What's New?

Butler 4.4.8

• Fixed an issue with simulating keystrokes and pasting clipboard content on macOS 14 Sonoma.
• Fixed a longstanding issue with the abbreviation window's URL guessing logic.

Butler 4.4.7

• Resolved a conflict with System Settings in macOS 13 Ventura. (Hat tip to Junichi C.) On a related note, the "System Preferences" Smart Item currently isn't the prettiest on macOS 13: It displays raw filenames, and it doesn't show individual icons for most panes. This is because the new "System Settings" has been rewritten as a monolithic app, where the file-system-level preference panes are merely placeholders, which makes the whole thing a lot less accessible. We are still pondering ways to deal with this change. In the meantime, the Smart Item works even though it looks like a work in progress.
• Worked around an issue in recent macOS versions that prevented custom icons from scaling down as expected.
• Fixed a bug that rendered Butler partially unusable on macOS 10.9. (Nevertheless, we recommend at least macOS 10.10 for modern Butler versions. If you're on macOS 10.9, you might be better off with Butler 4.2.2.)

Butler 4.4.6

• Fixed a bug related to dragging and dropping items to Butler icons in the menu bar.

Butler 4.4.5

• Fixed an issue where adding a new "Music: [number of stars]" Smart Item would give you a defective Smart Item. If you have any Smart Item like that with a lightbulb icon, delete it and add a new one after updating Butler. (Hat tip to Steve K.)
• Fixed an issue where Butler would sometimes hang while Music was running.
• Improved dark mode support for menu bar separators.

Butler 4.4.4

• Further improved the keyboard navigation workaround that was introduced in Butler 4.4.2. (Hat tip to David M.)

Butler 4.4.3

• Improved compatibility with macOS 12 Monterey.

Butler 4.4.2

• Worked around a macOS bug (or so we think) that broke keyboard navigation in the pop-up menu after Butler gained and gave up keyboard focus at least twice.
• Fixed a bug where explicitly assigned abbreviations vanished. (Hat tip to Adam S.)

Butler 4.4.1

• Fixed a bug that caused Butler to crash while auto-updating its caches.
• Fixed an inconsistency with Control icons on macOS 11 Big Sur.

Butler 4.4

• Butler is now a Universal app that runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
• Improved filtering for System Preferences Smart Items.
• Butler is now partially aware of the Music app's existence. (It's about time.)
• Fixed a clipboard-related crash.
• Improved compatibility with macOS 11 Big Sur.

Butler 4.3.3

• Menu bar text labels no longer vanish after clicking them once in dark mode. (Hat tip to Andreas S.)
• Screen Saver Smart Items now work more reliably. (Hat tip to Ken G.)
• The iTunes information window's volume indicator bar is now less likely to overlap with other text fields.
• Improved compatibility with macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Butler 4.3.2

• Volumes Smart Items now sort volumes alphabetically.
• Firefox bookmarks support is now a visible-by-default feature again. Note that you still have to jump through an extra hoop to make Butler actually see your Firefox bookmarks. (Hat tip to Tony C.)

Butler 4.3.1

• Fixed Contacts-related Smart Items on new macOS 10.14 Mojave installations.
• Fixed a typo in preferences that must have been there for years.

Butler 4.3

• Added support for Google Chrome's bookmarks.
• Restored Butler's ability to communicate with other apps via AppleScript on macOS 10.14 Mojave.
• Improved hot corner reliability on recent macOS versions.
• Worked around an issue with dragging files from a Dock stack.

Butler 4.2.3

• "Plain Text" Smart Items can now have custom names that differ from their content.
• Fixed an incompatibility with older macOS versions.
• Fixed Opera bookmark importing for newer Opera versions.

Butler 4.2.2

• Fixed a regression where hot keys didn't work on older macOS versions.

Butler 4.2.1

• Fixed a regression where right-clicking (e.g., in a hot corner) had no effect.
• Fixed a regression where "Plain Text" Smart Items weren't pasted when triggered.

Butler 4.2

• There are no longer four separate menu bar sections on macOS 10.12 Sierra and newer. Instead, each top-level item in "Menu Bar" automatically gets its own menu bar representation that you can command-drag around.
• The "Recent Clipboards" window can now filter entries based on the text they contain. Matching is fuzzy by default, but you can uncheck that via the little magnifying glass's pop-up menu.
• Deleting all clipboards via the "Recent Clipboards" window's action menu now triggers an alert first, unless you hold option while choosing the menu item.
• "Clear Recent Clipboards" Smart Items now have an option to confirm via dialog before they actually delete anything.
• Singular "Recent Clipboard" Smart Items now show their contents in menu items, matching the "Recent Clipboards: Menu" lists.
• Menu items that represent clipboard content now adjust their height to fit their content, up to the user-specified maximum height.
• Added guest user access to the "Users" Smart Item and improved its performance.
• Added some new "built-in" icons. The new black & white default menu bar icon (hat & bow tie, a.k.a. Butler's Regalia) in particular goes well with an all black & white menu bar.
• Individual custom icons can now be deleted by selecting them while the option key is held.
• Modernized the user interface ever so slightly, renamed some things for consistency reasons, and fixed various other bugs and issues.
• Last but not least, Butler is now a 64 bit app. You can't tell from the outside, but this is a huge step for good old Butler, mostly because of the way its menus used to work.

Butler 4.1.23

• On macOS 10.12 Sierra, Butler's menu bar items no longer claim specific positions, because Butler can't guarantee those anyway. Instead, those menu bar items are just numbered sections, which you can command-drag to arrange them relative to your other menu bar items as you see fit.
• Volumes Smart Items no longer list App Translocation volumes. (That's the thing where Gatekeeper makes new apps run from a random path for security reasons.)
• Butler now ignores a folder's invisibility status when the folder is directly referenced via Folder Content Smart Item. So you can now list the contents of ~/Library, for example, even when Finder isn't configured to show it.

Butler 4.1.22

• Reverted a change in behavior where launching a folder would reveal it instead of opening it.
• Fixed a bug where Butler wouldn't finish launching on OS X 10.9 and earlier.

Butler 4.1.21

• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to launch Contacts.app when appropriate.
• Some interface updates.

Butler 4.1.20

• Improved the update mechanism's security.

Butler 4.1.19

• Fixed an issue with OS X 10.11 El Capitan's Gatekeeper.

Butler 4.1.18

• Prepared for upcoming Gatekeeper changes.

Butler 4.1.17

• Keystrokes Smart Items now let you use the current pasteboard via cmd-v keystroke, provided that you add a sufficiently long delay (recommended: 1 second) in front of the cmd-v keystroke. (Hat tip to Amadeo V.)
• Fixed a display glitch where delays in Keystrokes Smart Items weren't displayed properly. (Another hat tip to Amadeo V.)
• Fixed an issue with the Screensaver Smart Item.

Butler 4.1.16

• Improved compatibility with future OS X versions.

Butler 4.1.15

• Updated the pasteboard history to ensure compatibility with upcoming updates in apps with related functionality.
• Fixed a couple of minor bugs.

Butler 4.1.14

• Worked around an issue with inter-application communication on OS X 10.8.2. (Hat tip to Jason S. and others)
• Fixed an issue with copying email addresses. (Hat tip to Ze'ev G.)
• Fixed a bug where function keys F16 through F19 couldn't be used for hot keys. (Hat tip to Frédéric P.)

