I am a big fan of using keyboard shortcuts in executing commands. Most of the time, I found it more productive once I get used to it, especially if I am using a laptop with only touch panels as a mouse (i.e. my Mac Air)
Quicksilver for Mac allows users to use the keyboard to rapidly perform tasks such as launching applications, manipulating files, or sending e-mail. Imaging you can send a file to your contacts with only a few key strokes, instead of opening Mail, create new message, find your contact, search for the file and attach… You may feel somewhat confused in the beginning, so here are a few tips for beginners to explore the basic actions the software is capable of before moving on to the complex commands.
Once the program is launched, press Control-Space (configurable) invokes the Quicksilver command window, which contains 3 panes (as shown in the image above).
Basically, 1st one is the subject you will be performing an action with; 2nd pane indicates the action; 3rd one can be another subject, a destination or an application relating to the action. (For example:
Start typing to input content for each pane, and move between panes using the Tab key. The key strokes are erased after a short period of time, so if you make a typo, stay in the pane, wait 1 sec and type again. To completely erase the contents and start a new command, move to the 1st pane and press Command-X.
If it doesn’t bring up exactly what you needed, you can choose from the result list below the pane by pressing arrow key ↓, and you can also use → and ← to move to upper/lower level folders (applies only to 1st and 3rd pane). Quicksilver learns from your usage to predict more accurately.
A list of common actions (2nd pane):
Files in 1st pane
- Open – Open file
- Open With… – Open file with application selected in 3rd pane
- Reveal – Open file’s enclosing folder
- Rename… – Rename file
- Copy To… – Copy file to destination selected in 3rd pane
- Move To… – Move file to destination selected in 3rd pane
- Move to Trash – Delete file
- Get Info – Show get info pane of file
Applications in 1st pane
- Relaunch – Quit and open application again
- Activate – Bring application to front window
- Quit – Quit application
- Hide – Hide application
- Quit Others – Quit other applications
- Hide Others – Hide other applications
- Open at Login – Add application to start up item
- Do Not Open at Login – Remove application from start up item
Folders in 1st pane
- New Folder… – Create new folder inside selected folder
Text in 1st pane
- Large Type – Display text on screen in large fonts
- Speak Text (Say) – Speak text
- Create File… – Create file from the text
Note: Type “.” [dot] to enter text mode.
To perform batch actions, press “,” [comma] in 1st pane after selecting each file/application/folder to select multiple of them. You can enable/disable actions in the preferences window by pressing Command-Comma.
Triggers
You can assign shortcuts to perform a command in the Triggers pane once you open preferences window. For example, I can use Command-/ to compose email to my contact A. This can further increases your productivity for frequently used commands.
Plugins
Quicksilver also allows plugins, which can be found here. You can install needed plugins to perform additional actions. For example, the dictionary module allows you to use the action Define with dict.org with text, once executed, returns the definition of the text from dict.org. All available actions associated with each plugin can be viewed in the preferences window under Actions (at the left pane).
These should be able to get you started, it does require a bit of learning curve but it’s definitely worth it. If you want an extensive manual (it’s very very long…), there is one here written by Howard Melman.
Give it a try and make your life simpler today.
