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.
Originally from Lifehacker on March 27, 2007, 12:00pm
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