Besides static URL's you can also use placeholders for URL's. These placeholders are useful to query variables when you list a URL. This may ound complicated at first sight, but it is actually quite simple. In the following, the supported placeholders are explained in more detail.

Important: Placeholders are case sensitive!

UserInput

Syntax: %%userInput:Question%%

If Start finds such a placeholder in an URL, an inputdialog is displayed in which you can enter the desired value. The entered value will then be used instead of the placeholder in the URL.

Example: If you want to open Safari and begin a Google search on a specific topic, you can use the following URL for example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=%%userInput:Search Google%%

If you launch this URL in Start an inputdialog appears with the Question “Search Google”. After you enter some text the complete placeholder %%userInput:Search Google%% will be replaced with the text you entered.

selectedFileObjects

Syntax: %%selectedFileObjects%%

This placeholder is rather useful for special purposes. As described in the manual, you can pass files and directories currently selected by the system to Start and from there you can select a program which will process these files and directories further. You can also use this placeholder to pass on the selected files and directories via a URL. This makes sense for example if you start a Keyboard Maestro Macro via URL which should then process the files and directories further.