[Update]: Getting closer to the sun
I recently attended a meeting of my local Mac User Group (MUG), where I introduced a few people to one of my favourite OS X applications, Quicksilver. This has led, somehow, to me agreeing to give a demo of the application at the 26th April meeting.
If you use Quicksilver, you know how hard it is to adequately describe exactly what it does. To say it is an application and file launcher is to massively undersell it’s capabilities. And herein lies my dilemma; I only have about 30 minutes to introduce a feature set that has taken me months to explore (and which I still don’t have a complete grasp of). What should I demonstrate? What should I leave out?
Obviously, some things are a given, including the meaning of certain preferences, finding and manipulating files, installing and using plugins, accessing bookmarks, Address Book contacts, etc, but even within that small list, the number of actions that can be performed is enormous. I’ve started compiling the following list of things to consider (this is not definitive by any means). If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
- Setting the command keystroke
- Search results
- Search mode
- Sort by score
- Sort by name
- Key commands
- Tab to next field
- Right arrow and forward slash
- Navigating results window
- Comma operator (thanks to Romain)
- Applications
- Finding and opening
- Setting as default
- Getting info
- Reveal
- Add to login items
- Files
- Finding and opening
- Browsing directories
- Moving or copying
- Grabbing from the Finder selection
- Bookmarks
- Installing browser bookmark plugins
- Finding and launching bookmarks
- Accessing links within a web page
- Address Book Actions
- Installing the Address Book plugin
- Finding contacts
- Viewing contact details
- Large print phone number
- Sending an e-mail
- Sending a file in an e-mail
- Browsing contacts
- iTunes Actions
- Installing iTunes plugin
- Browsing tracks
- Browse Artists
- Browse Albums
- Play next in Party Shuffle
- Show playing track
- Track notifications
- Catalogue
- Navigating and understanding
- Adding specific items
- Changing Source Options
- Shelf
- Adding single and multiple items to the Shelf
- Retrieving items from the Shelf
- Docking to screen edge
- Enabling advanced features
Again, if you have any suggestions for important or obvious features that I’ve overlooked, please leave them in the comments for this post.
BTW, in case you wondered about the title of this article (Getting closer to the sun); Quicksilver is (among other things) a Middle English word for the element Mercury (Hg). Within our Solar System, Mercury is the closet planet to the Sun. QED.
March 17th, 2005 at 9:44 am
Triggers. Specifically iTunes triggers. I got my sister to use Quicksilver based on this one feature alone. She barely uses the rest of it (launcher, etc). For the GTD types, show them Append to file and 43folders.com.
March 18th, 2005 at 5:27 am
-compressing files
-emailing them (opposite of email items)
-the comma operator
-executing applescripts
-filters in the catalog (eg only pdf files in this directory)
-web searches (for example with a trigger for the google web search)
March 18th, 2005 at 7:00 am
History?
March 18th, 2005 at 8:00 am
I think the Clipboard recording feature is so useful - I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve needed to fish something out that I cut or copied a day or so ago.
March 18th, 2005 at 8:13 am
Romain - Thanks for the list, especially compressing files and web searches. Filters in the catalgue I already included as changing source options.
Pete - do you mean clipboard history?
March 18th, 2005 at 9:02 am
No - history of previous Quicksilver actions : Command - [ . I find it useful.
March 18th, 2005 at 10:22 am
Ah ha, I didn’t even know about that feature, and I’ve been using QS for several months! This is exactly why I wanted a bit of input for other users. Thank you for highlighting it. Much appreciated.
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:32 am
One of my favourite features:
Say you are saving/opening a document in just about any Mac program. You get the save/open sheet. Now instead of navigating the file system to the folder/file required, invoke Quicksilver, type in the few letters to find the file/folder then drag this from the quicksilver window onto the sheet. Voila! Your file/folder is automatically located and selected in the open/save sheet. A real time saver when you have complex file directories.
March 29th, 2005 at 1:54 am
Thanks Neil, that’s another feature I didn’t know about. I use Default Folder to ease most of my open/save dialogue woes, but that is a great trick.
March 31st, 2005 at 2:52 pm
Wow! So many useful features that I didn’t even know about! The clipboard plugin actually does somethng, as does the shelf! Wow!
January 5th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
[...] closer to the sun by jeeves on 1/5/2006 8:34 PM
plan for briefing on quicksilver