“Most Mac users avoid Launchpad and instead use Spotlight, the Dock or some other method to launch apps,” Gary Rosenzweig writes for MacMost.
“However, with a change and some tips, Launchpad can be a decent app launcher,” Rosenzweig writes. “First, you’ll want to assign a keyboard shortcut. Then, you’ll want to organize your Launchpad screens so you can find apps easily.”
Rosenzweig writes, “You can also use the keyboard to easily search for apps and get more refined results than in Spotlight.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We use the Dock almost exclusively (likely a result of using macOS since it was Mac OS X public beta).
Launchpad is the most useless, no, wait, Notifications, no wait, Dashboard- oh, okay, yes, Launchpad is the most useless OS trinket Apple forces upon us. How can we get rid of it entirely?
I like to keep a clean Dock and only keep my most frequently used applications in my Dock. Starting in Tiger I would drag my Applications folder to the Dock so I could access it with a single click. When Stacks was introduced in Leopard, I would still drag my Applications folder to the Dock and use Stacks in a grid formation to access my Apps. That served me well in Leopard and Snow Leopard until Launchpad was introduced in Lion. I really like Launchpad. I guess it was a natural progression for me.
Alfred. I’ve tried lots of ’em, but this one is my fave and one of the 5 must-install apps for any Mac I use.
I use the Dock to launch frequently used applications. For less frequently used apps, I rely on Launch Pad. I have a MacBook Pro. I just pinch the track pad with 3 fingers and my thumb.
+1 for Alfred.
Still using FinderPop on Mac Mini (El Cap) and FolderGlance on MB Pro (Mojave).
I wish I could remove notifications, launchpad, dock and most of the useless eye candy foisyed upon us. Safari? god help me! Mail?? Pass. Too much focus on bringing ‘features’ from iOS to MacOS.
Still using iWork with full-featured Pages/Numbers/Keynote on Mini, have removed same apps from Mojave due to dumbed down GUI and massive lack of features.
Wish we had more control over OUR machines – I recall the glory days of Shapeshifter and many other GUI tweaks no longer permitted by Tim and Jonny!