Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Start Menu Widget

bu113t

bu113t

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 21, 2006
49
10
Howell, MI
I dont actually need a windows style start menu, but does anyone know if there is a Widget that can display the items in your applications folder (or even better, choose which applications you want in it)? I think if I can put this on my girlfriend's login, I can convert her to a mac user...
 
Could you just drag the Applications folder (or maybe a smaller version with aliases to interesting applications) to the right-hand side of the Dock? With a right-click (or click-and-hold) it's very much like the Start menu.
 
Why not just show her how to use the Dock and Finder. Having to go into Dashboard to access applications seems like an unnecessary step. She'll quickly get used to it.
 
solution

bu113t said:
I dont actually need a windows style start menu, but does anyone know if there is a Widget that can display the items in your applications folder (or even better, choose which applications you want in it)? I think if I can put this on my girlfriend's login, I can convert her to a mac user...
Click to expand...

drag your apps folder into the dock on the right side of line.
Then when you click and hold on that folder you can browse and open your apps easily.
 
I've heard people say you can drag the apps folder into the dock and I havent been able to get that to work.

As far as the reasoning for a widget... i dont need to keep the widget on the dashboard, you can easily just drag the widget onto your desktop and out of the dashboard so you dont have to open dashboard each time you want access... at least that was the plan.
 
What about this? http://ranchero.com/tigerlaunch/

TigerLaunch is an easy-to-use and easy-to-configure application launcher for OS X.

It displays an Apps menu at the top of your screen listing all your applications in alphabetical order—no matter what folder they appear in.
 
bu113t said:
I've heard people say you can drag the apps folder into the dock and I havent been able to get that to work.
Click to expand...

It has to be on the right hand side of the dock - near the trash. There is a dividing line in the dock - to the left of the line you can only put applications, to the right of the line you can put folders and files.
 
There is this cool widget that sits on the desktop that you can put any apps into you want and launch them right from the desktop. I think it's just what you're looking for.

It's called the Dock.
 
vohdoun said:
Which did you go with?

Looks like HimmelBar is more upto date...
Click to expand...

Well, im still at work, so I haven't tried either yet... They both seem pretty similar and botjh look like they can be customizable... I think I may install them both simultaneously and see which I like better.
 
decksnap said:
There is this cool widget that sits on the desktop that you can put any apps into you want and launch them right from the desktop. I think it's just what you're looking for.

It's called the Dock.
Click to expand...

Man, in all the years I've been using OSX I never thought of the dock. As much as I love my Macs, the Dock does not have the same abilities as the start menu. If I have 50 programs that I use on my mac, I hardly want them all in there. Opening the finder, clicking on Applications and scrolling through my endless applications takes a long time too... I think that is probably why people wrote HimmelBar and TigerLaunch. The Dock is not exactly what I am looking for.
 
bu113t said:
Man, in all the years I've been using OSX I never thought of the dock. As much as I love my Macs, the Dock does not have the same abilities as the start menu. If I have 50 programs that I use on my mac, I hardly want them all in there. Opening the finder, clicking on Applications and scrolling through my endless applications takes a long time too... I think that is probably why people wrote HimmelBar and TigerLaunch. The Dock is not exactly what I am looking for.
Click to expand...

FYI - just in case you were thinking of using HimmelBar on your MBP. The universal binary is in beta.

http://softbend.free.fr/himmelbar/download_beta.html

Tigerlaunch is working fine on my MBP.
 
bu113t said:
Man, in all the years I've been using OSX I never thought of the dock. As much as I love my Macs, the Dock does not have the same abilities as the start menu. If I have 50 programs that I use on my mac, I hardly want them all in there. Opening the finder, clicking on Applications and scrolling through my endless applications takes a long time too... I think that is probably why people wrote HimmelBar and TigerLaunch. The Dock is not exactly what I am looking for.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it does if you drag your apps folder into it.
 
Comming from windows I also would probably heavelly use a widget just in my left-bottom corner... If it would include the possibilities of himmelbar and maybe the search option os x has it would (in my humble opinion) really help people from windows switching to mac.

p.s. Why search tons of windows if there is Witch ( http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=witch ), a program that will do the ALT-TAB just like in windows (so between windows, not programs).
 
I don't think bu113t here understands how the drag-applications-to-dock thing works. So I'll show him a picture. Hopefully he won't go "I tried it, it doesn't work. Anything else" on us this time.

PICTURE HERE
 
bu113t said:
Man, in all the years I've been using OSX I never thought of the dock. As much as I love my Macs, the Dock does not have the same abilities as the start menu. If I have 50 programs that I use on my mac, I hardly want them all in there. Opening the finder, clicking on Applications and scrolling through my endless applications takes a long time too... I think that is probably why people wrote HimmelBar and TigerLaunch. The Dock is not exactly what I am looking for.
Click to expand...

You Dont Need any 3rd party software! Just DRAG THE APPLICATIONS FOLDER into the dock RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR TRASH CAN!
Then just RIGHT CLICK on it and it displays your applications like a start menu.

Look at the picture in the post above mine
 
Raven VII said:
I don't think bu113t here understands how the drag-applications-to-dock thing works. So I'll show him a picture. Hopefully he won't go "I tried it, it doesn't work. Anything else" on us this time.

PICTURE HERE
Click to expand...

Yup, this is what I do. If you click on the folder in your dock and hold it for a couple seconds, that menu will pop up showing everything that is in the folder.

I also change the icon for it in the dock, so it looks a little nicer (to me).
 
groovebiscuit said:
How about this?

http://softbend.free.fr/himmelbar/

Don't know if it's exactly what your looking for but it's fully configurable as to what apps you want it to display.

I find it very handy for apps I use often but that I don't want to clutter up my dock with.
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic i suppose, but for those apps (& Pref Panes) that I don't want to clutter my dock with, I drag them onto my finder tool bar. Saves digging around in folders.

(I have the scroll ball on my Mighty Mouse configured to open a finder window, so it's only ever a click away.)
 

Attachments

  • finder.jpg
    finder.jpg
    108.4 KB · Views: 127
decksnap said:
You can switch through windows with alt+` in OS X. And since it's right above alt+tab, you can use them in conjunction.
Click to expand...

Haha... i expected that one... but it's differend. With the program above you can do both Alt + ` and Apple + Tab in 1 program. So it saves you the time + you get a nice interface for it (So: Also your X11 programs appear with all windows!... And that is what is all so handy about it if you use for example openoffice).

Note; What is so handy about the left-bottom corner Start (or something that can do that) instead of all programs mentioned on this page is that you can just push your mouse in the fecinity (you don't have to be exactly on start, but just a little around is ok) and you get a list of all programs with just one click and an execute possibility for the prompt. (Almost everyone i know using windows uses start -> cmd -> notepad or calc :p).
It's not that it's maybe the fastest way to do this in OS X, but it is something people got used to if they were using windows... so a widget to help people make the switch could help (and of course, after a while you can uninstall it maybe if you got used to all other things).

It's like the same as a missing 'go one map up' in finder... it's there (Apple + arrow up)... but it's not there in the interface... (or did I really took a bad look). After a while you got used to using that button in windows and start to miss it in Os X.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back