Butler 4.1.13

• Improved compatibility with applications that use keystroke events generated by Butler as triggers (e.g., hot keys).
• Updated System Preferences Smart Item categories for Mountain Lion.
• Fixed some appearance glitches under Mountain Lion.
• Fixed an issue with Recent Pasteboards ordering. (Hat tip to Artie S.)
• Fixed an issue with menu navigation. (Hat tip to Artie S.)

Butler 4.1.12

• Fixed a bug that caused Butler to crash when ejecting a volume via the Volumes Smart Item. (Hat tip to Hendrik D.)
• Fixed an issue related to running web searches from the abbreviations window. (Hat tip to Richard R.)

Butler 4.1.11

• Preference panels with mixed-case extensions should now show up in Butler. (Hat tip to Jon T.)
• Fixed a window layering inconsistency that made the Docklet's behavior hard to predict for 3rd-party applications, such as iGlasses. (Hat tip to Tuckerman M. and Ken A.)

Butler 4.1.10

• Fixed an issue where Butler couldn't paste as plain text into Mail. (Hat tip to Michael M.)
• Fixed an issue where Address Book Smart Folders would always show up as empty in Butler. (Hat tip to Ric S.)
• Fixed an issue with Google Translate as a search engine. (Hat tip to Stepan K.)
• Fixed an issue where Butler had trouble finding the current iTunes library. (Hat tip to Mark H.)
• Copying an email address now gives you the address only, minus the "mailto:" prefix.
• Other small bugfixes.

Butler 4.1.9

• If you drag an icon within a fan- or grid-view Stack, Butler's configuration window no longer appears (hat tip to Peter Burkimsher for reporting this one).
• Added in-app purchasing.

Butler 4.1.8

• Fixed a Butler vs. Sparkle (automatic updater) incompatibility that would cause Butler to crash on unpacking updates.
• Fixed a regression that made it impossible to re-order recent pasteboards via drag & drop.
• Improved iTunes integration some more.

Butler 4.1.7

• Optional automatic updating via Sparkle.
• Improved Butler's heuristics for locating the iTunes library.
• Improved system preferences support.
• Fixed various other smaller bugs.
• Raised required system version to Mac OS X 10.5.

Butler 4.1.6

• Butler's status window (the one that's shown in response to your entering hot keys or requesting iTunes information, for instance) no longer captures mouse clicks. If you want to move the status window, do so while holding the command key.
• Worked around a possible interference with Typinator.
• This is not a transient release. See the Many Tricks blog for more info on this.

Butler 4.1.5 Transient

• Deferred the transient Butler's expiration date until July 1, 2008. Simply put, we need some more time to get a public beta version of Butler 5 out of the door; and we don't want to force you to download a new transient version every other week until then.

Butler 4.1.4 Transient

• Fixed the main crasher with Mac OS X 10.5, which usually brought Butler down while working on a configuration item in the Inspector.
• Worked around a regression in newer iTunes versions' AppleScript support. Playing a song by triggering it from Butler should once again work as expected.

Butler 4.1.3 Transient

• Added support for function keys F16 through F19, as featured on Apple's new wired keyboard.
• Fixed an issue where Butler's Fast User Switching Smart Items didn't work properly on certain versions of Mac OS X.
• Fixed other issues with Mac OS X 10.5.

Butler 4.1.2

• Aliases are resolved less aggressively now. For instance, Butler won't try to mount remote volumes while updating its abbreviations cache anymore.
• Fixed a bug where Butler's abbreviations matching mechanism failed on file names that contained non-ASCII characters (a.k.a. the "Hägar" bug).
• Fixed a bug where duplicating containers via [option]-drag would cause Butler to reference the same contents twice.
• Butler starts up faster now.

Butler 4.1.1

• Fixed a regression in Butler's bookmark importer. (This regression/bug was accidentally introduced in Butler 4.0b30. External Bookmarks Smart Items were not affected.)

Butler 4.1

• You can now access Cyberduck's FTP bookmarks with Butler: Add a Cyberduck bookmarks Smart Item to your configuration ("+" > "Smart Item" > "External Bookmarks" > "Cyberduck"), and you're all set to access your favorite FTP sites via abbreviation as well as from Butler's menus.
• The abbreviations window has an "FTP sites" category now.

Butler 4.0.1

• Compiled as a universal binary that runs natively on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.
• Added a French localization by Hervé Roth and Daniel Boulerice.
• Added a Japanese localization by Akira Ikeda.
• Fixed some minor interface glitches.

Butler 4.0

• Fixed a bug where Butler did not insert pasteboard contents correctly while a hybrid keyboard layout (e.g., Dvorak Querty) was active.
• Fixed a bug where Butler did not properly communicate with certain plug-ins, such as the IP Numbers plug-in, for instance.
• Disabled the "Hide [docklet] with the menu bar" setting for Mac OS X 10.4, as it never worked there anyway.
• Extended Butler's documentation some more.

Butler 4.0b30

• New trigger class: "Event". These let you configure Butler to perform a task when the event in question occurs. As of now, the only events Butler is capable of responding to are "Butler starts up" and "Butler quits".
• You can now send phone numbers from the abbreviations window to an AppleScript. Butler's default phone number handler script dials the number via Jon's Phone Tool. To edit the phone number handler script, go to Butler's "Abbreviations" preferences.
• You can now specify the time interval during which Butler displays its iTunes status window (default value: 3 seconds).
• When searching with Spotlight from Butler's search window, you can now toggle between searching file names and file contents by clicking on the search type button as well as by pressing [up arrow] or [down arrow]. In conformance with the behavior of "Web Search" Smart Items, this change will only be saved if you have checked the "Save search engine/strategy changes" setting in Butler's "Miscellany" preferences.
• Fixed a bug that made Butler forget previously assigned abbreviations under certain rare conditions.
• Changed the way delays in "Keystrokes" Smart Items are performed to keep Butler from turning into a CPU hog during these delays.

Butler 4.0b29

• Changing/deleting the topmost pasteboard in Butler's recent pasteboards window now affects the system's pasteboard as well -- i.e., hitting [command]-[v] will then insert the new topmost item, if any.
• Fixed a regression where Butler erroneously launched Spotlight after you had triggered a web search engine from the abbreviations window.
• Fixed a regression that made it impossible to use the default keyboard shortcut for switching the current keyboard layout ([command]-[space]) while Butler's abbreviations window was active.
• Fixed a regression that made it impossible to specify an application for opening a given file.
• Improved positioning of pop-up menus that are supposed to appear near the mouse.
• Extended Butler's documentation some more.

