How to launch applications

pearCalc enables you to launch applications simply by entering their names. This comes in handy if the application you want to launch has no shortcut in the dock. Please note that pearCalc wants you to type in the exact name of the application (case sensitive!) - otherwise pearCalc can not launch it.

However, to make life easier, pearCalc can remember application names and auto complete them so you only have to type in a few letters to launch an app. The first time you launch a specific application, pearCalc checks to see if you want it to remember application names and, if yes, it adds it to the auto completion list. That way you only have to enter the full name of an application once. You can edit the auto completion-list manually (i.e. rearrange items via drag&drop, add or delete items) in the auto complete-section of the preferences window. Auto completion works in the same order as the items appear in the list. Therefore if your auto completion list looks like

OmniWeb
OmniGraffle

then OmniWeb would appear as soon as you type an "O" into the pearCalc text field. If you would like OmniGraffle to appear first simply rearrange the items in the list.

You can also define shortcuts for application names. For example you could create a shortcut for Adobe Photoshop. Simply go to the shortcut-tab of the preferences window and add a new shortcut "Photoshop" with a replacement-value of "Adobe Photoshop 7.0". After that it is sufficient to type "Photoshop" instead of the whole name.

Please note that pearCalc can only launch applications that are in one of the MacOS X standard application-directories. If there are two applications with the same name, it is not defined which one gets started. In such a case simply rename one of the applications.