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A Better Finder Launcher, Pure LauncherVery different from other launchers... |
By Victor Mihailescu, Apple News Editor
20th of September 2006, 15:16 GMT
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When it comes to quickly accessing things on your hard drive, your best bet is a launcher application. These dedicated applications make it easy to find and open what you are looking for, regardless of what you are currently doing, and without having to go through the Finder. While all launchers do pretty much the same thing on a broad level, when they get right down to it, they are all a little bit different and better suited for different approaches and tastes. Quicksilver is great when it comes to doing all sorts of things right from inside it and using it as a multi tool; LaunchBar - on the other hand - is ideal when you want to have a good maneuverability and be able to find and browse through content - all in one simple interface. The third alternative is A Better Finder Launcher, which is much simpler and does not branch out into any additional functionality, preferring to stay a pure launcher with a visually orientated approach.
What it does
A Better Finder Launcher is a launcher, which is similar to a search engine, only instead of being as broad and versatile or in-depth as traditional search engines, it will only really look at very specific things. Similar to Spotlight, you can use it to locate applications, documents and folders; however, the main difference is that - unlike Spotlight - it is lightning fast.
Unlike a search engine that is designed to help you find things when you only have very faint ideas about what you are looking for, or little information on where those things are, a launcher is designed to give you almost instant
access to things that you know very well and use regularly.
Using it
After installing A Better Finder Launcher, you can start using it by hitting the universal shortcut that you can customize to your own taste. This will bring up the search window, where almost everything you do with this program takes place.
After invoking the search window, the focus will automatically be in the search area, so you can start typing out the name of the item you are looking for. As you type, possible results start come up on the left side, and as you add in more characters, the results will be filtered until only what you want remains. Additionally, the program learns from your searching habits, so that if you search for Safari a lot, it will get to the point where simply typing 's' will give you safari as the first result. If, on the other hand, you launched Sherlock many times, typing the same 's' will give you Sherlock as a result.
Launchers, unlike search engines, do not look everywhere for all types of documents, nor do they look inside documents. Instead, you have to tell the application where you want it to look, and what file types it should be looking for. By default, it comes out of the box set up to search the default locations, such as the Applications folder and your Home folder, but you can set it up to look for anything. This restriction makes it possible for the application to make very fast searches and keep indexing times next to nothing in duration; however, it also means that this program will never ever be able to find something that is located out of its search area.
Visually orintated
Unlike other launcher applications, A Better Finder Launcher is very visually oriented.
The search window has a very nice reflection overlay at the bottom of it, it's designed to be in tune with the look and fee of Tiger and has wide margins. In fact, it takes up a very large amount of screen, a large part of which is taken up by the item's icon. It is so big that it pretty much obstructs everything behind it and takes up the whole field of attention.
The results list can accommodate a huge number of results, depending on your settings, but - because everything else is so big - the names of the results seem hard to read on the smaller font settings.
The mouse can be used throughout the window, and is even necessary in order to change the search type, which is a bit of a strange design choice for launchers, which traditionally have been fully functional without ever having to go near the mouse.
The Good
Pure launcher with a visually orientated approach. Good for those who are new to launchers or have found the other similar programs too hard to use.
The Bad
There is nothing bad about this program. There are striking differences between it and other similar programs, but that is because it has a very different approach.
The Truth
A Better Finder Launcher is the best choice for people who want a launcher and are visually oriented. The fact that it also does not branch out into additional functionality makes it good for those who want a simple fast solution.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
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