Our Verdict
OS X’sLaunchpadwas deride when it first seem in OS X Lion . It was part of the then - Modern iOS - ification of OS X : It closely mimic the iOS homescreen full of ikon , through which you ’d scroll sideways to recover and found the apps you wanted . Back then , our own Dan Frakescalled it , “ Lion ’s most mistaken espousal of an iOS feature . ”
fourth dimension has melt that initial disdain . In the intervening year , I ’ve ascertain the periodic timid access from a variety of Mac user that they ’ve come to bank on Launchpad as at least one manner they open their apps . If you do n’t use a keyboard - based launcher , if you prefer to keep your hand on the black eye or trackpad , Launchpad can actually be a handy way to open your apps — specially if you ’ve grow accustomed to the iOS way of doing things .
But Launchpad still has one big flaw : It does n’t have any good built - in tools for arranging those app icons the way you want them . You have to manually drag icons from one screen to another ( or onto one another to create groups ) .
To remedy that , there ’ve been a couple of utility program that facilitate you manage your Launchpad screen . The later isLaunchpad Manager 1.3.2 , and it ’s a courteous one . If you use Launchpad , you should definitely check it out .
Launchpad Manager comes in two human body : a free app and a Pro edition that be $ 8 . The free one is OK , but the paid version is ( as you ’d ask ) far more useful .
For free , you get the power to cut and glue apps from one screen to another ; to move selected apps from one page to another with a couple of clicks ; to select all icons on a page with one chink ; and to move out selected icons wholly .
But the Pro rendering adds the really beneficial stuff . For neophyte , it permit you assort app icons alphabetically ; good of all , you could do so page by page . ( So , for model , you could prefer to sort all of the Apple apps that by default appear together on the first Launchpad page , then sieve all the other third - political party apps on the pages that come , without mixing the two radical together . )
Upgrading also enables you to recharge antecedently saved layouts , so you could have unlike icon arrangements for different contexts — one for work and another for household , say . It give you buttons for quickly grouping and ungrouping collections of apps ( cast all those Adobe CS picture in a single leaflet , for example ) . And it get you restore apps that you ’d removed from Launchpad at some level in the past .
you could still order icons on a give screen via puff - and - drop within Launchpad Manager . But unlike Launchpad itself , the public utility company does n’t let you tangle apps from one sieve to the next ; you have to employ the Move mastery or else . It does n’t let you create groups by puff - and - drop cloth , either .
But beyond those two low cavil , this is a really useful app . If you do n’t use Launchpad at all , you obviously do n’t need it . But if you do use Launchpad — and , really , there ’s no shame in that — Launchpad Manager clear that interface way more useful .
