Looking for custom MenuExtra to launch user-specified apps

H

Hippo Man

Hippo Man
I'm looking for a custom MenuExtra which would work as follows:

It puts one or more menus in the Menu Bar, and each entry of the menu is set to run an app specified by the user.

I'd like to use such a MenuExtra to put a menu in the Menu Bar that will allow me to launch a few of my own, personal apps via a menu selection.

I know that there are plenty of ways to launch apps: via the Applications folder, via Lion's Launchpad, etc. However, I'm specifically looking for a way to launch my own, selected apps (and no other apps) via a custom menu in the Menu Bar.

Before I go off and try to write a utility that does this, I'd like to know if someone has already created something like this, so I don't have to "re-invent the wheel".

Thanks in advance.
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DeltaMac said:
How about Quicksilver?
http://qsapp.com/about.php
It has (as one of many other options) a menubar plugin.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I installed Quicksilver, and I can see that it's a robust and well-designed application. I also looked at its Menu plugin and its Mini plugin.

However, Quicksilver still doesn't do exactly what I want. This describes what I am looking for ...

Suppose I have three applications that I like to run a lot: Application1, Application2, and Application3.

I'd like to put a menu into the Menu bar that, when I click on it, only shows these three entries:
Application1
Application2
Application3​
When I click on one of these, the selected application gets launched.

Quicksilver cannot be invoked by a menu click. I have to invoke it via a keyboard interaction, and then the Menu will pop up. And even at that point, more keyboard interaction is necessary in order to find the application I want to run.

I'm looking for a menu-only, mouse-only way to do what I want.

I know I can do this by writing my own MenuExtra. I'm now thinking that I will probably have to do that.

... unless someone has already written a MenuExtra that allows us to associate any user-specified applications we want with the menu entries, and which displays no other menu entries besides those which are specified by the user.

Thanks again for your suggestion!
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You already have the essence of what you want, in your Apple menu.
Apple/recent items/Applications - and, if you do actually use mostly just those 3 apps, they'll be there in that drop-down.
And, as an additional advantage, you're not locked in to the ones that you manually specify - that menu would dynamically change, depending on your actual recent use. Who could ask for more? :D
 
Thanks, DeltaMac.

Yours is a good suggestion.

However, I recently found out about a program called XMenu which puts a dropdown menu in the menu bar, and I can fill it with exactly the list of applications that I want.

So I opted for that solution.

... even though I do apreciate your help!
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