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What's your favorite launch bar? Your favorite features? Missing Features?

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nudone:
f0dder and tinyvillager, i had installed the trial version of windowblinds 5 - using the noire skin - it was almost the perfect 'look' for my new new 'black' machine. but, there were a few things i wanted to tweak - just so i could see the text better on some menus and there was a rather chubby border around the windows that wasn't really necessary.

i tried to edit the skin using 'skinstudio' but the 'noire' skin that it picked up appeared to be slightly different than the one i actually had running in front of me - strange. anyway, i didn't edit the skin and it just made me wonder - if i upgraded to the full windowblinds would i then find myself with other version of 'noire' - the one that i actually don't like (it's less pollished).

this, along with your comments about many people complaining, just made me think that i was destined to become another unhappy customer.

i'll give it some thought and then maybe just take the gamble and buy it - looks to me like it's a 50:50 chance of winning.

Hirudin:
Right-click on the same icon gets me a menu of other apps in that category. For example, my Firefox button of course opens Firefox when I click it. A right-click pops up a menu of the category "internet" that includes IE, Filezilla, Opera, and may also include Instant Message and IRC apps, Upload links, etc.
--- End quote ---

That sounds like a GREAT feature! I used something similar when I customized my Rhino 3D interface. It is SO convienient to have ONE button that does the most common task when left-clicked, but gives access to similar tasks when right clicked!


I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I actually use Windows Toolbars. I used to hate the "Quick Launch Bar" but, with some tweeking, I hate to be without it! Pretty much what I've done, is created folders that contain the shortcuts that I use, then created custom Toolbars that display the contents of those folders. The cool thing is, you can drag the toolbars off the Task Bar onto the Desktop, then drag them off the Desktop to create a new docked window on the side/top of the screen.



As you can see: I have a new bar on the left side, the top is a toolbar pointing to my "!Shortcuts" directory, it has pretty much all the shortcuts that I ever use, all in one place. To access the shortcuts I have to press the little "»" to open the submenu.

Below that I have a toolbar pointing to my "!Shortcuts\Common" folder, in there I keep copies of shortcuts that I use all the time, or shortcuts to programs that I don't want to forget about.

Then on the bottom I have a toolbar that displays the contents of the Desktop. I download everything to the desktop first, then decide if I want to keep it or delete it. With the handy left toolbar I can open the newly downloaded program/file as soon as it's done downloading. I can also grab newly downloaded documents and drag them onto open programs without having to minimize any windows! It works very well!

A feature I would request of a dockable toolbar: a pause before it opens (even if it's 200 ms). The one bad aspect of the left toolbar is that it opens instantly, so it'll open sometimes when I'm trying to select something on the left of the screen (be it a button, or just trying to highlight text...).

Another feature that might be cool, is to make it possible to only display files created/modified within a settable amount of time. With this feature you could have an easily accessable list of newly downloaded/created files, without having to sort through all your old files...

Also, it seems like a lot of people have shortcuts on their toolbar "just as a reminder." Having a dedicated "reminder" feature of some kind might be helpful.

And on a side note, this is the way I have firefox layed out (with the back, forward, refresh, and stop buttons, the address bar, and the google search box in the same line as the File, Edit, View, etc menus). It saves a decient amount of space...

mouser:
thats a useful picture hirudin - i hadn't thought of combining big and small icons on one toolbar.. i'll have to consider that.

i know there are a lot of application launchbars out there - hopefully ours will find a little niche and be able to implement some useful features.  i suspect that over time we'll all be able to think think of enough new features that will make it something special.

Innuendo:
When it comes to launch bars there are two kinds...There's TrueLaunchBar....and there's everything else. ;D

Seriously, if anyone is looking to program a launch bar program then TrueLaunchBar is truly the one app above all others that needs to be studied very closely. What it can do out of the box is amazing. What it can do coupled with the plugins that have been written for it is nothing short of mind-staggering. TLB is the best of show in this category of apps and is the one to beat. It's greatest strength, IMHO, is that it starts with what is familiar to everyone (Quick Launch) and builds upon it with tons of functionality without becoming intrusive or obstructive. It's so good that even my stinginess had to relent and purchase a license the last time it was on sale.

I really love the projects that Stardock put out...in spirit. However, in practice, when I install one of their apps it always starts making other stuff act weirdly. I don't know if I would call it bugs, but more along the lines of oddities. For example, I installed WindowBlinds 5 and then I lost the ability to minimize Firefox to the system tray. Uninstalled WB 5 and I got my minimize functionality back. Stardock specializes in programming nifty ground-breaking apps that are perpetually "almost there."

Darwin:
I use Truelaunchbar Pro, too... I love it. My only complaint, and the developer is looking into this, is that the "show desktop" icon is infinitely slower in switching to the desktop than it is using the QuickLaunchBar. For the record, the same behaviour occurs when I have ObjectBar loaded (installed for that matter...) instead of the default taskbar.

Innuendo, I actually agree with you about Stardock. I like their ideas/apps in principle but there is always something that doesn't quite work right. Currently, I only have Window Blinds 5 installed (latest beta), though I have access to the entire ObjectDesktop suite and also own ObjectDock. I just don't find that, in the case of ObjectDock, there is enough there that isn't available using the taskbar. I *do* like window blinds though...

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