My latest purchase from the Mac App Store is a little dandy called Apptivate. It’s $2.99 and worth every penny. Essentially, it is a hot key activator. What’s that? It allows me to assign a key combination to launch applications, folders, etc. For example, I have “cntrl m” set up to activate the blogging program I use called Marsedit. So I just hit that key combo and BAM! the program is launched. If it is already running, that key combo brings it to the front of all of the windows I have active.
It doesn’t sound like much, but I now have these combos for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox browsers (cntrl 1,2,3), iTunes, iCal, Graphic convertor, Pixelmator, Address book, Join Together, and the Mac App Store. I also have my downloads folder at my fingertips. I’ve made heavy use of the control button cause it doesn’t seem to have a lot of things assigned to it yet. Apptivate also allows you to do sequential key commands. So while I have “cntrl j” to activate Join Together, what do I do with all of the “i” apps” Easy, I hit “cntrl i” first and then touch the letter for the next part of the app. So for iCal, I hit “cntrl i” and then the letter “c”. It makes it easy to keep track of where everything is.
Where this can get pretty interesting is that I can also use Automator to create custom actions on my computer. Automator creates Applescript programs to automate actions on your computer. So I could create a program to open a folder, rename the pictures in it, and then upload them to whatever site i want them to. Then every time I want to do that, I can just run the applescript. Now, with Apptivate, I can run that with a quick key combo. The possibilities are almost endless….
Another great, cheap app from the App store!