Core features:

• access A Better Finder Launcher by pressing its hot key from any program (F1 function key).
• select any application, document or folder by typing only a few letters of their name.
• the query results list displays all matching applications or files while you type.
• launch the application or document by hitting the "Return" key or clicking on the "Launch" button.
• can be run as a "normal" application complete with dock icon and menu bar or as a hot-key only program without dock icon or menu bar.

Basic selection:

• select items beginning with a particular character sequence.
• select items that contain a particular character sequence.
• select items that contain a particular word fragment.
• select an item directly from the table.
• remembers the settings from the last session.

Adaptive ranking algorithm

• ranks your query results according to your usage patterns, taking into account both recency and frequency
• built-in knowledge of the "worth" of different items

Full keyboard navigation:

• press F1 to display the launch dialog
• use interactive typing to find the right item
• use the up and down arrows to move through the application name table
• use the Command key together with the up and down arrow keys to cycle through the matching modes (name begins with, contains the word, contains the charaters, matches the wildcard)
• use Command-U to initiate a manual hard disk scan

Disk indexing engine:

• choose which folders you want to be scanned
• determine which document types to index
• exclude specific folders and items from the index
• set up automatic scans at regular intervals
• launch a manual scan whenever you want

Wildcard name matching:

• ideal for power-users
• a * character matches any name fragment
• a ? character matches any single character
• e.g. "a*ph" matches "Adobe Photoshop", etc.

Customization:

• use the "A Better Finder" preference pane in the "System Preferences..." to configure the hot key combination.
• use the "Configure" button for other settings
• customize the window transparency and text colors

General:

• attractive transparent user interface
• simple to learn and use
• entirely developed in Cocoa and Objective-C
• easy drag & drop installation