The main window can be displayed using various triggers. These are a global hotkey, a click on the menu bar icon or a click on the dock icon. In addition, you can define for each trigger at which position the main window should be displayed for this trigger.

For example, in the screenshot above, the main window appears at the bottom left of the screen when the Command key is pressed twice, the main window appears at the top right when the menu icon is clicked, and the main window appears at the bottom left of the screen when the dock icon is clicked.

Important: The dock icon of Start does not appear automatically. If you want to use this feature, you have to add Start to the dock manually.

Do you want to launch entries with a single or a double mouse click?

Since version 7.5, Start can also display the content of folders directly. Here, you can specify how Start should behave when you activate a folder with Return or Click.

Open in Finder or alternative browser
As before, Start opens the folder in Finder or - if provided - in an alternative browser

Show contents of folders in Start
On Return or Click, the folder is displayed in Start.

Important: This option only affects if the folder is selected directly in Start. If you have assigned a shortcut key to your folder or it is being started with other entries in a tag group, the folder will be displayed as before in Finder or an alternative browser.

Do you want to use another application to open a selected folder? If yes, just leave the path to the application here. If the path is invalid or nothing is defined, start simply uses the Finder.

With this option you can let Start launch automatically when you restart your Mac.

Includes Comments

This option allows you to specify whether the search in the main window should only search for the title (Application name, etc.) or alternatively also in existing comments.

Includes Tags

This option will also show you matching tags in the main window when searching. In addition, you can decide what should happen when you select a tag in the search in the main window.

Here you can define with which view the main window of Start is displayed.

Select Tags and Categories on hover

Normally the entries in the sidebar are selected by mouse click. If you activate this option you can switch through the entries by leaving the mouse pointer briefly over an entry.

These are settings for how an entry is displayed in Start.

Background color intensity

If you assign a color to an entry in Start, this color is displayed with a bar on the left. Additionally the line will be colored. With this setting you can determine how intensively the line color should be displayed.

Height

This value determines the size of the entries in the main window.

Show the corresponding path for the entries

Start also displays the path or URL of an entry in addition to its title. This can be controlled with this option.

Draw Border around Hotkey

Do you want a small border around the display of a hotkey?

Here you can define how wide the main window of Start is displayed.

Here you can define how high the main window of Start is displayed. The height is defined in percent of the screen.

Here you can set the desired size of the sidebar entries.

Start can manage not just applications, but other items such as URLs, folders, files, etc. By using tags, different items can be grouped together - the categories then show all existing items in a category. Simply put, the "URLs" category for example displays all URLs managed by Start, regardless of whether and to which tag they are assigned. There are also categories whose content dynamically changes. For instance, the "Recent Applications" category dynamically shows the most recently used applications.

In the "Categories" settings, you can now decide which categories you want to be displayed in the main window of Start. Additionally, you can assign a hotkey to each enabled category. This hotkey allows you to open Start and automatically switch to the desired category. So, if you want quick access to the "recent files" category, just assign a hotkey here, and the latest files will be just a keystroke away.

Show number of elements in the sidebar

If this option is active, the number of entries currently assigned to the tag is displayed next to the tags.

Translucent background in the right part of the main window

The right area of Start is normally represented by a solid color in dark or light. However, this option allows you to make this area slightly transparent, so that, for example, background colors shine through slightly.