Introduction

Launch Items is an easy-to-use contextual menu plug-in which allows to launch customized applications or open documents with customized applications. It has a graphic user interface called Launch Items Editor where users can add any applications to the menu of Launch Items. The editor supports drag & drop, drag to change position of menu items, and more.

The concept of contextual menu is to show a set of commands on a floating menu. Normally, this menu is invisible. It will be loaded or shown only when users hold down the Control key, and then click on the desktop (with or without item selection). Users who have two-button mouse can use right-click to show the contextual menu.

Why you need Launch Items? For example, You have a picture made from Photoshop. If you want to view this picture, the easiest way to open is double-clicking on the picture icon to launch Photoshop. But with Launch Items, you can use the contextual menu to force Picture Viewer or GraphicConverter to open this picture instead of Photoshop. This saves you time if you just only want to view pictures, not to edit them. Moreover, if you click anywhere on the desktop, you can launch customized applications from the contextual menu. This is just an example. Launch Items X has more than 20 features, please see details below.

Features

• Applications in the Launch Items contextual menu are customizable.
• Has drag & drop-supporting interface for setting the contextual menu.
• Works with most applications which support the contextual menu, e.g. Sherlock.
• Has ability to open any customized documents.
• Has ability to ask web browsers to open web pages.
• Has ability to ask e-mail clients to send mails.
• Has ability to ask Finder to open folders and volumes.
• Has ability to make aliases from any items to a customized folder.
• Has ability to move and copy items to a customized folder.
• Has ability to add selected items to Favorites folder.
• Has ability to open the Favorites items.
• Has ability to show the running processes or applications.
• Create a stand-alone launcher which can launch multiple items.
• See more features

Launch Items Plug-in

Launch Items plug-in is a part of Launch Items X. Launch Items plug-in provides an easy way to run applications, both from the contextual menu and the menu bar. It also provides an intelligent method to open selected documents with various applications.

After Launch Items contextual menu installed, users will acquire three major benefits, those are:

• Application switcher, by selecting a running applications.
• Application launcher, both customized applications and applications inside special folder.
• Asking a target application to open selected documents.

Browse Volumes Plug-in

Browse Volumes, a contextual menu plug-in, allows users to browse through the mounted disks (hard disks, CD-ROMs, or network disks), folders and files. It provides an easy way to open files and folders. The menu will be appear on most applications that support Mac OS X contextual menus, e.g. Finder, TextEdit, Preview and Internet Explorer. This plug-in is universal binary (for both PowerPC and Intel Mac).

On the Finder :

• If no item is selected, Browse Volumes will let users to browse through the entire file system.
• If users select some items, Browse Volumes still let users to browse the file system, plus :

  - Showing the parent folders of selected items.
  - Showing the contents of selected items (if those items are folders, disks, or packages
  - Asking an application to open selected documents.

The Browse Volumes "Lite" version is a US$ 8.00 shareware, you can download it here.

The Browse Volumes "Professional" version is included inside the Launch Items X package.

Launch Items Menu : menu extra

Launch Items Menu is a Menu Extra which will put all Launch Items modules, e.g. Browse Volumes, on the menu bar. The Launch Items Menu will appear on the menu bar of most running applications, therefore, users can access the Launch Items modules from any applications, including applications which do not support the Mac OS X contextual menu. Moreover, users can append any files and folder at the end of the menu, i.e. the menu extra is fully customizable.

Other features of Launch Items Menu :

• List all running process, it can be used as an application switcher (resembles to Mac OS 9)
• Launch applications from the Applications folder.
• Manage files through the menus, e.g. delete, lock, change type & creator.

Requirements

• Mac OS 8.6 or later with CarbonLib 1.4 or later.
• Mac OS X 10.2.1 - 10.4.11
• The current version may not work properly on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Language support for Mac OS 9

• English : by Narattaphol Charoenphandhu (naratt@naratt.com)

Language support for Mac OS X

• English : by Narattaphol Charoenphandhu
• Dutch : by Hans Dobbelaere
• French : by Jean-Jacques Cortes
• Japanese : by Kaori Saegusa | download Japanese version
• German : by Michael Kummer

If you want to translate Launch Items for Mac OS X, please contact me at: naratt@naratt.com

Users can change the application language although that language is not installed on the current system. To change language, open the Info window of Launch Items Editor. Then select the "Languages" popup menu. Check the language which you want to set and uncheck the languages which you do not want. If you check more than one language, the used language is the one that has been set in the system preference. This method does not work if Launch Items Editor is on a locked volume.

Registration

Launch Items is a shareware.

• Single user license US$ 15.00
• Site license US$ 120.00

Browse Volumes Lite is a shareware.

• Single user license US$ 8.00
• Upgrade to Launch Items X US$ 9.00

If you plan to purchase Move Items X plus Launch Items X :

• Launch Items X + Move Items X for US$ 22.00

If you are a current registered user of Move Items X, do the following steps :

1. Go to order page to purchase Launch Items X of only US$ 8.00

2. E-mail me your registration key of Move Items X.

 

Purchase online at: http://store.eSellerate.net/naratt/store
The registration code will be sent via e-mail.

Download

Launch Items 1.0.1 (152K)

Launch Items X 1.8 (1.4 MB)

Browse Volumes Lite 1.4.2 (430K)

Universal binary version

Universal binary version is for both PowerPC and Intel Mac. The current version is a pre-released beta testing software, i.e. it may have some bugs and may not perform as expected. Please use it with your own risk. We will not be held responsible for any consequential, incidental, direct or indirect damages through the use of this software.

Launch Items X 1.9b (universal, 1.8 MB)

If you have problems about Launch Items, please e-mail me at: naratt@naratt.com

Updated: September 19, 2009