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theman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 26, 2007
738
0
By far the best way to do it. I have CMD+space set to open spotlight. Hit that, type the first two (maybe 3) letters of the app name, hit enter. boom. app open in <2 seconds. I watched someone using a mac today actually open the Applications folder and browse to their app. waste of time.
 
Everyone has their own workflow
I have my apps on the dock... one click, boom, app open
Why waste the time for CMD+space and typing three letters and enter? Waste of time
 
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By far the best way to do it. I have CMD+space set to open spotlight. Hit that, type the first two (maybe 3) letters of the app name, hit enter. boom. app open in <2 seconds. I watched someone using a mac today actually open the Applications folder and browse to their app. waste of time.

your way:

photoshop have to type photosh
after effects never is first choice
Flash CS5 never is first choice
lightroom 3 have to type lig
premier have to type prem

so while many applications do come up in a few keystrokes, for many of my most used applications it either doesn't work at all or takes many keystrokes, plus constantly having to visually verify in an ever updating list that the right app is being chosen. Or I can just use launchpad or the dock and do it in a single click and absolutely know it is going to work.

computers should be flexible to accommodate what each person thinks there best workflow id.
 
That's by far the fastest way to do. Assuming it's not in your dock and that your not one of those people that has every single app in the dock already...that drives me NUTS to see that.
 
Doesn't anybody use Quicksilver anymore? What a beautiful program. I used it before upgrading to Leopard and found Spotlight to be very disappointing in comparison.
 
Me! Never have used that method, not even once.

#1 use of Mac is for internet. Safari opens when I boot up. Firefox is in the Dock.

#2 use is spreadsheets. Excel opens when I find the file I want to open and double-click it. (Same with Word, which I use far less frequently.)

Other things I use often are in the Dock also. But for some, I use the "old-fashioned" alias on the Desktop. And for a few, I have both.

I don't recall ever opening any other applications.
 
By far the best way to do it. I have CMD+space set to open spotlight. Hit that, type the first two (maybe 3) letters of the app name, hit enter. boom. app open in <2 seconds. I watched someone using a mac today actually open the Applications folder and browse to their app. waste of time.

So basically, you have to hit a total of 4 or 5 buttons to open an app someone else can open with 2 mouse clicks? You're really saving time there! ;)
 
I use spotlight and the first few characters of the app I want to run. After a fresh OS install or upgrade, that method doesn't work until spotlight finishes indexing so I'm forced to poke around in the dock or applications folder. Bummer. I think this comes down to being more comfortable with graphical or keyboard oriented workflow. I'm more comfortable with the latter and launch terminal from time to time "for old time's sake."
 
I use Alfred, as I am more of a keyboard user.
I rarely use the Dock, only in Lion, as it is faster than Mission Control, but in SL, Spaces and Exposé are faster.
 
I use the dock because my hand is already on the mouse. Having to move my hands to the keyboard wastes time if that's where your hands are. The dock is faster than the keyboard for me.

But for the 10% of the time I need something that's not on the dock then, yes, I use Spotlight as my backup method.
 
I love spotlight and use it all the time. But sometimes it has trouble and hangs on surprisingly simple searches that match exact application/document names.
 
dock = waste of screen space

besides, i can type a lot faster than i can move my mouse across the screen and click.
 
By far the best way to do it. I have CMD+space set to open spotlight. Hit that, type the first two (maybe 3) letters of the app name, hit enter. boom. app open in <2 seconds. I watched someone using a mac today actually open the Applications folder and browse to their app. waste of time.

pretty sure it is quicker to have the app auto start at startup. Turn computer on, mail opens, ical opens and some other stuff opens too.
 
Meh, I prefer not to have all that many apps on my dock. So yeah, I do use cmd+space frequently, though it's become somewhat of an automatism already I don't even notice myself doing it anymore.
 
I have Firefox, Thunderbird, iCal, openoffice, and itunes all open on start-up, I've got enough RAM, and they're all in appropriate Spaces. Anything else is just 2 clicks away via the App folder on the dock.
 
Alfred and some Launchpad when my hands are not in the keyboard.
I only use the Dock as a switch between active apps.

I also use some gestures, like 4 finger click launches Chrome and 4 finger click while holding Fn key opens a Finder window, and some shortcuts like Cmd + m = Open Mail.app
 
Alfred here too, though I have my most commonly used apps in the dock as well cuz it simply looks cool to me. yeah, I know.... Hahahaha
 
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