Although I’ve occasionally experimented with Launchpad, I don’t find it useful. Perhaps because I am a devotee of DefaultFolder, I have no need for a “launcher.” I “launch” projects and worksessions via a mix of starting a document I previously created, or an app if I’m beginning a new document. Launchpad launches only apps, which could be useful only about half the time.
If I want to launch an app, I use the spotlight and type in the partial name.
I use the dock for my most-used apps.
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I like easy access to all the apps on my machine. I do that by having my most used apps in the dock plus launchpad.
I keep my apps in Launchpad when they’re are too many or in the way in my Mac dock.
Agreed. I wonder though why the list view will only display the same generic icon for apps.
I use it so often that I set up a keyboard shortcut to open it.
I mainly use the search field in Launchpad to launch applications, I do not rely on the grid of icons.
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When I find myself in Launchpad, it’s usually after accidentally hitting F4 on my older MacBook Pro. By coincidence, I did that this morning, so I took the opportunity to spend some time in Launchpad as a result of this thread.
In line with some of the other comments here, the sorting of apps in Launchpad is not helpful. As with the Home Screen on iPhone and iPad, it seems strange that there is not an easier way to organize/sort icons other than resorting to special configuration apps or painstakingly moving icons to the desired location one by one.
On the positive side, Launchpad is visually attractive, and its search tool is simple, fast, and effective. I probably would use the search function to launch apps if I hadn’t already been using Quicksilver quite a long time for that purpose. (I probably should take a closer look at Alfred.)
Interestingly, browsing through Launchpad reminded me of a few apps on my machine that I haven’t used in a long time. I suppose the large Launchpad icons made them stand out when compared to how the icons blend together when I open the Applications folder using the Finder’s List view.
I use Alfred and it is far easier/faster to open an application that way. I only check into LaunchPad when I feel like seeing what’s there that I have not used in ages.
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I don’t get the point. I put really frequently used stuff on the Dock, other stuff I find with Spotlight (if I remember the name) or just by browsing Applications (if I don’t remember the name).
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Never use it and tend to forget it even exists
I find it easy to use Spotlight and type the first few letters of the app name. Launchpad seems unnecessary for me.
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I use Launchpad daily but only because I was never able to find an acceptable replacement for DragThing. I would love it if Apple would include the capability to save folders in LaunchPad but alas I don’t think that will ever happen.
Good question. List view once did display aliases with their proper icons, in Big Sur, I believe. That changed a version or two ago.
The apps I use frequently (BBEdit, GraphicConverter, Mailplane, FMPro, Pages, Safari, etc.) are all on the dock. For those like VueScan and iMovie that I use occasionally I find it convenient to pop open Launchpad from the dock where I have these less often used apps listed at the top of the page.
Seems like it might be useful for an iOS user who hasn’t touched a Mac, but I NEVER USE IT. Because?
It’s so much easier to:
- Launch from the Dock or…
- Use [Command]+[Space Bar] > then search and launch (from Spotlight or LaunchBar) or…
- Use an app-launching Menu Item (XMenu).
That’s 3 different Mac interface elements: Button, Keyboard command, menu. Do I need to learn another whole app/interface and launch a screen to search for an icon? Launchpad is so far down the list of ways to launch an app that I never use it. In fact, I recently deleted it from Hot Corners because it was just annoying when I would initiate it by accident!
Thank you for this, this tip completely changed Launchpad for me from useless to potentially useful. The most painful part of re-arranging it is moving between pages. I have actually been able to collapse to one page (even with having had folders) and keep what I need visible.
Really wish there was a way to modify preferences on iOS like this.
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I like the Dock. And at the right end, I have two folders. You guessed: Applications and Utilities. Both are grid-based and are application launchers.
Hide the menubar, hide the Dock, replace Spotlight with Alfred, install iTerm and multiple developer tools is my standard operating procedure. It’s far more efficient to press a keybinding to open Alfred and type a partial App name and press Return to launch an App. Alfred can do much much more. Particularly like the clipboard history feature.
I use the Nix package manager with Home Manager and Flakes on macOS in lieu of Homebrew. Whenever I get a new Mac or Linux system, I can use these tools to automate the setup installing and configuring all my dev tools (in addition to Xcode / Command Line Tools) and preferences, etc. I just install Nix and run the flake configuration stored in git, walk away and when its done everything is just about perfect. The idea is to define your configuration declaratively and you configure things precisely once and never again.
I would love it if Apple added a tiling window feature. Yes, there is the Yabai tiling window manager but to truly make it useful you need to partially disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) and I am not a fan of doing so for security reasons.
But since the vast majority of my work involves code and accessing servers, LXD containers, Docker, Kubernetes and writing engineering / DevOps documentation. I just use Emacs, which runs very well on macOS and I can go full screen and tile windows within Emacs. Lately, Emacs 28.2 / 29.1 have been significantly improved. I could use Linux instead of macOS but I like having all the mainstream software from Microsoft / Adobe / etc. I do use Linux extensively and when heavy lifting is required.
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I use it occasionally to remind myself of the apps I have. I never go to applications folder except to uninstall an app. Most of the time I use spotlight keyboard shortcut to open an app not on my dock.
Love this idea of polls.
I posted a new article about backing up the Launchpad configuration on my blog. Warning: it’s a free WordPress blog and I can’t control what advertising is displayed. Sometimes the advertising is somewhat objectionable. Hope the post makes it worth it.