Hands-on With Bulter

Over the years, various editor's here have espoused their preference in the way of program launchers--Dan Frakes prefers LaunchBar, Dan Miller relies on QuickSilver, while I find Butler to be indispensible. Since that piece was written, Butler has found a new homepage.

Despite our differing opinions on which launcher to use, all of us agree that you can be much more productive with a launcher utility than without.

While I've discussed Butler here in many different articles over the years, I realized that I'd never covered it on video...and since a picture is worth 1,000 words, I thought I'd use this installment of the Macworld Video to demonstrate just a few of Butler's more interesting features. What I don't actually demonstrate is the basic use of Butler as a launcher; it's covered pretty well in my original write-up, and honestly, it's one of Butler's more basic features.

DownloadMacworld Video #83

Format: MPEG-4/H.264

Resolution: 320 x 240 (iPhone & iPod compatible)

Size: 10.9MB

Length: 8.5 minutes

Show Notes

In the video, I chose to focus on a few of the other non-typical things that Butler can do for you. In particular, I cover a couple of setup tips, and show you how to create your own use-from-anywhere web search hotkeys, build a customized pop-up menu, and use Butler's multi-item permanent-storage clipboard. Butler has a ton of additional features, of course, but I could only cover a few in the video.

If you've been thinking of trying a launcher, you can download and test Quicksilver, LaunchBar, and Butler for free...which one you end up using will really come down to personal preference. In my case, Butler won out for its ability to do much more than just launch programs. Watch the video to get a small sense for some of its other capabilities.

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