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Boagworld is the blog of web strategist Paul Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset (hence the cows). He produces a weekly podcast with UX consultant Marcus Lillington on building and running websites. They also run the web design agency Headscape.

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Posted in Reviews on: Sunday, January 17, 2010 by Paul Boag

As web designers and website owners we spend a lot of time working within the web. Discover how you can streamline your browsing experience with launchbar and quix.

Apologises for the rather unprofessional video (with the wife wandering around in the background). However, as this is not strictly about web design and so therefore not strictly a boagworld official post, I thought I could get away with it!

Install the Quix bookmarklet now

Download a demo of Launchbar

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What did you think about this post?

15 Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

  • Gemma Went says:

    This is such a useful post, thanks. Setting this up is now one of my sunday tasks.

    I have another question, what do you use to record what you’re doing on screen as you speak to cam? I need something similar.

    Thanks again

  • Thanks for this awesome review Paul!

  • mila says:

    can you share your instapaper custom command??
    thanks…

    • Go to your Instapaper extra’s page, and copy the bookmarklet. Then create a custom command file and add this line:

      insta javascript: Read Later with Instapaper

      that should work :)

    • mila says:

      rhanks..works fine…

    • Newton says:

      Hey Joost de Valk,

      For those of us who are a little slower, I’m not sure I understand what it means to create a custom commands file? Can you maybe explain how to do the instapaper command a bit more in depth. Thanks.

    • Newton says:

      So through stumbling around the documentation, I figured out what needs to be done to create your own custom commands. You will literally create a .txt file that has the syntax
      “insta javascript:function%20iprl5(){var%20d=document,z=d.createElement(‘scr’+'ipt’),b=d.body;try{if(!b)throw(0);d.title=’(Saving…)%20′+d.title;z.setAttribute(‘src’,'http://www.instapaper.com/j/XrUEsaM01oLr?u=’+encodeURIComponent(d.location.href)+’&t=’+(new%20Date().getTime()));b.appendChild(z);}catch(e){alert(‘Please%20wait%20until%20the%20page%20has%20loaded.’);}}iprl5();void(0) Read Later with Instapaper”
      and then you’ll have to upload the file to your own server and hit the Quix extend page (http://quixapp.com/extend/) to tell them where the url is for the .txt file. Then you can drag the bookmarklet to your browser bar and you’re all set.

  • Dave says:

    Good stuff Paul, now you have a minimal browser experience, perhaps you should focus your attention on your system icons, they take up nearly half the width of your screen! when was the last time you used your bluetooth connection? If you hold the apple key, you can simply drag icons of the menu. You might also appreciate this blog http://minimalmac.com/

  • Alan says:

    How do you get everything to appear in Large Type in LaunchBar?

  • Ankit says:

    gleeBox goes a step further to streamline the browsing experience (allowing navigation, scrolling and lots of other cool stuff using the keyboard), especially if you love the command line. Give it a shot at http://thegleebox.com

  • Simon F says:

    Wicked! How do you think these compare with Ubiquity? Looks like I don’t need Ubiquity for quick commands

  • This is great, didn’t know about Quix yet. I used to go with Shaun Inman’s Shortwave, but Quix seems to do the job even better.

    All I need now is a launchbar for Firefox.

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Additional Information

Produced by Headscape

Boagworld is produced by the web design agency Headscape founded by Marcus, Paul and Chris Scott. Headscape also has a number of other talented guys who blog. Check them out.

  • Craig Rowe is one of our amazing developers and writes some superb posts on everything from .net to AIR apps.

  • Ed Merritt is a Headscape designer who's blog contains examples of his work and a number of free Wordpress themes.

  • Dave McDermid is a Headscape developer who has an excellent blog. He blogs on everything from AJAX to security.

  • Rob Borley is one of our project managers and blogs regularly on client and project management issues.

  • Leigh Howells is our multimedia design guru (whatever one of those is). He blogs on a mixture of design and music.

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