Apptivate 2.0

Apptivate is a Mac program that provides you with a quick and simple solution for launching applications on your computer, opening files and folders, running scripts, and so much more. This utility lives on your Menu Bar from where you can easily configure its settings according to your needs.

All you need to do is to define global hotkeys for the tasks you wish to complete. For example, I defined a shortcut key for launching the Safari program. Afterwards, every time I entered the defined global hotkey, Apptivate launched Safari on my Mac. You can do the same for opening files and folders on your computer, executing scripts, running Automator workflows, etc.

In my testing, the program immediately completed the given tasks, without slowing down the performance of my system.

Unfortunately, Apptivate occasionally crashed. This usually happened when defining new global hotkeys, no matter the selected type of task (launch app, open file, etc.).

Still, the program is very simple to handle, is feature-rich, and comes at no cost. So, I'd say you should give it a try and see if you encounter the aforementioned issue. If not, Apptivate might prove to be a smart addition to your collection of Mac apps.

v2.0 [Feb 8, 2011]
* "Re-launching" Apptivate while it's running opens the main window (or the preferences window if the menubar icon is hidden).
* Added a preference to allow overwriting system shortcuts. This should fix the problem some people have been having with F14 and F15.
* It's no longer necessary to hover an item to see the hotkeys while holding the Option key.
* Pressing Enter when in the hotkeys view of an item brings you back to the list.
* Items are saved more often.
* It's now possible to order the items by name.
* Fixed a bug that would cause keys not to work. This might fix the problem with the i-key not working; if it doesn't, please contact us.