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Last week Ireviewed a muffin , Scroll Reverser , that helps you improve one of the more - controversial features of Lion ( Mac OS X 10.7 ): scrolling . Today I ’m cover a public utility that aims to fix — or at least show more usable — one of Lion ’s worst - implemented lineament .
I ’m referring , of line , to Launchpad , perhaps Lion ’s most misguided adoption of an iOS feature . enter the Launchpad app , or utilise one of OS X ’s Hot Corners or gestures to insert Launchpad , and you ’ll see an iOS - plate - silver screen - alike user interface that stage the icons forallyour instal apps in a full - covert grid — one that spans as many screen as is necessary to hold up everything . Using the left- and right - pointer keys or two - digit left and right swipe , you’re able to flip between screens to ( hopefully ) find a picky app . To establish an app , you come home it .
If you ’ve install only a few third - company Mac apps , this iOS - alike feature film can work well enough . But once you add more than a couple XII , Launchpad terminate up being an consuming quite a little of icons with no easily discernible method acting to its madness . you may drag apps to reorganize them , including make a brochure by dragging one image onto another , but on the whole , organise apps in Launchpad is a hassle . ( There ’s not even a ready to hand Sort By characteristic , which would at least rent you organize apps by , say , name . ) speculative of all , if you take an app from Launchpad ( by take down the pick key and clicking the little X button that appears on the political platform ’s icon , or by dragging the app to the Trash from within Launchpad ) , the app is actuallydeleted from your Mac . In other intelligence , there ’s no official way to keep an installed app from appearing in Launchpad — everyapp is listed .
Which is whereLaunchpad - Controlcomes in . This simple service program , which operates as a System Preferences loony toons , displays a tilt of all Launchpad - eligible app ( essentially , anything located in / Applicationsor~/Applications ) , as well as any folders that either exist inside the Applications folders or that you ’ve make within Launchpad . Next to each platform or folder is a checkbox — if the box is stop , the software program appears in Launchpad . Uncheck the boxes next to the programs you want to exclude from Launchpad , chatter Apply , and the Dock ( which handle part of Launchpad ’s functionality ) relaunches as your changes are apply .
Unlike delete apps from within Launchpad , disabling them using Launchpad does n’t move the applications themselves — it just keep them from come out in Launchpad . you’re able to even incapacitate OS X ’s stock apps . To make it ( slimly ) easy to find apps within Launchpad - Control ’s listing , the list is broken up by Launchpad screen door ( Page 1 , Page 2 , and so on ) . And while there ’s no release to uncheck all apps in the list , which would be utilitarian if you desire to invalid more apps than you want to keep visible , you could incapacitate an entire page of apps at a time and then go back and enable just those you desire to come out in Launchpad .
( mention that if you make any changeswithinLaunchpad while Launchpad - Control is open , you should step down system of rules Preferences and then re - loose Launchpad - Control to ensure that it visit , and that you do n’t overwrite , those change . )
There are a few features that would make Launchpad - Control a fleck less tedious to use . For exemplar , I care you could typewrite the first few character of an program ’s name to promptly select it in the listing . I ’d also wish to be able to drop back pages up or down the list to rearrange them in Launchpad , and to move apps between or within screens using Launchpad - Control ; instead , all your Launchpad organization must happen within Launchpad itself . Still , being able-bodied to exclude all those apps you never want to see in Launchpad is a bountiful first stair towards making Launchpad usable , and Launchpad - Control merit praise for that .