Butler 4.0b28

• Redesigned the abbreviations window for better usability: You can now toggle between available actions (e.g., "Launch", "Show in Finder") for the currently selected item item by hitting the [tab] key. [Return] will then trigger the currently selected action. You can also click on the actions' respective icons, which are displayed to the right of the currently selected item. Moreover, you can still trigger actions by entering a dedicated keyboard shortcut -- such as [space] to pop up a folder's content. However, some of these keyboard shortcuts have changed. Please have a look at the pin-wheel pop-up menu in the lower left corner of the abbreviations window to learn the new shortcuts.
• You can now copy certain items from the abbreviations window by choosing the "Copy" action or hitting [command]-[c].
• New Smart Item: "Recent Pasteboards: Window". While this is quite similar to Butler's traditional "Recent Pasteboards: Menu" Smart Item, this one lets you re-order and delete recent pasteboards more comfortably. (Also replaces the "Remove recent pasteboard" pop-up menu that was available from the "Pasteboards" preferences in recent versions of Butler.)
• New Smart Item: "Spotlight Search". The main purpose of this one is to avoid Spotlight's find-as-you-type behavior. Trigger a "Spotlight Search" Smart Item, enter your query, press [return], and Spotlight's results window will appear. You can also configure "Spotlight Search" Smart Items to search for file names only.
• "System Preferences" Smart Items list the "Processor" preference pane (part of the developer tools) in their "Hardware" category now, similarly to what newer versions of OS X do.
• Similar to lower-level containers, you can now configure top-level containers to launch all of their children when triggered via hot key.
• Restructured and extended Butler's help files. Most notably, the "Triggers" section is now more or less complete. While there are still a lot of "This section will soon be available" placeholders throughout the rest of Butler Help, I do think that it's starting to become actually helpful ;-)

Butler 4.0b27

• Fixed a regression that made it impossible to access snail mail addresses and phone numbers via abbreviation.
• Fixed a regression where Butler's web search functionality misbehaved under certain conditions.
• Fixed a regression that made Butler display container contents in a pop-up menu instead of correctly launching them sequentially under certain conditions.
• Fixed a regression that caused (nearly) all menu items to be disabled when files were dragged to Butler's menus.
• Fixed a regression where pasteboard-related Smart Items did not obey to their "Change order of recent pasteboards" setting under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where deleting the topmost item from Butler's recent pasteboards cache did not work as expected.
• Fixed a bug that made Butler display each Inspector category twice under certain conditions.
• Since version 4.0b26, Butler displays the contents of "Custom Pasteboard" Smart Items in menus. You can now switch this off and make Butler display the Smart Items' names only in the "Pasteboard" preferences.
• Butler no longer lists iTunes playlist folders as empty playlists. (Unfortunately, Butler is not capable of displaying the playlist folders structure as of now. Nesting "iTunes: Library" Smart Items in containers is currently the only way of rebuilding this structure.)
• You can now have Butler's main window look like the latest iTunes by choosing the "Dark Gray" texture in Butler's "Looks" preferences.

Butler 4.0b26

• You can now have items in the menu bar and the docklet at the same time.
• You can now specify the relative position of menu bar items.
• New Smart Item: "AppleScript". You can now create and edit AppleScripts in Butler -- without using an external editor. "AppleScript" Smart Items also let you paste their results on execution.
• New Smart Item: "Text". This Smart Item tries to insert its content whenever it is triggered. (Reminder: "Custom Pasteboard" Smart Items will give you access to formatted text and pictures.)
• Butler now ignores unknown pasteboard types by default. You can switch this off in the "Pasteboard" section of Butler's preferences. Ignoring unknown pasteboard types might solve some of the compatibility issues between Butler and certain applications (e.g., MS Word, MS RDC). Any feedback on this is very welcome!
• When launching items from the abbreviations window, you can now keep Butler from (re-)assigning abbreviations on the fly by holding the [control] modifier key while pressing the [return] key. (Reminder: Butler still never assigns an abbreviation when you choose the topmost item in the list of matches.)
• You can now have several active corners (or none) for adding items to Butler's configuration via drag & drop.
• You can now specify exceptions for "iTunes: Library" Smart Items.
• You can specify the menu recursion level for "Folder" items again.
• Implemented a workaround for Butler's "Show in Finder..." functionality, which was broken in Mac OS X 10.4.
• Fixed a regression that made Butler crash on opening the preferences on Mac OS X 10.2.
• Fixed a regression that made features related to the frontmost application not work as expected on OS versions prior to Mac OS X 10.4.
• Fixed a bug that made Butler ignore exceptions for top-level "Running Applications" Smart Items.
• Fixed a bug that kept pasteboard-related Smart Items from pasting correctly under certain, rare conditions.
• Fixed a bug that made Butler crash when launched by opening a ".butleritems" file.
• Restructured the configuration inspector.
• Restructured the preferences.

Butler 4.0b25

• [Tiger] Fixed a bug that made Butler freeze when you tried to change search engines from menu bar web search input fields or web search windows by pressing the [up arrow] or [down arrow] key.

Butler 4.0b24

• [Tiger] Fixed a bug that kept Butler from detecting frontmost application changes. Application-specific hot keys and the "From the frontmost application" menu bar icon should now work as expected again.
• [Tiger] Fixed a bug that made Butler crash when changing the active top-level menu by moving the mouse pointer. (This only occured on Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", and I'm still not sure why. You might notice that the present workaround is slightly slower than the original mechanism.)
• [Tiger] Fixed a bug that made it impossible to rearrange categories for "Enter abbreviation..." controls. (Don't you just love it when the default behavior of standard cocoa controls changes...?)
• [Tiger] Updated the preference pane categories for "System Preferences" Smart Items.
• Fixed a bug which kept "Keystrokes" and "Custom pasteboard" Smart Items from working when activated from the abbreviations window. (Actually, this was a regression that was accidentally introduced in Butler 4.0b23. Sorry.)
• Applied a number of cosmetical changes to Butler's interface.

Butler 4.0b23

• You can now activate/deactive categories (applications, music, etc.) for both kinds of "Enter abbreviation..." controls -- those that sort results by category and those that don't. Moreover, Butler's abbreviations cache has been improved in such a way that omitting categories actually improves the speed of the searching process.
• Most of the settings related to abbreviations are now specific for the abovementioned "Enter abbreviation..." controls you use for triggering Butler's abbreviation prompt. (The default configuration's "Enter abbreviation..." item resides in the "Invisible Items" container. Its default hot key is [control]-[space].)
• Simplified the settings for "Folder" items and added the possibility to search folders for abbreviations with infinite recursion. Please use this setting with care! If you specify infinite recursion for your home directory, for instance, Butler will be effectively unoperable.
• You can now specify exceptions for "Applications"/"Running applications" Smart Items.
• Fixed a memory leak in Butler's internal iTunes library representation.
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to resize the abbreviations window and the web search window.
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to move the status window.
• Fixed a bug where Butler's calendar-related Smart Items failed to recognize newer versions of MenuCalendarClock.
• Butler no longer takes visual focus away from your frontmost application when you're triggering the abbreviations window or the web search window.

Butler 4.0b22

• Redesigned the inner workings of Butler's abbreviations functionality. As a result, finding matches to your queries is markedly faster now. This speed gain should be especially noticeable when searching huge amounts of data -- such as a large iTunes music library, for instance. (The new default settings might lead to an actual loss of speed in certain rare cases. Please try switching off Butler's pre-search delay in these cases. This setting is available from the "Abbreviations" section of Butler's preferences.)
• Fixed a bug in Butler's plug-in interface which kept the IP Numbers plug-in from working properly under certain circumstances. A new version of IP Numbers is also available.

