Butler

With the recent release of Butler v4.4 I realized I hadn't paid for a single update in over TWELVE YEARS and so happily went and paid for it again. Butler has worked reliably for that entire time and made profound improvements to my productivity. It works as: • a very nice launcher, both by hot-key and app-search. • a “Typinator”-like text expansion tool (I have dozens of shortcuts reliably creating typo-free blocks of code) • an Applescript launcher (and through that: shell script launcher) for dozens of scripts I’ve written to automate my workflow. • a clipboard-history manager allowing me to copy multiple sections from one document, then paste them into another without having to switch back and forth multiple times. ALL that for such a reasonable price is a bargain. Check it out and you’ll probably buy it today. (Maybe buy it AGAIN today! :-) ) FEATURE SUGGESTIONS: • Appending copy-to-clipboard with a configurable “marker” between each copied block. (I wrote one in AppleScript within butler but I bet others would like the feature too!) • If the Docklet could support a “shelf” feature so one could drag-and-drop files/folders to it, which could then later be dragged off it to a new location.

Over the last decade or more, I've often looked around for something else that may improve upon Butler, but still, even now with almost zero new features for years, I haven't found anything that suits my workflow better than Butler. It still works well, gets occasional compatibility/bug-fix updates, and IMO only really needs dark mode and a UI modernisation to make it perfect. With Rob Griffiths handling customer services now all the ancient company issues are gone. I always get really fast and helpful replies to any queries I have. The people here with long memories should really take another look as they're denying themselves some very useful utilities.

Best Helper ever!

Wish it had dark theme, but at least it's now up to 64 bit. It's a great program, but like many reviewers here, I'm not keen on the company.

Every few years I check in to see if Butler v.5 has been released. Alas, we are now 9-10 years since the developer said this:

"Butler 5 pre-sale: Support Butler by purchasing Butler 4 now, and you'll receive a free copy of Butler 5 when it ships!"

And the developer has never come clean about this, just quietly removed references to Butler 5 from their web site. Vaporware.

I use Alfred instead. And I refuse to use any of Many Tricks' apps because they are a dishonest company.

Doesn't work in 10.12 Sierra

New version fixes the 10.9.5 bug. Many thanks for the the super-fast update.

Butler 4.1.21 crashes on Mac OS 10.9.5. I've never had a single problem with Butler until updating today from 4.1.20 to 4.1.21.

Butler does a good job.

Even without functional updates, Butler is still one of my all time favourite and most useful OSX utilities I use and depend on every day on multiple Macs. Joining Default Folder, SuperDuper and the much missed FinderPop on my must have installed list. A Mac without these feels rather slow, limited and awkward to use. On 10.11.3 and all previous versions - for me - Butler is extremely stable. I do find that on 10.11.# some abbreviation triggers (which I use a lot more than hot keys) get lost or overridden every once in a while and need manually readding but that is the only minor issue. Using almost every feature of Butler with hundreds of custom scripts, web searches, keystrokes, folders, sites, etc. I find it is the only tool that can be configured to do everything I ask of it. Alfred, Quicksilver & LaunchBar have snazzier interfaces but they can't match Butler for real power and functionality. I'd still like to see version 5 add even morel features (I've suggested a few over the years - even before v5 was mentioned) but as long as it remains compatible with the latests OSX I'll be satisfied. Please please do give Butler some 2016 love Many Tricks!

I can't even count how many times it crashed during 10-minute test run under OSX 10.11.2. Sad...

So sad that this wonderful app has been abandoned...not so much as one functionality update in YEARS!!!

Over the years I have used this little every day. Its been extremely useful and easy to use. Whenever I update my Mac OS X this is one of the few apps I always keep.

What a useful little app. Using it for many, many years. Can't even think of having to do without it.

Has Peter forgotten that a non-App Store compliant version of Butler is a viable option?

The developer's site states version 4.1.16 requires 10.7. The last version for 10.6 Snow Leopard is 4.1.15.

Great app and very useful. Use this daily without any problems. If I could point out something negative it would be the price. It is a bit overpriced imo. About $10 would be more correct. I am pretty sales will go up.

Butler is like an old and dear friend with well-earned wrinkles. Nothing else better IMHO. Still, with this kind of good karma, maybe the developer can dream up a few surprises for v5. Thanks for this update. I am happy to see it is not following in the path of Quickeys, another dear friend that has sadly passed away.

Version 5 is still vaporware after all these years. What is it, six years since it was announced? Does anyone else find it disingenuous of the developers to continue to say this: "Butler 5 pre-sale: Support Butler by purchasing Butler 4 now, and you'll receive a free copy of Butler 5 when it ships!" How about an honest update on when Butler 5 is coming out guys?

LaunchBar is my quick launcher of choice (has been for over ten years), but Butler has proven to be a worthy companion. I don't use the abbreviation or search features at all, but there are a number of other features I find really valuable (which no other app seems to provide). Here are a few of the things I use it for: - I've set up hotkeys (F1-F6) that open pop-up menus in the Finder, letting me quickly get to a specific file or folder. If I hold command and hit the same key, it opens the folder directly instead of the pop-up menu. - Shortcuts for rating the current song in iTunes. Shift + [numpad 0-5]. Butler is one of the only apps that can actually distinguish between the regular number keys and the number pad. Obviously shift + regular number wouldn't work, as I'd lose access to a bunch of symbols. - Other iTunes hotkeys: play/pause, next track, previous track. I used to have these in the menubar as well (I think that was even the original reason I started using Butler), but I have a menubar doodad problem, so I don't have space for those anymore. - Hotkeys for menus in apps where custom shortcuts often don't work. There are a number of situations where custom hotkeys set up in System Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts don't work until the menu has been opened at least once. Needless to say, this is an unacceptable hassle. What I do now is set up the hotkey I want in Butler, and just have Butler type the default hotkey for me. Works every time. The other thing this works well for is menu commands whose name changes. For example, instead of setting up two identical shortcuts for iTunes' "Switch to MiniPlayer" and "Switch from MiniPlayer" commands in System Preferences, I can just set up *one* hotkey in Butler, and don't even have to bother typing the command name at all. Also has the advantage of leaving the original shortcuts intact, which is helpful if someone else is using your Mac. Finally, because you can specify multiple apps for a hotkey, you can set up shortcuts that work in multiple apps. I've got a "Toggle Web Inspector" hotkey that types cmd-shift-i in Safari, WebKit, Chrome, and Firefox, and it does the right thing in all of them. -- Anyway, my point is that Butler does a lot of things really well, and if you explore its features, you can probably find a bunch of uses for it, even if you aren't using it as a quick search/launcher.