I love to use shortcuts for many different tasks on OS X. Although many of them may just save you a couple of seconds, being able to achieve something without your hands having to leave your keyboard is always good in my opinion.

One of my favourite shortcuts is one I created to open the Chrome App Launcher. This launcher is improving all the time and allows you easy access to many things: Google search; contacts search; Chrome App Store search; launch URLs from your history; change Chrome settings and of course launch Chrome apps.

This is a simple setup and one that can be used to launch any application you wish not just the Chrome App Launcher like I am using in this example. Hope you like it as much as I do and get as much use out of it as I do.

Open Automator

If using Mavericks Select New Document in the Finder window that opens

Select in the Finder window that opens Select Service

In Service Receives select No Input & Any Application

select & In your list of actions find and select Launch Application (double click or drag to the right hand pane)

(double click or drag to the right hand pane) Click on the application drop down menu and scroll to the bottom and select other...

When the Finder windows open press CMD + Shift + G . This will bring up the 'Go to the folder:' dialogue.

. This will bring up the dialogue. Type ~/Applications

Select Chrome Apps

Select Chrome App Launcher

Now press CMD + S to save and name the service Chrome Launcher

The shortcut is now setup. To assign it to your keyboard do the following.

Open System Preferences

Select Keyboard

Select Shortcuts

Select Services in the left hand pane

in the left hand pane Scroll down the right hand pane until you find the Chrome Launcher you have just created

you have just created Check the tickbox next to your service to enable it

Click on the right hand side of the service where it says None or Add shortcut on Yosemite and then choose a combination of keys you wish to use for the shortcut, ensuring it is not a combination already in use (I use CMD+Shift+L).

Now when you input your shortcut, your app - or in my case Chrome App Launcher - will open. A better option than having a shortcut in your dock IMO.

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