Butler 4.0b21

• Added support for the iTunes music library. Use the "iTunes: Library" Smart Item to access your library by browsing Butler's menus and to search your library from the abbreviations window. Similar to browsing local folders from the abbreviations window, you can make the items that are associated to an artist/playlist/album pop up by pressing the space bar. (As always, you'll have to add an "iTunes: Library" Smart Item to your configuration to actually be able to search your iTunes library. And please don't forget to trigger an "Update Caches" control once after having added that Smart Item.)
• Added support for online version checking. Please refer to the "Updates" section of Butler's preferences to switch this on.
• You can now export parts of your configuration by dragging the items in question to the desktop or to any other Finder window. This will give you an "(item name).butleritems" file, which you can re-import by double-clicking on its icon.
• Similarly, you can now export search engines by dragging them to the desktop or to any other Finder window. This will give you a "(item name).butlerengines" file, which you can also re-import by double-clicking on its icon.
• Improved file sorting. For instance, "file9.txt" is now properly recognized as having a smaller index than "file10.txt".
• You can now make top-level "Web search" Smart Items just display an icon in the menu bar instead of an input field. Clicking that icon will pop up Butler's web search window.
• When used with iTunes 4.7 or newer, Butler's automatic detection of a change of the current track is now much faster. Moreoever, there's no need to poll iTunes for its state any longer, which reduces Butler's CPU usage and increases its responsiveness.
• Improved text input for input methods such as Kotoeri.
• Instead of just displaying their name, "iTunes: Information" Smart Items now list information on the current track when they are part of a menu.
• You can now choose "No icon" for items in menus. (This was requested for iTunes rating-related Smart Items.)
• You can no longer have Butler display your IP number in the menu bar without having the "IP Numbers" plug-in installed (requires IP Numbers 2.1 or newer). This plug-in is available at http://manytricks.com/butler/helpers for free.
• Added menu bar strings to Butler's plug-in interface. Menu bar strings are short pieces of text, such as your user name, that are displayed in the menu bar. Butler has had a few of these for quite some time, but you could not add your own pieces of text from plug-ins. Have a look at the source code for the "IP Numbers" plug-in (see above) to learn how this works.
• User guide: Added a "Localizations" section. This section is most likely of interest for those who plan on localizing Butler and those who have already localized Butler.
• Some minor interface improvements.

Butler 4.0b20

• Abbreviations: When sorting matches by category, you can now hide certain categories. To do so, open Butler's configuration window and select the "Enter abbreviation..." control in question. Then, uncheck the categories you want to hide. This gives you the possibility to use several "Enter abbreviation..." controls for different purposes, without being distracted by matches you are currently not interested in.
• Abbreviations: Redefined the meaning of the "Allow scrolling to low-rank matches" preference with regard to "Enter abbreviation..." controls you have configured to sort matches by category. If you have unchecked the "Allow scrolling to low-rank matches" setting in Butler's "Abbreviations" preferences, there will be no more than three matches per category -- along with a "More..." link, if necessary.
• Abbreviations: You can now toggle between category mode and alphabetical sorting by pressing one of the striped buttons in the lower left corner of the abbreviations window.
• Abbreviations: When sorting matches by category, webloc files are now listed as "Web sites".
• Abbreviations: You can now make the abbreviations window striped by using the hidden preference "Striped Abbreviations". To do so, quit Butler, open the Terminal, type 'defaults write de.petermaurer.Butler "Striped Abbreviations" "yes"' (without the surrounding quotation marks), and press [return].
• Added a "Cancel" button to the import dialog.

Butler 4.0b19

• Added instance-specific (accessible from Butler's Inspector) and general (accessible from the preferences window) settings to Butler's plug-in interface. Go to http://manytricks.com/butler/helpers and have a look at the source codes for "IP Numbers" and "Current Track Desktop" to learn how this works.
• Fixed a bug where the status window did not respect its transparency setting under certain conditions.
• Fixed a HTML typo in the manual which kept the manual from being displayed by certain browsers.
• The "Expire queries after (n) milliseconds" setting is no longer applied when you're searching the web from Butler's abbreviations window.
• The abbreviation window truncates exceedingly long item names more efficiently now.

Butler 4.0b18

• New Smart Items: "iTunes: Rating up" and "iTunes: Rating down".
• Abbreviations: When sorting matches by category, Butler now puts phone numbers and (snail mail) addresses into their own dedicated categories.
• Butler no longer displays the "/opt" directory in its menus.
• Added support for Current Track Desktop and Let My Docklet Breathe (see http://manytricks.com/butler/helpers for more information on these).
• Improved compatibility with MenuCalendarClock.
• If you use your computer as a jukebox, then the hidden preference "Large-Type iTunes Status" might be of interest for you. This is useful when you'd like to be able to read Butler's iTunes current track information even though you are looking from across the room. To enable it, quit Butler, open the Terminal, type 'defaults write de.petermaurer.Butler "Large-Type iTunes Status" "yes"' (without the surrounding quotation marks), and press [return].

Butler 4.0b17

• Added a number of "Calendar" Smart Items. These are for remotely controlling the Calendarclock menu bar calendar.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes garbled the base portions of URLs when searching the web from Butler.
• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to reveal certain files in Path Finder.
• You can now import bookmarks from HTML pages.

Butler 4.0b16

• Redesigned Butler's abbreviations functionality: You can now sort your search results by category. To do so, select an "Enter abbreviation..." item in your configuration and check the "Devide by category" checkbox in the Inspector. Please note that sorting by category slows finding matches to your abbreviations down a bit. And if you're missing the abbreviations window's radio buttons, you can now assign abbreviation via context menu. Please have a look at the "Other" FAQs section of the Butler Guide for more information.
• Also improved the ranking system Butler uses for sorting matches to your abbreviations.
• When having selected a search engine in the abbreviations window you can now choose between (i) searching this engine directly from the abbreviations window (press [space]) and (ii) switching to the web search window first (press [return]).
• Accessing non-bookmarked URLs from the abbreviations window now also works if the "Only find direct configuration members" setting in your "Abbreviations" preferences is checked.
• Butler no longer doesn't do anything at all if it encounters a non-AppleScript file that is supposed to be executed as an AppleScript. Instead, the file is now opened with its respective default application. This is especially useful if you have some read-me files inside your AppleScript folders.
• Added two more possible modes to "Address Book" Smart Items: "All + Groups" and "Others + Groups".
• Fixed a possible crasher in the way Butler resolves non-bookmarked URLs that are accessed from the abbreviations window.
• Fixed several other bugs, including a small memory leak.

Butler 4.0b15

• Butler is capable of displaying track information from iTunes radio stations now. If there is no such information, Butler will display the radio station's name instead.
• You can now use the abbreviations window to go to non-bookmarked web sites. Example: Enter "myfavoritewebsite", and Butler will turn this into a "http://www.myfavoritewebsite.com/" URL match to your query. This will only work if the "Only find direct configuration members" setting in your "Abbreviations" preferences is not checked. Moreover, Butler will always add this URL match at the very bottom of the abbreviation window's matches list. Thus, you might not see it if you have not checked the "Allow scrolling to low-rank matches" setting in your "Abbreviations" preferences.
• Adjusted Butler to Firefox 0.9's new bookmarks file location.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't use spaces when typing a query for searching the web from the abbreviations window.
• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to respect your "Use Path Finder instead of the Finder" preference under certain rare conditions.
• The abbreviation window's currently selected match is now highlighted more prominently in order to emphasize the fact that you can use the arrow keys to change your selection without having to change the keyboard focus first.
• Since version 4.0b14, the abbreviations window only remembers your previous query if you have not checked the "Expire queries after (n) milliseconds" setting in your "Abbreviations" preferences. You can now override this by using the hidden preference "Always Remember Queries". To do so, quit Butler, open the Terminal, type 'defaults write de.petermaurer.Butler "Always Remember Queries" "yes"' (without the surrounding quotation marks), and press [return].

