Abbreviation Search

• Ultra fast, adaptive abbreviation search (AASv4) for amazingly accurate results. Automatically adapts to your preferences.
• Find items by entering short acronyms of their name (e.g. SP to select System Preferences).

Sub-search and Browse

• Collections of other items (folders, bookmark folders, browser history, contacts, iTunes Library, photo albums, categories, etc.) can be browsed by pressing the right arrow key.
• Alternatively (with a few exceptions) the space bar can be used for browsing as well.
• Browse the recent documents of selected application. For example, type TED to select TextEdit, then press Right Arrow.
• Browse Finder’s Recent Folders. Select Finder, then press Right Arrow.
• Browse your contacts, contact groups and contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers, etc.
• Browse your web bookmark folder hierarchy sub-search a flat list of all bookmarks and folders.
• Browse or sub-search your web history grouped by day as a flat list.
• Browse your iTunes Library by playlist, genre, artist, album, composer or song.
• File System Browsing: Navigate to any file or folder on your hard disk.
• File System Browsing traverses folder aliases and symbolic links.
• Press ⌘→ to see a folder’s contents sorted by modification date.
• Sub-search while browsing with arrow keys, press Space to perform a deep sub-search.
• Category sub-search limits the search scope to a particular kind of items. For example, type JPI to select the JPEG Images category, then press Space to search to trigger a sub-search that searches for JPEG images only.

Text Input

• Press Space to open an optional text field for entering search strings or parameters.
• Direct Input of URLs (either via ⌘L or automatically by entering a dot character).
• Search iTunes Store: Select iTunes, press Space.
• Search Mac App Store: Select App Store application, press Space.
• Pass parameters to AppleScripts, Unix Executables, services and actions. For example, select ping, press Space.
• File Content Search: Select plain text, rich text or html file, then press Space.
• Rename files, create new folders (⇧⌘R, ⇧⌘N).

Web Searches

• Perform web searches: For example, select Google and press Space.
• Comprehensive set of built-in web search templates (Google, Wikipedia, IMDB, YouTube, Flickr, Amazon, Wiktionary, Yahoo!, Merriam-Webster, and much much more).
• Add your own, freely editable search templates.
• Press ⇧Space to reuse your most recent search string with a different search engine.
• Open another search template with ⇧↩ to re-run the most recent search immediately.

Opening items

• Press ↩ to open the selected item.
• Instant Open: Keep the last abbreviation character pressed to open the resulting item immediately, without pressing ↩.
• Press ⌘↩ to show the selected item in Finder.
• Press ⇧⌘↩ to show the selected item in the frontmost Finder window.
• Open files with alternative applications: Press Tab to trigger “Open with” and select the destination.
• Press ⌃↩ to open all files contained in a selected folder in one go.
• Run AppleScripts.
• Run Unix Executables.
• Run Automator Workflows.
• Invoke Mac OS X Services.
• Press Space to enter string parameters for scripts, services and actions.
• Drag items from LaunchBar or from the search result list.

Sending Items

• Press Tab to send the selected item to the desired target.
• Send to application to open items in that application.
• Send to folder for move/copy operations.
• Send file attachments to email contact.
• Send text to search templates to perform a web search.

Instant Send

• Press and hold ⌘Space to send file or text selections from other applications to to LaunchBar.
• A modifier tap can be used to invoke Instant Send ever more quickly.
• Once the data has been sent to LaunchBar, a target can be selected for further actions (open with application, move to folder, perform a web search, send email attachment, invoke service, etc.).
• Combine Instant Send with Instant Open for even faster results.

Drag & Drop

• Drag items from other applications to LaunchBar.
• Drag files, text or URLs from LaunchBar to other applications.
• The dragging target can be selected in LaunchBar even while the drag operation is already in progress.
• When dragging to a folder in LaunchBar, use the modifier keys to choose the desired file operation (move, copy, make alias, etc.)
• Press ⌘D to simulate dragging the current Finder selection to LaunchBar.

iTunes

• Browse your iTunes Library by playlist, genre, artist, album, composer or song.
• Find similar songs: Select a song, press Right Arrow to find songs from the same album or the same artist, composer or genre.
• Playback control: Play, Pause, Next Song, Back Track, Fast Forward, Rewind
• Playback of individual songs but also entire playlists, albums, genres, artists and more.
• Best-Of Lists: LaunchBar automatically collects your top rated songs.
• Remote control your iTunes DJ playlist.
• Access the currently playing song: For example, type IT to select iTunes, then Right Arrow to show the currently playing song, then Right Arrow again to find similar tracks.
• Advanced iTunes Library management: The Identically Named Albums category helps to find albums with identically names but from different artists.

