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Many Tricks
Butler makes it easier for you to perform a wide variety of potentially recurring tasks. Just arrange these tasks in Butler's fully customizable configuration and assign one or more triggers to a task.
Available Triggers:
Available Triggers:
- freely configurable system-wide menus in your menu bar/Butler's docklet
- freely configurable pop-up menus -- triggered via hot key or hot corner (see below)
- abbreviations -- e.g., enter "qt" to launch QuickTime Player
- hot keys -- e.g., hit [F1] make iTunes switch to the next track
- hot corners
What's New
Version 4.1.16:
- Improved compatibility with future OS X versions.
Requirements
Intel, OS X 10.6 or later
Intel, OS X 10.6 or later
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Butler makes it easier for you to perform a wide variety of potentially recurring tasks. Just arrange these tasks in Butler's fully customizable configuration and assign one or more triggers to a task.
Available Triggers:
Available Triggers:
- freely configurable system-wide menus in your menu bar/Butler's docklet
- freely configurable pop-up menus -- triggered via hot key or hot corner (see below)
- abbreviations -- e.g., enter "qt" to launch QuickTime Player
- hot keys -- e.g., hit [F1] make iTunes switch to the next track
- hot corners -- e.g., [shift]-[right mouse button click] in the lower left corner of your screen to pop up a menu that lists all system preference panes
- events -- e.g., launch iChat when Butler starts up and the [option] key is not held
- launch applications
- open files
- access preference panes
- manage bookmarks
- search the web
- run AppleScripts
- extend the pasteboard
- enter text snippets
- simulate keystrokes
- control iTunes
- more...
+5
Johnk77 reviewed on 18 Oct 2013
The last version for 10.6 Snow Leopard is 4.1.15.
+1
+23
Priosantos-Jan reviewed on 18 Oct 2013
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.
+3
+2
+9
ohmmmmmm reviewed on 18 Oct 2013
+5
+2
"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?
+2
+176
Stormchild reviewed on 27 Jul 2013
- 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.
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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.
-13
VictorPrijker reviewed on 11 Jun 2013
+2
+14
retech reviewed on 17 Oct 2012
Thank you.
+29
Mruben reviewed on 13 Oct 2012
Thank you! Butler 4.1.13 became unusable whenever iTunes was running, as a result of the 10.8.2 update. So far this new version seems to have solved the problem.
-34
artie505 reviewed on 27 Jul 2012
Butler offers a wonderful potpourri of useful functionality that is second to that of no other app I've ever run across; when I sit in front of a Mac other than my own I'm practically helpless without it.
-1
+329
+1
+30
+1
-34
Perhaps it's all available in Powerpack/Extensions (£15), but I want an app on my deuced Mac(hina), not a research project.
-3
+2
MadEye29 reviewed on 05 Jul 2012
-2
-34
And as for "better alternatives," I've never run across one, and I've been comparing Butler to the competition for the more than 8 years I've been running it. (I've DONATED more than the $20 asking price, and I don't regret a single penny of it.)
I suggest that you redirect your indignation towards Apple's sandboxing policy which will hobble Butler's functionality if implemented; sad to say, but I suspect that v 4's functionality may far surpass what v5 will offer if Peter and Rob bow down to the Apple god just to get Butler onto the App Store. ('Tis truly a puzzlement!)
As you've seen, I was a major complainer about the hugely delayed v 5 release, and unhappy as I am with how long it's taking the guys to work out the various issues that are delaying it, I've got to sympathize with them.
+29
I love Butler - but I don't need to use it to control iTunes. Is there a way to set a Butler Preference so that Butler doesn't depend on reading the iTunes library all the time? I just want to be able to launch my apps using hotkeys.
Thanks!
+14
Butler 4.1.11 seems fine (still available "for Mac OS X 10.5 and/or PowerPC Macs" on the developer's site).
+4
+1
Can the developer or a kind-hearted Butler user help me sort out a problem w/ Butler crashing. I was in the first few days of trying it out when it crashed on me (no software or system changes had been made during this time.) After removing Preferences, uninstalling, reinstalling, etc., etc., etc., here's the Console report I continue to get:
Butler(625,0xa000ed68) malloc: *** error for object 0x38c9d80: incorrect checksum for freed object - object was probably modified after being freed, break at szone_error to debug
Butler(625,0xa000ed68) malloc: *** set a breakpoint in szone_error to debug
Feb 25 20:03:53 Buddy-Roe's-Computer crashdump[633]: Butler crashed
Any help would be greatly appreciated - Butler appears to be really useful and I'm keen to delve into it a little further. Thanks.
Still having one problem: Butler hangs when copying text from Microsoft Word to Quark XPress 6. Doesn't matter if I change the clipboard settings, Butler will just get stuck and I'll either have to force quit it, or it quits on its own.
it'll be interesting to see how butler, launchbar and quicksilver will change to compete with spotlight once tiger is out.
+2
+2
Kgx rated on 18 Oct 2013
+36
Hervé 5 rated on 18 Oct 2013
jTux rated on 28 Jun 2013
+3
escompter.qch rated on 29 Oct 2011
-55
iLeopard rated on 23 Sep 2011
+29
Bonobo rated on 26 Apr 2011
Lambchop1 rated on 26 Apr 2011