xdeb.org

Launchbar, Keyboard Maestro and Typinator - It's all about fewer keystrokes

launchbar
keyboard maestro
typinator

I have made my way through a substantial list of automation software over the years. Currently I’m using the following three:

LaunchBar 5 has since a few month replaced the discontinued Quicksilver for me. LaunchBar is under active development and it’s both fast and stable. It may have started out as a simple launcher but today LaunchBar is a lot more. It gives you access to more or less everything on your computer with a very few keystrokes.

Keyboard Maestro makes all my F-keys do something useful. I also use it to remap commands, give shortcuts to AppleScripts, control iTunes etc. With the Keyboard Maestro iPhone app you can execute commands on your computer from anywhere.

Typinator insert common strings for me as well as auto-correcting typing errors. If I type “tel[space]” Typinator expands that to my phone number, “MAc OS X” becomes “Mac OS X” and “belive” becomes “believe”. There are a couple of apps that does this, I picked Typinator because it work in all applications and it’s very stable.

Using a computer without these three applications make me feel encumbered and slow. In total they cost €72, a bargin in my book.