Butler 4.0b14

• Fixed a bug where submenus created by plug-ins (sample projects available at http://manytricks.com/butler/helpers) did not work properly.
• You can now use the [space] key for input methods such as Kotoeri.
• Fixed the English and French default configurations, which contained non-working "iTunes: Start/Stop" Smart Items. If your configuration contains any of these, please remove them and create new ones as needed by selecting the appropriate menu item from the [+] pop-up menu in the lower left corner of Butler's main window.
• Fixed a bug where Butler froze immediately after startup under certain conditions.
• Fixed some minor user interface glitches in Butler's main window and the abbreviations window.

Butler 4.0b13

• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to update docklet/window positions when the screen resolution changed.
• You can now use input methods such as Kotoeri to enter queries in the abbreviations window.
• Improved caching. As a result, Butler will start up faster after you have run and quit this version once.
• Fixed a bug where the "Always up-to-date" setting did not stick for abbreviations.
• Fixed the Korean localization.
• Fixed some other small bugs.
• A note for developers: Starting with this version, Butler contains a very basic plug-in interface. Sample plug-in projects are available at http://manytricks.com/butler/helpers.

Butler 4.0b12

• You can now search the web from Butler's abbreviations window. To do so, bring up the abbreviations window ([control]-[space] by default) and start entering a search engine's name. As soon as you have identified the search engine you want to use, press [space] and enter your query after that.
• Fixed a bug where "Applications" Smart Items failed to work for applications that were stored inside your home directory.
• Butler no longer surrounds "Folder" items with separators automatically.
• iTunes rating Smart Items now reflect the current rating when displayed in a menu.
• Butler now works with Opera 7.5.
• Contains a preliminary version of the new user guide.

Butler 4.0b11

• Butler now preserves user comments on files and folders when moving or copying them.
• If you have configured Butler to display the composer of the current iTunes track, you can now choose between the display modes "Composer (Artist)" and "Artist (Composer)".

Butler 4.0b10

• Butler no longer eats keystrokes that correspond to invalid hot keys. Example: If you have configured Butler to execute an AppleScript whenever you press [command]-[+] while you are in a certain application, other applications will still see the [command]-[+] keystroke. This was not the case with previous versions of Butler.
• Various other bugfixes and interface improvements.

Butler 4.0b9

• Improved the ranking system Butler uses for sorting matches to your abbreviations some more.
• Butler's folders shall be called "containers" from now on. Hopefully, this will help to illustrate the difference between Butler's folders and file system folders.
• Abbreviations: You can have the contents of containers and local folders pop up in a menu by pressing [space].
• Abbreviations: You can now show the currently selected item in the Finder/Path Finder (depending on your preferences) by pressing [option]-[return].
• Abbreviations: You can now show the currently selected item in Butler's configuration by pressing [shift]-[return].
• Abbreviations: You can now determine whether Butler allows scrolling to low-rank matches. To do so, go to the "Abbreviations" category of your preferences. (This feature was introduced in Butler 4.0b8, but it was not mentioned in the change log.)
• Abbreviations: You can now determine whether Butler ignores sequences of identical characters in your queries. To do so, go to the "Abbreviations" category of your preferences. (This feature was introduced in Butler 4.0b8, but it was not mentioned in the change log.)
• Completely redesigned the abbreviations window. (I'm afraid any customized looks and position for this window will be reset to the respective default values.) Also added a little wheel menu to the bottom left corner of the abbreviations window to help you remember the keyboard shortcuts you can use there.
• You can now move Butler's accessory windows (abbreviations, web search, iTunes status) off your main screen (thanks Rob!).
• You can now switch off the display of the composer of the current iTunes track in the "Feedback" category of your preferences.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b8

• Vastly improved the ranking system Butler uses for sorting matches to your abbreviations (thanks Neil!). Example: If you enter "ab", an item named "Address Book" will now achieve a higher rank than an item named "Rabies".
• Improved the reliability of the pasteboard-related Smart Items.
• Fixed a bug where you could not dismiss the address/phone number window.
• Fixed a bug where certain icon settings (e.g., from the frontmost application, user name) did not stick.
• "Address Book" Smart Items now let you choose from different display modes.
• Improved caching for "Address Book" Smart Items.
• You can now switch off the display of the iTunes volume and your rating for the current track in the "Feedback" category of your preferences.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b7

• The iTunes status window now supports cover artwork.
• The iTunes status window is now capable of displaying the composer of the current track.
• You can now assign custom icons to folders and Smart Items by dropping image files on the "Icon" image well. (There is a cosmetic issue with the image well, which might stay darkened after you have dropped your icon. This is most likely a bug in the cocoa framework.)
• Changed the positions of the text fields in the status window. You might have to increase the margins of the status window (in the "Appearance" category of your preferences) to get back to the looks you were used to.
• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to remember the recursion levels you set for the paths Butler searches for applications.
• Fixed a bug where Butler failed to obey to your "Use Path Finder" preference when you tried to open file system folders via hot key.
• Adjusted Butler to the new bookmarks file location of the latest Firefox builds.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b6

• When you click a hot corner that has been assigned to a folder, Butler will now display a pop-up menu with the respective folder's content instead of trying to launch every item in the folder.
• Fixed a bug where Butler's abbreviation and web search windows sometimes failed to respond to mouse clicks and even vanished under certain conditions.
• You can now adjust the background and border color of your docklet in the "Appearance" category of your preferences.
• In addition to freely configurable layout and position, you can now also adjust the over-all transparency of Butler's accessory windows (abbreviations, web search, iTunes status) and the docklet. Have a look at the "Appearance" category of your preferences.
• The docklet no longer covers the frontmost application's main menu.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b5

• Butler now uses the actual user pictures for "Fast user switching" Smart Items. (Reminder: You can switch off fast user switching in your system preferences to save menu bar space -- and this will still work!)
• You can now choose your own user picture as an icon for menus/folders/Smart Items.
• New layout for Butler's accessory windows (abbreviations, web search, iTunes status). These new layouts are nothing more than presets. You can freely configure the looks of these windows through the preferences' "Appearance" category. (Note: The docklet's layout will be editable in the next beta release.)
• You may freely position all of the abovementioned accessory windows now, including the iTunes status window. Just drag them around on your screen.
• You can now keep the "Bluetooth" and "Ink" preference panes from being listed by "System preferences" Smart Items by adjusting the corresponding settings in your preferences' "Miscellany" category.
• You can now set comments and the headers of "System preferences" Smart Items to be displayed using a smaller and/or bold font (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only).
• Further interface improvements.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b4