Web Bookmarks and History

• Access bookmarks and history from a wide range of web browsers (Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, Opera, OmniWeb and more).
• Open a bookmark with ↩ to open it in the default browser, or press Tab to choose a different browser.
• Use ⇧↩ to open a bookmark in the current Safari tab.
• Press Space to edit the selected bookmark prior to opening it.
• Use ⌘L to enter arbitrary URLs.
• Start typing a dot character switches to URL input automatically.
• Reveal other bookmarks from the same domain by pressing Right Arrow.
• Browse your web bookmarks: For example, type SB to select Safari Bookmarks, then press Right Arrow to browse your bookmark folder hierarchy, or press Space to get a flat list of all your bookmarks and bookmark folders.
• Browse your web history: For example, type SH to select Safari History, then press Right Arrow to browse your history grouped by days, or press Space to get a flat list of your most recently visited web pages.
• Open a bookmark folder with ↩ to open all contained bookmarks at once.

Configuration and Indexing

• Powerful, multithreaded indexing engine, performs index updates in background.
• Lots of indexing rules: Applications, Services, Actions, iTunes Library, iPhoto Library, Network Locations, Preference Panes, Dock, Contacts, Calendars, Web Bookmarks and History, Cyberduck Bookmarks and more.
• The Services indexing rule provides convenient access to commands from the Mac OS X Services menu.
• Indexes bookmarks and history from a variety of web browsers (Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, Chromium, and more).
• Index your iPhoto events and albums.
• User Accounts indexing for Fast User Switching.
• Development Resources indexing rule, indexes the entire ADC Core Reference Library and the Developer Tools Reference Library.
• Lots of configuration options to keep the index at a reasonable size (see the Options pane in the configuration window).
• Live index updates. For instance, when you add a bookmark in Safari or when you import songs to your iTunes Library, these items are immediately accessible via LaunchBar.
• Disabling of individual index items.
• Multiple items can be enabled/disabled at once via context menu or by pressing Space.
• Categories: Quick access to items of the same kind (Applications, RTF Documents, Bookmarks, Email Addresses, etc.).

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Fully customizable hotkeys for LaunchBar search, Spotlight search, Calculator and Clipboard History.
• Modifier Taps: Tapping a modifier key can be used to activate LaunchBar and to invoke Instant Send.

Clipboard History

• Seamless integration in LaunchBar’s standard interface.
• Unique features such as stack operation (last-in/first-out), ClipMerge™, etc.
• Paste as Plain Text option.
• Paste a sequence of clipboard objects using Paste and remove from history.
• Quick Look integration.
• Clipboard objects can be used for LaunchBar actions such as browsing, send-to, drag & drop, etc.
• Customizable Ignore List to protect sensitive data.

ClipMerge™

• Combine subsequent Copy operations into one single clipboard object just by pressing ⌘C twice.
• Collect portions of text from different sources and paste them all at once into a text document.
• Collect files and folders to copy or move them to a folder, or to send them as email attachments.
• Works with plain text, rich text and files.

Calendar Support

• The Calendars indexing rule provides quick access to all your calendars.
• Create events and reminders via LaunchBar: Select a calendar and press Space.
• Events are entered in the format description @ date [and time]
• Optionally, enter a location: description @ location @ date [and time]
• Reminders are entered in the format description or description > due date.
• Various options for entering dates, times and durations.
• The tab key can be used to enter @ and > more conveniently.
• Press ⌘↩ to reveal newly created items in Calendar.
• See the LaunchBar Help for details about the input syntax.
• Option to create calendar events via third party utilities such as Fantastical or QuickCal.

Actions

• Actions indexing rule covering built-in an user defined actions.
• Comprehensive set of built-in Actions:
  • File actions: Set/Reset Color Label, Empty Trash, Secure Empty Trash, Open Trash, Eject All Ejectable Volumes, Show Type and Creator
  • Compress actions to create ZIP or tar.gz archives.
  • Image manipulation actions: Resize, Recompress (High/Medium/Low Quality), Rotate Left/Right/180°, Flip Vertical/Horizontal
  • Application control actions: Quit, Force Quit, Quit All Applications, Hide, Hide Others
  • Utility actions: Make TinyURL, Start Screen Saver, Set Desktop Background, Show Date and Time, Show IP Address, etc.
  • Text manipulation: Enter Text, Display in Large Type, New TextEdit Document, Save Text
  • Clipboard actions: Copy as Plain Text, Copy and Paste, Copy and Paste as Plain Text, Clear Clipboard History, etc.
  • System management actions: Sleep, Log Out, Shut Down, Restart
  • Volume control: Decrease Volume, Increase Volume, Minimum Volume (10%), Medium Volume (50%), Maximum Volume (100%), Mute, Mute Off, Toggle Mute
  • Text to Speech actions: Speak Text, Stop Speaking. Invoking the Speak Text action automatically selects the Stop Speaking action, so it’s easy to interrupt the speech output.
  • iTunes control: Play, Pause, Next Song, Back Track, Update All Podcasts
  • iTunes Fast Forward / Rewind actions (invoking the action again switches back to playback).
  • Email actions: Get Mail, Get Mail in Background, New Mail Message
  • Creating Screenshots: Copy Screenshot of Selected Area, Copy Screenshot of Selected Window, Copy Screenshot of Selected Window Without Shadow
  • Search in Spotlight
  • Look Up in Dictionary
  • See the Actions indexing rule for the complete list of available actions.
• Add your own custom actions. Put your custom AppleScripts or shell scripts in ~/Library/Application Support/LaunchBar/Actions. This folder is automatically indexed by LaunchBar.
• The Reveal action (⌘↩) works with a wide range of items (Albums, Artists, contact groups, several indexing rules, etc.).
• Support for sending items to contact groups (e.g. to send a file to multiple recipients).

