You need Quicksilver (lifeHacker)

Hack Attack: A beginner's guide to Quicksilver

by Adam Pash

Quicksilver
is bar-none the best productivity application on the market today.
Whether we're talking Mac, Windows, or Linux, freeware or shareware,
this Mac-only, freeware application launcher-and-then-some is the best
productivity booster I have on my computer.

Quicksilver can be
used to launch files and applications, manipulate data, and seamlessly
plug into almost any application on your Mac so that you can perform
actions as soon as you think of them in a few short keystrokes. The
only problem with Quicksilver is that a lot of people also find it to
be one of the most obtuse desktop applications around. In this first
part of our Quicksilver series, I'm going to introduce you to the
basics of Quicksilver to lay the groundwork for more advanced
Quicksilver kung fu to come.

The beginnings

First things first: If you haven't already got it installed, head over to the Quicksilver web site
and grab the latest version. The first time you run Quicksilver, you'll
have to go through an installation process that gives you an overview
of Quicksilver, suggests a few plug-ins, and lets you define the
Quicksilver keyboard shortcut and catalog scan frequency. If you don't
know what any of this means, don't worry - we'll get there shortly.

Quicksilver
recommends popular plug-ins along with plug-ins matching up with items
Quicksilver has scanned in your Applications folder, so it only
recommends plug-ins you might potentially use. At this point, you can
install whatever plug-ins you want; you can always grab more later.

On
the keyboard shortcut front, Quicksilver defaults to Ctrl-Space. I
prefer Cmd-Space, but it's taken by Spotlight by default. I'd recommend
changing Spotlight's shortcut in the Spotlight preferences and
assigning Cmd-Space to Quicksilver (this is personal preference, but
once you get good with Quicksilver, the more convenient Cmd-Space
shortcut will be worth it).

When
you finish the setup wizard, you'll see the Quicksilver primer
interface in the screenshot above (you can change interfaces in the
Appearance section of the Quicksilver preferences - I prefer Bezel,
which you'll see in the rest of the screenshots).

You can invoke
Quicksilver at any time, no matter what application you're using, by
pressing the hotkey combination you've set up (again, Ctrl-Space by
default). To get rid of the Quicksilver interface, either press the
invoke combination again or press escape.

So there you have it. Quicksilver is installed, and you understand how to invoke it. Now what?

Launching applications, files, and folders

Launching
apps with Quicksilver works the same as any other keyboard app
launcher. Invoke Quicksilver and then begin typing the name of the
program you want to launch. It's cataloged your Applications folder so
that it knows what's in there, so it quickly finds a match for what
you're typing. In fact, Quicksilver is so smart that you don't even
have to type all of the letters. You just as easily get a match for
Firefox by typing 'ffox'. The point is, Quicksilver is smart; it even
learns what you launch most often and begins ranking popular items
higher in your results.

The
worst default Quicksilver setting for beginners is the "Reset search
after..." feature enabled by default in the Command section of the
preferences, which clears the text you've typed after a short delay and
is really annoying when you're getting started with Quicksilver and you
want to take your time so you can take everything in. If you're new to
Quicksilver, I'd recommend turning this off before you go any further.

When
you match the app you want to launch, you'll see that the default
action for applications (in the second pane) is Open. That means to
launch an app, invoke Quicksilver, search until you find the app, then
hit Enter. Simple, right? You can launch files and folders in the same
way, provided you know how to find them or they're already in your
Quicksilver catalog (more on this next week). So what makes Quicksilver
any different from other app launchers?

Advancing

The
point at which you begin to use Quicksilver for more than just
application launching is very similar to the step between traditional
application launching (mousing around, finding the app, double-clicking
it) and using a keyboard app launcher. You'll begin to wonder why and
how you ever worked any other way.

More advanced Quicksilver use can be confusing for beginners. However, once you get the idea, it turns out to be a very intuitive way to work with your computer.

Quicksilver
consists of a three-paned interface (the third of which only shows up
when it can be used). You move from one pane to the next by using the
Tab key. A lot of people (myself included) find it helpful to think of
using Quicksilver's three panes like they're constructing a sentence.

The
first pane, the pane you type into to search for an application or
other object (whether it's a file, folder, bookmark, etc.), is going to
be the direct object of the action contained in the second pane. For
example, when we launch Firefox, we've constructed a short sentence
saying, "Open Firefox." Open is our action, and Firefox is our direct
object (the thing that's being opened). This object-action relationship
is what makes Quicksilver so powerful, especially when coupled with the
third pane.

For
actions ending in ellipses, you get to use the delightful third pane.
The third pane describes with, to what, or how you want to apply the
action. So in the screenshot above, the sentence I've constructed has
told Quicksilver to Open todo.txt with TextMate" (I could choose nearly
any appropriate app in the third pane).

All
you need to do to get good with Quicksilver is to start getting
familiar with the range of commands you can perform with Quicksilver.
By default, Quicksilver has lots of useful commands. To get an idea of
the commands you can perform on an object, try invoking Quicksilver,
searching for an object (like an application, a file, or a folder),
then hit Tab to jump over to the action pane. At this point, hit the
down arrow. You'll see a drop-down list of all of the actions you can
perform on this object. Feel free to try out a few that look like they
might be handy.

You can also browse your entire list of commands
by going to the Actions section of the preferences, where all of your
actions are listed in the ranked order they're going to show up when
they match your text. Spend a little time looking around at the
available actions and you'll quickly see just how much useful stuff
there is under the hood.

Plug-ins

You
can add more commands and functionality to Quicksilver by installing
more plug-ins (sort of like Firefox extensions). Some plug-ins tie into
applications on your Mac, while others add powerful functionality to
Quicksilver without the need of any external program.

All of
Quicksilver's plug-ins are installed through the Quicksilver interface,
so just invoke Quicksilver and type the plug-ins shortcut (Cmd-", aka
Cmd-Shift-'), or just use the standard Cmd-, for preferences and then
find the plug-ins tab.

My favorite plug-ins include:

• Apple Address Book: Indexes your Address Book contacts and lets you access all of the information therein.
• Apple
  Mail: Lets you browse your mail and perform different mail actions,
  like composing, attaching, or sending emails directly from Quicksilver.
• Dictionary:
  By entering text mode (invoke Quicksilver and hit period [.]), you can
  type in a word, then perform the "Define with dict.org" action.
  Quicksilver will automatically look up the word and pull the definition
  to a small window.

• File Compression: Compress files and folders into a number of different archive formats from Quicksilver.
• Firefox/Mozilla: Indexes all of your Firefox bookmarks and bookmarklets so you can invoke them no matter where you are.
• Image Manipulation Actions: Scale and change the file format of almost any image file on the fly from Quicksilver.
• iTunes: This one's a doozy - lets you fully interact with your iTunes library without ever opening it up.

• Text Manipulation Actions: We've covered this one before, but it never gets old. Append (or prepend) text directly to a text file from the comfort of Quicksilver.

More to come

This
has been a quick overview of Quicksilver, but stay tuned for a lot more
showing and a lot less telling next week, when I'll dive into some of
my favorite uses for Quicksilver in a bit more detail.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who feels crippled without his Quicksilver. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Powered by ScribeFire.