• You can now specify the size of pasteboard menu items in your preferences.
• You can now specify the font Butler uses to display a given menu/submenu (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only).
• You can now switch the Inspector's state between full and simple mode by clicking on the four stripes in the top right corner of Butler's main window. Simple mode means that only the most frequently used options will be displayed.
• You can now have the abbreviation you are currently entering expire after a certain time interval (see the "Abbreviations" category in your preferences).
• Fixed a bug where selecting a menu item via keyboard didn't work if the mouse was still over the menu's icon in the menu bar.
• Fixed a bug where pasting from recent pasteboards with indices higher than 9 did not work.
• Fixed a bug where the "Fast user switching" Smart Item did not work under certain conditions. (Thanks Michael Bach for suggesting a solution along with reporting the bug!)
• When populating menus, Butler now sorts files with respect to their localized names.
• Re-enabled launching items by releasing the mouse button while the mouse hovers over a menu's icon in the menu bar/docklet -- as an option (see the "Menus" category in your preferences).
• Various interface improvements.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b3

• New Smart Item: "Keystrokes" lets you simulate any sequence of keystrokes, including the F keys, arrow keys, backspace, ... -- You can even use this to control Exposé from your menu bar/from a pop-up menu by imitating the hot key that triggers a certain Exposé action. (Make sure the Exposé hot key in question is not available while you set up the "Keystrokes" Smart Item!)
• New Smart Item: "Clear recent pasteboards" zaps your recent pasteboards stack.
• New Smart Items: "Paste recent pasteboard (n)" let you paste a pasteboard from your pasteboards stack without viewing your recent pasteboards first. In most cases, the "Recent pasteboards" Smart Item will be more convenient.
• New Smart Items: "Paste current/recent pasteboard (n) as plain text" let you paste a pasteboard from your pasteboards stack as plain text. You could, for example, use an [Option]-[Command]-[V] hot key to paste the current pasteboard as plain text.
• You can now paste from your "Recent pasteboards" Smart Item by pressing the numbers that are displayed in the bottom right corner of each pasteboard menu item.
• Pasting from pasteboard-related Smart Items by pressing hot keys should work more reliably now.
• Fixed a bug where the "Recent pasteboards" Smart Item stopped working under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where selecting search engines did not work properly in Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar".
• You can now resize the windows you use for entering abbreviations and searching the web.
• You can now choose your own icons for certain Smart Items.
• You can now drag bookmarks from Butler to your browser.
• Disabled launching items by releasing the mouse button while the mouse hovers over a menu's icon in the menu bar/docklet. If you need this feature, contact me, and it might return as an option.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b2

• You can now use the "Recent pasteboards" Smart Item to reorder your recent pasteboards without actually pasting.
• Fixed a bug where selecting a recent pasteboard for a "Custom pasteboard" Smart Item didn't work.
• Fixed a bug where clearing a hot key from the wheel menu next to the hot key input field didn't work properly.
• Fixed a bug where selected icons in the menu bar/docklet were sometimes garbled.
• Fixed a bug where Butler didn't handle applications in your home folder correctly.
• Reintroducing the possibility to have top-level menus appear near the mouse when triggered by a hot key.
• Butler no longer expects certain applications (e.g., iTunes, Address Book) to be located at their default locations.
• Corrected a typo in the preferences.
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Butler 4.0b1

• Renamed Another Launcher to "Butler". This new name was chosen to better represent the application's characteristics, which exceed those of a mere launcher by far. Moreoever, users had complained about the generic name "Another Launcher", which -- in their opinion -- was too much of an understatement :-D
• Completely redesigned Butler's user interface based on user feedback.
• New Smart Item: "Recent pasteboards" lets you access items you have previously stored in your pasteboard. The number of items Butler remembers may be adjusted in the "Miscellaneous" category of your preferences.
• New Smart Item: "Custom pasteboard" lets you take a snapshot of your current pasteboard. You can then paste it at any time by entering a hot key or selecting the custom pasteboard in question from a menu.
• New Smart Item: "Show desktop". (Attention Path Finder users: This one will try to launch the Finder.)
• New Smart Item: "Calendar". In the present beta release, this doesn't do more than displaying the current month (according to your system preferences).
• You can now have a menu display your IP address instead of an icon. Choose "Current IP address" from the "Icon" pop-up menu.
• Fixed a bug that kept pop-up menus from working while you were in docklet mode.
• Reintroducing the possibility to have pop-up menus appear at a fixed screen location. This setting is specific for a given folder. You can access it by choosing "Options" from the wheel menu next to the hot key input field.
• Reintroducing the possibility to eject local hard disks. You can switch this on by checking the "Local hard disks may be ejected" option for a given "Volumes" Smart Item.
• Unsanity Haxies are displayed in their own category within "System preferences" Smart Items now.
• Butler is compatible with OmniWeb 5 and Firefox now.
• Once again adjusted Butler to the ever-changing location of Camino's bookmarks file ;-)
• Fixed a bug where Butler consumed too much menu bar space under certain circumstances.
• HTML entities in external bookmarks (e.g., OmniWeb's default bookmarks) are properly displayed now (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only).
• Available language: English. Please DO NOT LOCALIZE this beta version. The resources are very likely to change before the final release of Butler 4.0.

Another Launcher 3.2.2

• You can now change the menu you're currently browsing without releasing the mouse button or clicking again (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only). This applies only to menus owned by Another Launcher.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher erroneously displayed paths for applications listed by "Applications" Smart Items. For instance, there is an invisible symbolic link named "Print Center.app" in Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther"'s "/Applications/Utilities" folder which used to confuse Another Launcher.
• Fixed a bug where hiding the frontmost application by entering an abbreviation did not work properly in Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar".
• Fixed a bug where some preference panes were not displayed with the correct icon.
• Fixed a possible crasher related to mouse tracking in the docklet.
• Slightly changed the way Another Launcher handles search engine URLs.

Another Launcher 3.2.1

• Fixed a bug where -- for some users -- Another Launcher displayed contextual menu modules in its menus and even crashed on them sometimes. (Sorry for the hassle!)
• Importing search engines from iSeek works again. (This was accidentally broken in Another Launcher 3.2.)
• The [command]-[i] keyboard shortcut now works for search engines, too.
• Fixed a bug where menu items were launched after canceling a menu with [esc].
• Another Launcher shouldn't cause iTunes to respawn immediately after you have attempted to quit iTunes any more.

