LaunchBar

Working with files and folders

Type e.g. TED to select the TextEdit application

Press Space (or Right Arrow) to access the recent documents of TextEdit

Type ~ (the tilde sign) to quickly select your home folder

Or type / (forward slash) to quickly select your boot volume

Use the arrow keys keys to browse the contents of the selected folder or volume

Type e.g. DESK to select the “Desktop” folder

Now press Right Arrow to see all items on the Desktop

Type another abbreviation to select one of these items

Press Command-Shift-R to rename the selected item

See the “Commands” menu for more file operations such as “Duplicate”, “Get Info” or “Move to Trash”

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 arrow up/down keys or the function keys to select the desired file operation

Press Command-G to transfer the current Finder selection to LaunchBar

Press Tab to initiate “Open with…”

Select the desired target application, type e.g. TED to select TextEdit

Type e.g. MV to select the “Mounted Volumes” indexing rule

Press Space (or Right Arrow) to get a list of all mounted volumes

Press Command-E to eject the selected volume

Searching for items of a particular kind

Type e.g. KIND to select the “Items Grouped by Kind” indexing rule

Press Space to sub-search for a specific kind of items

Type e.g. GEN to select the “Genres” category, containing all genres defined in your iTunes Music Library

Press Space to sub-search this group for a particular genre

Type e.g. CLA to select the “Classical” genre

Press Right Arrow to start browsing the selected genre (e.g. to view a list of all classical albums or composers)

Note that you can also skip the initial steps and type CLA immediately to directly select the “Classical” genre.

Select a category to sub-search it for an item of a particular kind

Type e.g. PHN to search for a “Phone Number”

Type e.g. TIFF to search for a “TIFF Document”

Type e.g. IMFI to search for any kind of “Image File” (TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PDF, etc.)

Type e.g. APHE to search for an “AppKit Header File”

Once the desired category is selected, press Space and sub-search it by entering a further abbreviation

Browsing and searching the web

Type e.g. SAHI to select the “Safari History” indexing rule

Press Space to sub-search all recently visited web pages

Type an abbreviation for the searched web page

Type e.g. GEP to select the “Google Exact Phrase” search template

Press Space and enter a phrase that you wish to search exactly with Google

Press Return to get the search results displayed in your web browser

Type a dot character to start entering an arbitrary URL

Complete the URL

Press Return to get the entered address opened in your default web browser

Alternatively press Tab to select the desired web browser

Type e.g. BF to select the “Bookmark Folders” category

Press Space and select a particular bookmark folder

Press Return to open all bookmarks within this folder at once

Interacting with Terminal

Select a folder (via abbreviation search, browsing, Command-G, etc.)

Press Command-T to open a new Terminal window for this folder

Select a file (via abbreviation search, browsing, Command-G, etc.)

Press Command-Shift-T to prepare a Terminal command for this file

Type e.g. “cksum” to calculate the file's checksum

Type e.g. MAN to select the Unix “man” command

Press Space to enter a parameter for the selected command, e.g. the name of the man page you wish to open

Press Return to get the results displayed in a new Terminal window

Information

Support

Abbreviations

Depending on your current configuration, some of the abbreviations suggested in the examples may deliver different results.

Just use somewhat longer abbreviations in that case, e.g. type BOFOL instead of BF in order to select the "Bookmark Folders" category.

Note also that once you've trained shorter abbreviations for your favorite items you will be able to use these shortcuts as well and type things like

A<Space>NU

to search for “Network Utility” within the “Applications” category.

Sub-Search

Sub-searching items that represent collections of other items (folders, categories, etc.) is a very powerful technique to narrow down the search results as shown in many of the examples.

A sub-search can be initiated by pressing either the space bar or the right arrow key. If you now enter an abbreviation, only the selected context will be searched for matching items (instead of searching the whole index). An ongoing sub-search is indicated with a blue text color.

Note that you can perform multiple sub-searches in the current context. If the entered abbreviation doesn't yet deliver the expected results, simply type another abbreviation. To revert to the full index search, press Command-Space.