Most parts of this document are out of date. The present beta release is mainly for those users who don't mind playing around with it without having proper documentation at their disposal.

What is Butler?

You can access applications and any other kind of document by browsing fully customizable system-wide spring-loaded menus, pressing hot keys, clicking hot corners, or entering abbreviations. Butler will learn from your habits and remember what you want a certain abbreviation to do (e.g., enter "abo" to launch "Address Book").

Butler offers you a way to manage your bookmarks without depending on a certain browser. In contrary to a browser's bookmark collection, Butler's bookmarks are always accessible through its system-wide menus, hot keys, etc. And you'll certainly become addicted to accessing bookmarks by entering abbreviations. Butler also lets you access the bookmarks of every single browser there is for Mac OS X.

Adding files or URLs from your browser to Butler's configuration is stunningly easy: Just drag them to the active screen corner (default: top left), see Butler's main window open, and drop your items somewhere whithin your configuration.

Butler's predecessor "Another Launcher" was the first application that let you search the web from the menu bar. But if your menu bar is too crowded for an input field, you can also use hot keys to pop up dedicated web search windows. Butler supports a large number of search engines by default, but you are not restricted to those — you can easily add your own search engines.

Butler lets you access items you have previously stored in your pasteboard, effectively turning your pasteboard into a stack. You can also take a snapshot of your current pasteboard and keep it for good. This feature is particularly useful for text snippets you need to enter on a regular basis.

You can use Butler to move and copy files, control iTunes, access the system preferences, change the current user, and so on. But Butler really shines when it comes to customizing its behavior. Is your menu bar too crowded? Use Butler's docklet! Do you want a menu for each mounted volume? Do you want a menu to pop up when you press a certain hot key? Do you want all running applications in your menu bar? Or do you prefer doing things with your keyboard only? Whatever kind of interface you prefer, Butler is at your service.

• press one of the pre-defined hot keys
• enter an abbreviation after you have brought up the abbreviation prompt by pressing [control]-[space] (which is just another pre-defined hot key)
• choose something from the menus

Version 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)".
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda), French (localization by Hervé Roth). Please note that the "Read me" file is still (i) not localized and (ii) out of date. I'm afraid the promised all-new picture guide is not finished yet.

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German. Please note that the "Read me" file is still (i) not localized and (ii) out of date. An all-new picture guide is in the works.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.
• 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.

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda), French (localization by Hervé Roth).

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda), French (localization by Hervé Roth).

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German.

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German.

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda), French (localization by Hervé Roth).

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German.

Version 2.1.1

• Fixed a bug where pop-up menus would sometimes not disappear from the screen.
• Minor GUI optimizations.
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda).

Version 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.
• Available languages: English, German.

Version 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".
• Available languages: English, German, Japanese (localization by Akira Ikeda).

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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.

Version 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 preferences sheet.
• Some bug fixes.

Version 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.

Version 1.0b1

• Initial release.

• Butler sometimes chokes on Safari's favicons cache while starting up. This is what you can do about it.
• I have never had the possibility to test Butler on a multiple screen setup. You might encounter unexpected behavior, such as mis-placed menus.
• As of now, Butler is a little bit too aggressive about resolving aliases. If your configuration contains aliases to files on disk images or remove servers, Butler will try to mount these from time to time.
• The pasteboard Smart Items might not work as expected with Microsoft Word.

Emergency

• I don't have access to a "Customize..." control anymore. How can I open Butler's main window to customize my configuration, to access my preferences, or to quit Butler?
• Butler never finishes starting up. What can I do?

Importing

• Which applications' bookmarks can I access / import?
• How do I import external bookmarks / e-mail addresses?
• How do I alias external bookmarks / e-mail addresses?
• I imported bookmarks from several browsers. Now I have duplicate bookmarks. Can I remove the duplicates?
• What is the criterion for detecting duplicates?
• When removing duplicates, can I choose which bookmarks to delete?
• I used "Remove Duplicates", but my Butler menu still contains duplicates. Why is this?

Adding items

• How do I create a new menu?
• How do I create a new folder?
• How do I add a local file / folder?
• How do I add a Smart Item?
• How do I bookmark a URL?
• Is there a keyboard shortcut for bookmarking a URL?

Editing items

• How do I edit an item?
• How do I change the level of recursion for local folder contents?
• How do I assign a hot key to an item?
• How do I turn a folder into a pop-up menu?
• How do I assign a hot corner to an item?
• How do I assign an abbreviation to an item?
• How do I assign abbreviations on the fly?

Launching items

• How do I launch an item by entering an abbreviation?
• Why is entering abbreviations so slow? What can I do against it?
• Why are there items I can launch via menu, but not by entering an abbreviation?
• Can I launch several items at once?
• With the dock, I can launch files by dropping them on an application's icon. Is there a similar functionality in Butler?
• How can I choose an application for opening a certain item?
• What is a hot corner?

Smart Items

• What is a Smart Item?
• How do I add a Smart Item?

System Controls

• What is a System Control?
• How do I add a System Control?

Searching the web

• ... will soon be documented (well, hopefully...), but is considered to be rather self-explanatory.

Miscellaneous

• How can I move or copy files with Butler?
• Can I search my configuration?
• I'd like to undo the latest changes I applied to my configuration. Is this possible?
• How do I access Butler's preferences?
• Is there a way to automatically update dynamic contents, such as the preferences list or external bookmarks?
• Why can't I drag Butler's menus around? (Why is this not a "true" menu extra?)
• Can I change the active corner that automatically opens Butler's main window?
• Why are there custom icons for some bookmarked web sites, but generic icons for others?
• Are there any keyboard shortcuts?

1. kill Butler (with Jaguar's Process Viewer or Panther's Activity Monitor)
2. quit Safari (if it's running)
3. delete Safari's icon cache (located at "/Users/(you)/Library/Safari/Icons")
4. relaunch Butler

• Camino (was Chimera)
• Firefox (was Firebird/Phoenix)
• iCab
• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla
• Netscape
• Omniweb
• Opera
• Safari
   
• iChoose
• RADBookmarks
• Roadbook

• Drag the files to the active corner you specified in Butler's preferences
• Butler's main window will open
• Drop the files at an appropriate place among your other items

• Drag the URL to the active corner you specified in Butler's preferences
• Butler's main window will open
• Drop the URL at an appropriate place among your other items

• Dynamically created lists: e.g. System preferences, running applications, etc.
• Items that trigger external activities: e.g. control iTunes, search the web, etc.

• The web site does specify such an icon.
• You have visited the site with Safari before you started Butler. Butler does not download favicons from the web; instead, it reads them from Safari's icons cache.
• The web site in question is directly bookmarked in Butler, not just listed by means of a external bookmarks alias.
• "Generic" web site icons is not checked in Butler's preferences.