Another Launcher 3.2

• Added a "Fast user switching" Smart Item (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only). The advantage over Panther's "Fast user switching" menu extra (which you can safely remove from your menu bar) is that this one requires less space in your menu bar. You can even move it to a submenu!
• You may now specify text encodings for your "Web search" Smart Items. There are two ways of doing this: Firstly, there is a default setting in your preferences. And secondly, you can specify deviant encodings for certain search engines. (Consequently, the default "Google" search engine has a site-specific text encoding (UTF-8) to complement its "&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" URL suffix now.)
• It is now possible to resize your "Web search" Smart Items in the menu bar (or the docklet). Depending on the input field's position on the screen, resizing is done by dragging the dot that appears near either its left or its right border.
• If you want to change the search engine while entering a web search query, press the [up arrow] or [down arrow] key while typing. This will give you temporary access to the search engines menu. Once you are there, navigate with the arrow keys, select an engine with the [return] key, or cancel with [esc].
• Hot corners now accept right mouse button clicks. For two-button mouse users, the number of possible hot corners has thus doubled.
• You can now specify which volumes are listed by "Volumes" Smart Items. Have a look at the respective info sheet.
• On massive user request, file system folders may now be opened from menus by releasing the mouse button over a menu item that has a submenu with the contents of the folder in question. In other words, you don't have to navigate to the "Show (a folder) in Finder" menu item anymore.
• The above-mentioned "Show (a folder) in Finder" menu items are now switched off by default. You can reactivate them in the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• It is also no longer necessary to navigate to the "Launch as group" menu item inside folders that "may be launched as a group from the menu" (see the respective folder's info sheet).
• Finding matches to your abbreviations works significantly faster now.
• Another Launcher no longer accepts 1-character abbreviations by default. If you need those, you can reactivate them in the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• You can now use Another Launcher to run shell scripts. Just add a script to your configuration and choose "Open with... Execute shell script" in the respective info sheet. (Another Launcher will try to do a "chmod u+x" while attempting to run the script.)
• Another Launcher is now capable of reflecting changes in the currently played iTunes track -- even if you did not use Another Launcher to change tracks. To switch this on, go to the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• "Address book" Smart Items are sorted by groups now, if available.
• Where appropriate, the window you were working with before switching to Another Launcher is reactivated.
• Improved menu positioning. This should be particularly noticeable for pop-up menus and the vertical docklet.
• Pop-up menus no longer darken your screen.
• Added basic context menus to top-level items (those in your menu bar or docklet). You can hide or quit applications by control- or right-clicking on it. The context menu also lets you show files in the Finder (or Path Finder, depending on your preferences). Finally, there are specific context menus for iTunes-related Smart Items and certain applications (System Preferences, Address Book).
• Removed the option to have pop-up menus cover the apple menu.
• Fixed a bug where the "Hardware" preference pane (part of Apple's developer tools) was not properly displayed by "System preferences" Smart Items.
• Fixed a bug where the "Kill frontmost application" Smart Item did not work for certain applications.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would fail to alias or import bookmarks from Camino 0.7+ under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would sometimes close the info sheet while you were trying to assign a hot key.
• You can now launch Filemaker-based applications properly. However, you will have to manually add those to your configuration and choose "Open with... Launch FileMaker application" in the respective info sheet.
• The menu cache no longer interferes with moving or copying files.
• You can now save your bookmarks as a HTML file. Choose "Export HTML..." from the "Import / Export" pop-up button in the main window's toolbar.
• Tooltips for items in the docklet are properly displayed now (Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" only).
• When there is no other way left to do that, you can now access your configuration by relaunching Another Launcher.

Another Launcher 3.1

• Added some Smart Items to adjust the iTunes volume and the rating for the track currently played by iTunes.
• The current track's duration, its rating, and the iTunes volume are displayed whenever you use an iTunes Smart Item.
• If you launch the "iTunes: Information" Smart Item by pressing a hot key, the info window will now remain open as long as you keep holding that key.
• Another Launcher is now able to display phone numbers and postal addresses in a large window when browsing an "Address Book" Smart Item's menus.
• Fixed a bug where the password prompt was not displayed after having locked the computer by using the "Screensaver" Smart Item. This bug has only affected those who had configured their system to require a password when it is awakened from sleep or a screen saver.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would crash when removing certain items from the main window's toolbar.
• Added support for aliasing/importing bookmarks from the latest Camino builds (Camino 0.7+).
• Another Launcher no longer lets you unmount internal drives. (For those who need this functionality: Disk Utility will still do this.)
• Items whose names could not be edited used to appear grayed out. Since this behavior has confused some users, this is no longer the case.
• When you click the info sheet's "Cancel" button after having created a new item, the item in question is now removed, effectively canceling its creation.
• Hot keys, abbreviations, and hot corners for folders no longer depend on the "May be launched as a group" setting. The latter now only applies to the display of menus.
• Changed the default "Google" search engine's address to better handle non-ASCII characters. If you don't want to revert to Another Launcher's default search engines, you can also do this by hand: Got to the preferences' "Web search" category and enter "&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" in the second address text field (the one behind the grayed-out "...Query..." field) for your "Google" search engine.
• Changed the default "Mac OS X Hints" search engine. It uses the "all of these words" mode for finding matches now, instead of just looking for the exact phrase you entered. The new second address part is: "&keyType=all&datestart=&dateend=&topic=0&type=stories&author=&mode=search". (Thanks Rob Griffiths!)
• Added a search engine for finding artists in the iTunes Music Store. To do this manually, create a new search engine and enter "itms://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/advancedSearchResults?artistTerm=" in the first address text field.
• Streamlined the user interface a bit.

Another Launcher 3.0.1

• While entering abbreviations, duplicates are now removed from the results list.
• Another Launcher now remembers the positions of the windows you use for entering abbreviations and searching the web. These windows snap to a grid (5 x 5 possible positions, not dependant on screen resolution). As of now, they are limited to your main screen.
• Fixed a bug where clicking the radio buttons in order to assign abbreviations on the fly would not move the selected item to the top row under certain conditions.
• Fixed a bug where the preferences sheet would sometimes not behave as expected when changing categories.
• Fixed a bug where the "Hide frontmost application" System Control would not work when activated from a pop-up menu.
• Fixed a bug where the Docklet would sometimes be too small when oriented vertically.
• Another Launcher no longer covers screen corners that are neither your active corner nor used as a hot corner.

Another Launcher 3.0

• You can now have an auto-updating list of all mounted volumes in your menu bar, giving you a menu for each volume. Just position a "Volumes" Smart Item on the top level of your configuration. Similarly, you may also drag the "Running applications" Smart Item to the top level.
• It is now possible to edit the search engines list for your "Web search" Smart Items. You may also import search engines from iSeek, a nice little shareware utility from Ambrosia that imitates Another Launcher's "search the web from your menu bar" concept.
• Removed the restrictions on hot keys. You may now use [command]-[space], for instance.
• You can now have your top-level items displayed in Another Launcher's Docklet instead of the menu bar. Have a look at your preferences.
• Added three more System Controls: "Hide frontmost application", "Hide other applications", and "Show all applications".
• Improved browsing local folders via menus. Have a look at the menu cache in the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• Entering abbreviations is faster and more customizable now. Have a look at the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• You can now use Path Finder instead of the Finder. Have a look at the "Advanced" category of Another Launcher's preferences.
• You can now copy items in Another Launcher's main window by holding the [option] key while dragging and dropping them.
• When rearranging Another Launcher's menu bar items, they (as a group) now keep their position relative to other items in the menu bar.
• The "Network" item will no longer appear in "Volumes" Smart Items and menus representing local folders.
• Another Launcher can now handle multiple applications with identical names.
• Simplified the user interface: Importing external bookmarks has moved to the new "Import / Export" pop-up button in the main window's toolbar. Aliasing external bookmarks has blended into the Smart Items. To quit Another Launcher, see the "About..." sheet, or read the "Read me" file, use the small pop-up menu in the bottom left corner of the main window.
• You can now import/export your configuration via the "Import / Export" pop-up button in the menu bar.
• Moved the level settings for aliased external bookmarks from the preferences sheet to the alias-specific info sheet.
• Another Launcher now uses localized application names.
• Fixed a bug where the preference sheet's application paths list was sometimes not properly displayed.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher failed to display custom favicons for secure web sites.
• Next try to circumvent the bug where pop-up menus would sometimes not disappear from the screen. This is actually a bug in Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".
• Other bug fixes and interface improvements.

