there are many alternative ways to do things in both these apps and its not easy to grasp them all and remember them if you have not used those them for a period of time. So if you find that something I have written could have been done in a faster way, then ignore my comment on that point and do mention it if you want to) On Oct 28, 12:35 am, "Jon Stovell (a.k.a. Sesquipedalian)" <[email protected]> wrote: > > e. Good support for Move to, Copy to etc (There is no third pane, > > there is a third menu instead for these actions) > > And that is the reason why LaunchBar, Butler, and GQSB just won't work > for me. QS's third pane is so incredibly useful, and works with a > whole bunch of actions. A menu (blech!) that only works with a few > select actions is no substitute.
