My favorite keyboard launcher, LaunchBar will speed up everything outside of your editing and graphics software

 

So I have written about LaunchBar in the past, but now I am writing about it as something to speed up your workflow when using editing or graphics software. I have been using the amazing LaunchBar from Objective Development for years, and whenever I am in an office using a computer there I feel stunted by not having it.

Now LaunchBar is a tool that does so many things, but my favorite is to the ability to launch application using keyboard shortcuts, and it will learn your shorcuts quickly to speed things up. You hit a quick keyboard shortcut, which brings up LaunchBar and then you type your keys and if the application shows up hit return or push to the down arrow and select what you want to launch. After selecting the thing a few time LaunchBar learns and moves your choice to the top of list.

So to launch I hit Command-Space and the last app I launch shows up, if I want to launch it, just hit enter and it launches.

Or more powerfully you type the initials of an app, and LaunchBar will give you a list, and you select what app you want.

If I want Word, I try Wo or MW.

Then select the App and return and it will learn your initials and move the app up the list and eventually to the top.

This way I can launch any application without ever touching the mouse, and this is HUGE! IT WILL SPEED UP EVERYTHING YOU DO ON THE COMPUTER OUTSIDE OF YOU EDITING OR GRAPHICS APPLICATION!
And Launchbar does so much more. You can do calculator functions, instant web searches, go to web sites, create e-mails from contacts, merge files, check your ClipBoard History, and it is all customizable.
LaunchBar is the so worth $29 or $49 for a family license. It speeds up everything I do on the computer and it can speed things up for you as well.

Excalibur from Knights of the Editing Table is an amazing keyboard shortcut plug-in for Premiere Pro, it significantly speeds up my editing, it us a must have!

 Knights of the Editing Table has made the amazing new plug-in for Adobe Premiere Pro that adds quick smart keyboard short cuts for Premiere Pro. It reminds me of ObDev’s awesome keyboard launcher Launchbar, which I swear by and love, except thus us within Premiere Pro. You hit a quick keybiard shortcut, and the type what you want, say di for dissolve, then if you hit return it adds a transition or you can hit > and type how many frames you want it. 

Here is an overview.

At $75 it is a steal. I have written about it before, but after using it I have been very impressed, though even after the 1.0.1 update I have had some issues putting transitions on clips, but everything else has been incredibly fast, and Premiere really needs a paste on same track shortcut without turning off the track targeting.

Every editor should give this a try!