suggestion: add triggers to Launchbar

[pendolino]

how hard would it be to add Quicksilver style triggers to Launchbar? This is the only thing keeping me from making the jump to Launchbar. I tried it out yesterday for a while and found that triggers were very important to my workflow. I've searched for solutions to this and realize that most of them suggest something along the lines of using scripts but the way I have them set up in QS is using specific object/action pairs and this seems hard to script for many things.

[switters]

I'd like to raise my hand for this too!

I found a temporary solution in the meantime, which is to use DragThing. You can easily set up hotkeys to open folders, applications, documents, etc. I assume it can be used to run AppleScripts but I haven't tried it for that. I've configured it so that I never see the DragThing dock unless I bring the DragThing app to the front. The only downside is that it isn't free. Hopefully Launchbar will integrate this functionality soon.

[pendolino]

i just took a look at dragthing's website as i was unfamiliar with it and it looks like overkill for my needs when coupled with launchbar. i've so far managed to get quicksilver up and running again on snow leopard and i hope that suffices for a good amount of time. thanks for the tip though.

[switters]

You're right, it is complete overkill - but it works. I think what I might do is use QS for triggers (since it's free and DragThing is not) and Launchbar for everything else. I greatly prefer Launchbar to QS for my normal workflow, and find it to be far more stable in 10.6.

[donkeyotay]

Have a look at Spark
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14352
Free & very useful.
HTH
donkeyotay

[switters]

YES! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

[pendolino]

i just tired spark but for some reason the shortcut created only works when the related application is active and not as a global hotkey.

[switters]

Strange, I'm not having that problem at all. ??

[donkeyotay]

i just tired spark but for some reason the shortcut created only works when the related application is active and not as a global hotkey.

You can have them application specific or global. As far as I remember it defaults to global, but by clicking on the "All Applications's Hotkeys" you can see the specified programmes.
HTH
donkeyotay

[pendolino]

looks like this is a known problem as mentioned in sparks forums here http://forum.shadowlab.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1649

[Osprey]

Same here, triggers to open an application with a hotkey for example are quite essential, I think. So far I'm better off with the latest Quicksilver beta b57-3840. It has custom triggers and is considerably cheaper as well.

[iRounak]

One of the super-annoying things about Spark is this:
If you assign an applescript a shortcut (either by pasting the script or by giving the file location), you have to activate Spark, reach out to that applescript and click "Update" everytime you edit the script.

[aristidesfl]

one more vote for triggers here!!

[TomEck]

I am not familiar with Quicksilver and would like to know what do you mean by "triggers" exactly. As far reference is made to Spark (or Keyboard Maestro, QuicKeys, iKey...) or DragThing it seems to mean shortcuts for launching applications but this is something you could do (at least nearly) equipollent in LB with Instant Open. The same applies to folders.

Thanks for clarification!

[pendolino]

Quicksilver triggers are similar to macros or functions whereby you can create keyboard shortcuts, hotkeys or gestures for doing common things.

some examples of how i use them:

- ctrl-F opens a new finder window
- ctrl-W brings up a quicksilver dialog that searches wikipedia (using this generic string: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Se ... =***&go=Go)
- ctrl-G does the same for google

here's a screenshot of my preference pane for triggers showing some of the ones i have set up: http://grab.by/2M2D

here are videos on QS triggers: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=q ... ers&view=3