Another Launcher 2.1.1

• Fixed a bug where pop-up menus would sometimes not disappear from the screen.
• Minor GUI optimizations.

Another Launcher 2.1

• When assigning a hot key to a folder (or a menu), you can now choose to have the folder contents pop up as a menu.
• Added two more System Controls: "Quit frontmost application" and "Kill frontmost application" (cf. Ambrosia's escapepod).
• Editing or deleting items via context menu is now possible for multiple selections.
• Markedly shortened Another Launcher's startup time by shifting icon caching to a separate thread.
• Fixed a display glitch with "Web search" Smart Items in the menu bar.
• File extensions settings are followed more consistently now.
• You can now switch off the "brushed metal" appearance of the main window in your preferences.

Another Launcher 2.0.1

• Fixed a bug where the main window would sometimes disappear after adding files via the corresponding toolbar item.
• Fixed a minor cosmetic issue with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther".

Another Launcher 2.0

• Various internal changes. Versions prior to this one will not run properly on Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther"!
• Hot keys can now be restricted to certain applications.
• You can now determine which directories are searched for applications. To do so, have a look at your preferences.
• You can now tweak your "Applications" Smart Items in such a way that only applications from certain folders are displayed. Examples:
  • show all applications in "/Applications/Utilities"
  • show all applications in "/Applications", except for those in the subfolder "/Applications/Utilities"
• You can now have your system preferences sorted alphabetically: Select a "System preferences" Smart Item, press [command]-[i], and uncheck "Sort by category".
• You can now determine what Another Launcher looks for when you enter an abbreviation (formerly known as commands, see below) via your preferences.
• In addition to ejecting removable media, you can now also unmount network volumes via Another Launcher's menus.
• You can now assign the icon "from the frontmost application" to any menu or folder (press [command]-[i] and choose the corresponding entry from the icons pop-up menu). Combined with the "Running applications" Smart Item, this makes a nice and simple application switcher.
• It is now possible to edit or delete items via context menu.
• The information sheet is now automatically opened when you add items. (You can switch this off in the preferences.)
• You can now choose to always have the information sheet open when you double-click on something (see preferences).
• Slightly changed the way Another Launcher handles Finder aliases.
• Fixed a small memory leak.
• "Commands" have been renamed to "Abbreviations", which probably is more descriptive. Similarly, the "Execute command..." control has been renamed to "Enter abbreviation...".
• On popular demand, the main window now displays your hot keys.
• Added a splash screen which you can switch off in the preferences.
• Reorganized the preferences.
• The "More or less" PayPal donation button really lets you choose an amount now.

Another Launcher 1.1

• Added one more way of launching: Hot corners let you launch items by clicking a certain screen corner while (optionally) holding a modifier key combination.
• Double-clicking on a non-editable part of an item in the main window now opens the information sheet.
• Manually updating the internal applications list now works correctly.
• When moving or copying files, alert windows are no longer covered by the small window that informs you about what you were dragging.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would display subfolders even though a flat hierarchy was specified via the "don't translate subfolders into submenus" setting.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would show a folder in the finder while launching its contents.
• Fixed a bug where Another Launcher would sometimes crash while customizing its toolbar after having dragged an item out of the toolbar.

Another Launcher 1.0.1

• You can now choose to open items in the frontmost application (example: open your bookmarks in the frontmost browser), whenever possible. Select an item (or a folder), press [command]-[i] and select "Frontmost application" from the "Open with..." pop-up menu.
• Added aliasing/importing bookmarks from Mozilla Firebird (was Phoenix) and Opera. As a result, Another Launcher now supports all browsers available for Mac OS X (or did I forget one?).
• Visual feedback is now optional: You can switch it off in Another Launcher's preferences.
• Slightly changed the internal ranking system for sorting matches to your abbreviations.

Another Launcher 1.0

• Implemented a new algorithm for finding matches to your abbreviations. Advantages:
  • Smarter matching: For instance, you can now find "Preview.app" by entering "prv". Beta versions of Another Launcher would not have produced a result in this case.
  • Now sorts based on a ranking system instead of just sorting alphabetically.
  • Faster.
• When launching an item via hot key, Another Launcher now gives you visual feedback which is specific for the launched item.
• The new "iTunes: Information" Smart Item displays the track currently playing in iTunes.
• The other Smart Items controlling iTunes now also display the current track whenever they are fired.
• The mechanism used for finding site-specific favicons has been completely rewritten and is now available once again (switched off by default, uncheck the "generic" icons setting in Another Launcher's preferences to switch it on).
• Fixed a memory leak.
• Code optimizations result in a smaller application footprint.
• Should you ever lose your "Invisible items" (which is not very likely, since Another Launcher doesn't let you delete it), a new "Invisible items" list is created on application startup.
• Minor cosmetic changes.

Another Launcher 1.0b5

• Another Launcher now lets you unmount removable volumes.
• When choosing the application to launch an item, you can now choose to execute AppleScripts (cf. Apple's script menu) instead of opening them in Script Editor (which is the default for files ending with ".scpt").
• When assigning abbreviations to dynamic contents, the items in question now remember the application they should be opened with.
• Disabled site-specific favicons for now, as the underlying mechanism as seen in version 1.0b4 appears to be a processor hog. Sorry for any inconveniences. (But hey, this is still a beta!)
• Reintroduced icon precaching during startup (was switched off in version 1.0b4).
• Optimized memory usage.

Another Launcher 1.0b4

• External contents (e.g. local folder contents, browser bookmarks, preference panes, etc.) are now always up-to-date. The only exception is Another Launcher's internal applications list (cf. Updating dynamic contents).
• It is now possible to have menus with infinite recursion. This feature lets you browse through all contents of your hard disk (or even all your volumes, see below) with Another Launcher's menus.
• Introducing four new Smart Items:
  • Volumes: uses the new infinite recursion feature, see above.
  • Running applications.
  • AppleScripts: very similar to Apple's script menu.
  • Address Book: your address book contents sorted by persons.
• You can now move and copy files with Another Launcher.
• You can now assign hot keys and abbreviations to local folders.
• When entering an abbreviation, launching folder contents when you just wanted the Finder to open a folder should occur less frequently now.
• You can now control which file extensions are displayed through Another Launcher's preferences.
• Due to being always up-to-date, Another Launcher is less responsive when entering abbreviations than before. Please read the "Why is entering abbreviations so slow and what can I do against it?" section in the FAQs.
• Added a PayPal button to Another Launcher's "About..." window.
• Removed some layout inconsistencies.

Another Launcher 1.0b3

• Local folders: You may now filter folder contents by file extensions.
• Local folders: You may now choose to list folder contents without translating subfolders into submenus.
• Launching via abbreviations now also works with dynamic contents (e.g. local folder contents) that are stored in your invisible items list.
• Redesigned the preferences sheet.
• Some bug fixes.

Another Launcher 1.0b2

• Web site "favicons" should work again. Safari 1.0 stores its cached icons at a location that differs from Safari's Beta Versions. (In case you didn't know: Another Launcher reads favicons from Safari's cache.)
• The active corner should work more reliably now.
• Compiled with GCC 3.3.
• Minor cosmetic tweaks.

Another Launcher 1.0b1

• Initial release.

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