File Operations

• Perform various file operations with a selected file or folder:
  • Move
  • Copy
  • Make Alias
  • Make Symbolic Link (Absolute)
  • Make Symbolic Link (Relative)
  • Make Hard Link
  • Rename
  • New Folder
  • Duplicate
  • Get Info
  • Move to Trash
  • Eject
  • Eject Parent Volume
  • Compress
  • Set/Reset Color Label
• Send to Folder functionality. Select a file, press Tab, select the destination. The desired file operation (Move, Copy, etc.) can be selected by pressing additional modifier keys. For example, ⌘↩ moves the file(s), ⌥↩ copies the file(s).
• Asynchronous file operations to avoid blocking when copying large files.
• Option to replace existing files when performing a copy/move operation.
• ⌘A can be used to create multiple file selections.
• When renaming a file, pressing Tab selects the filename extension.
• Quick access to all currently mounted volumes through the Mounted Volumes indexing rule.
• Eject All Ejectable Volumes action.

Quick Look

• Press Space (or ⌘Y) to preview the selected item with Quick Look.
• Press ⌥⌘Y to run Quick Look full screen.
• Also works with contact items (cards, groups), text items, Clipboard History items.

Calculator

• Powerful, extensible calculator, based on Unix bc.
• Dedicated keyboard shortcut (can be configured in LaunchBar preferences > Calculator).
• Switch to Calculator automatically when typing a digit or pasting a numeric expression.
• Instant Calculate: If a text sent via Instant Send appears to be a valid calculator expression, the results are displayed automatically.
• Scientific calculations:
  • Logarithms: ln (natural), ld (binary), log (base 10)
  • Power: exp, pow
  • Trigonometry: sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan
  • Fractions: gcd (greatest common divisor), lcm (least common multiple), rem (remainder)
• Trigonometry modes (Radian, Degree, Grad)
• Function Shortcuts: Uppercase letters can be used to enter function names more quickly. For example, type S45 to get sin(45), or type Q2 to get sqrt(2).
• Smart Brackets to insert closing brackets and bracket pairs automatically.
• Smart Calculator Input for more efficient input especially on notebook keyboards.
• Automatic decimal separator detection (dot vs. comma).
• Extensible via custom macros. Put your bc macro files in ~/Library/Application Support/LaunchBar/Calculator

Command Line Operations

• Invoke command line operations in Terminal or iTerm.
• Open Terminal Here to open a new Terminal window for a given directory.
• Alternatively, press tab to send a folder to the Terminal application.
• Run Terminal Command Here to run a shell command in a given directory.
• Run Terminal Command With to run a shell command with a given file argument.
• Run Terminal Command to run arbitrary commands in a Terminal window.
• Run Shell Command to run arbitrary commands in a background shell.

User Interface

• Option to hide LaunchBar’s Dock icon (see LaunchBar preferences > Advanced).
• “Turn Hiding Off” (⇧⌘H) to keep the LaunchBar window visible, to make it a better target for dragging operations.
• Customizable width and position of the input window.
• The input window can also be resized via keyboard by pressing ⌃⇧←/→.
• LaunchBar’s contextual menus can be opened with ⌃→ and ⌃⌥→
• Customizable number of items shown while searching and browsing.
• Customizable font size in the search result list.

Other Features

• Switching Network Locations
• Fast User Switching
• Path Finder support
• Cyberduck Bookmarks
• Text Clips (files with a “.clip.txt” or “.clip.rtf” extension). The file contents are inserted in the frontmost application.
• Speech Synthesis: Spoken feedback of any searching or browsing activities.
• LaunchBar is scriptable via AppleScript.
• Automatic software updates.