Run Multiple Instances Of The Same App On Mac OS X

In this episode, Run Multiple Instances of the Same Application On Mac OS X. Their maybe many reasons why you would want to run multiple instances of the same Application.

TRANSCRIPT:

For example, you may want to run two or more instances of the following Applications, Calculator to compare various results side-by-side, view Maps in standard, hybrid and satellite orientations at the same time, analyze chess moves, to using the Thesaurus and Wikipedia in Dictionary for word look up in different windows, just to name a few.
In my case, I wanted to run two instances of the QuickTime Player to record multiple desktop screens, where I then imported the recordings in my video editor to adjust the brightness, Contrast and Saturation to suite.

Running multiple instances of the same application, involves typing a simple one line command repeatedly in Terminal.

Time for a demo.

Soooo, Let’s Get Started.

Launch Terminal and type the following one line Command in the following format:

open -n -a “Application Name” followed by carriage return.

The command says to open a new instance (-n flag) of an Application (-a flag) followed by the Application name in quotes.

I’ll just launch two instances of the Calculator App as shown.

open -n -a “Calculator”

Hint: To repeat the last Command, press the up-arrow key on your keyboard just once, followed by a carriage return.

And that’s all there is to it.

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Alternative Terminal Command Format For Running Multiple Instances Of The Same Application On Mac OS X (watch video for a much shorter version then the one below):

open -n /Applications/NameOfApp.app

The command says to open a new instance (-n flag) of an Application at the path /Applications/NameOfApplication.app (add quotes if Application given name is Two or more words long)

Some Examples:

open -n /Applications/Maps.app

or

open -n /Applications/“QuickTime Player”.app

or

open -n /Applications/Utilities/“Activity Monitor”.app


open -n /Applications/Dictionary.app

or

open -n /Applications/Calculator.app