24 Responses for "Quicksilver tips"

1. Will September 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm 1

   If you press . (period) while you have the quicksilver window open, it goes to text mode, and you can type in text without it searching. There are many actions you can use with the text, such as look it up in the dictionary, run it as an applescript or command in terminal, or even create a new file with that name. My favorite is for making a to do list. find the ‘text manipulation actions’ plugin in quicksilver’s plugin pane, and install it. this will add the ‘append to’ action.

   1.open quicksilver
   2.press . (period)
   3.type an item for your to do list (e.g. visit veronicabelmont.com)
   4.tab to the action box and choose ‘append to…”
   5.tab to the 3rd box which appears and choose a text file

   Your text is added to your to to do list!

2. adam September 12th, 2007 at 1:01 pm 2

   I use it as a folder opener too, by using the triggers. i have ctrl-B to open Jobs, ctrl-F to open resource files, ctrl-R to open my root/home folder, etc etc…

3. Chris Miller September 12th, 2007 at 1:05 pm 3

   it’s fairly trivial, but I use it for rating my iTunes songs while I listen. I have Command-Alt-(0-5) set up to rate songs without ever leaving what I am currently coding.

4. Nate September 12th, 2007 at 1:13 pm 4

   I really don’t find Will’s tip all too useful as a todo list has to be open to be viewed and used anyway. Almost seems like extra steps to do something inherently simple.

   I love the triggers mentioned by Adam, however. I use triggers to launch entire environments when I work. For example, “control + option + w” launches mamp, safari, firefox, cocoamysql, iterm, and textmate.

   Another nice little time saver is that the “,” (comma) key concatenates actions so you can open multiple apps, files, etc. with only 1 command.

   Also, if you have a lot of FTP account you use on a daily basis, the Transmit plugin allows you to quickly connect to your favorites with just a few keystrokes.

5. Will September 12th, 2007 at 1:27 pm 5

   I also use quicksilver to control iTunes. I set F1, F2, and F3 as triggers to go to the previous song, play/pause music, and go to the next song, respectively. However it looks like the new Apple keyboards have built in buttons for this– rewind, play/pause, and fast forward on the F7, F8, and F9 keys

6. David O'Hara September 12th, 2007 at 1:35 pm 6

   Probably the biggest uses for me are:
   1. Website launcher (Type the url while in text mode and “Open URL” should be auto-selected)
   2. Navigating iTunes (type “IT” to get iTunes, TAB, then “N”, “PA”, or “PR”)
   3. Quick add for iGTD (Text mode for task and “GTD” for iGTD action)

7. Nate September 12th, 2007 at 1:42 pm 7

   If anybody is just looking for universal hotkeys for iTunes, Gimme Some Tune does that and much more. I used to use Sizzling keys, but GST grabs album art and lyrics as well. I have play/pause set to command + option + x so I can just mash down in that area and play/pause the track.

8. Richard Mondello September 12th, 2007 at 2:28 pm 8

   Quicksilver is my life on OS X. In my opinion, OS X with Quicksilver and OS X without Quicksilver are two very different operating systems. You need to get it.

   My biggest use it pressing cmd + space to play/pause in iTunes. Also, cmd + right for the next song, and cmd + left to go to the previous song. It’s great if you’re listening to a lot.

9. FMGreen Steve September 12th, 2007 at 2:29 pm 9

   You’ve successfully converted me to Quicksilver. It’s a welcome upgrade from xKeys as a Launcher, which I’ve been using forever, but which hasn’t been updated in years.

10. Paul Graham September 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pm 10

    Yes, Chris Miller, I use EXACTLY that same technique all the time (and even have it set to the same keys). It saves a buttload of opening and closing the iTunes window, and it doesn’t even have to be active.

    One of the things I like to do to files if I am using a new QS plugin is enable the radial menu and radial action menu. It’s a great way to discover a ton of functionality that you never knew existed. For instance, I use QS to quickly navigate large sites like eBay, you can immediately jump to your favorite categories, etc.

11. JoshSHill September 12th, 2007 at 3:09 pm 11

    Is it just me, or is the site down?

12. Mark Sheppard September 12th, 2007 at 3:26 pm 12

    I like the time and timing functions. I often use this for reminders:
    1. Open QuickSilver and hit the period.
    2. Type in a line of text (such as a note or reminder)
    3. Hit Tab
    4. Press Control Key and Enter. Then press your right arrow key.
    5. Choose “Run after Delay” or “Run at Time”.
    6. Enter your delay time or Time of day you want the text to be displayed.

    This is also handy for running apps at a preprescribed time, instead of displaying text.

13. FMGreen Steve September 12th, 2007 at 3:28 pm 13

    @JoshSHill, It’s not just you. Perhaps VB generated enough traffic to take them down; Pwned!

    (side note… people actually rate their iTunes tracks? I never knew anyone bothered!)

14. MissM September 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm 14

    Looks like the plug in site has been V’d
    Congrats Veronica, you are da woman! lol
    Jane

15. Veronica September 12th, 2007 at 3:30 pm 15

    No way! I couldn’t have taken their site down…

16. Art September 12th, 2007 at 3:36 pm 16

    The site still appears to be down but I will try again later. I use Overflow as a Launcher but from what I can tell, Quicksilver has a lot more functionality…

    Thanks for the suggestion, Veronica!

17. Max m September 12th, 2007 at 6:36 pm 17

    I update my google caladar
    (hit period, then type event you want to create “lunch at three” then tab then goog)

18. Datalyst September 13th, 2007 at 7:02 am 18

    Hey Veronica,

    Who knew you were a serious ass-kicker and a serious air guitarist. When I saw you with that Bandana, I had a serious flashback to “Rambo”:http://tinyurl.com/3bfh97

    or was that Richard Simmons: http://tinyurl.com/2zdafg

    CNET video:
    Veronica Belmont: The unseen moments

19. Tim September 13th, 2007 at 8:47 am 19

    Honestly, I got rid of quicksilver. I’ve discovered most all the things that I used it for can be done with Spotlight or with OSX’s built in shortcuts without any fuss. Granted it’s not quite as suave, but it means that I can expect a measure of uniformity as I travel between macs. Check out MacBreakTech’s podcast “Living With The Finder”, they cover this topic, its pretty cool.

20. Mark Sheppard September 13th, 2007 at 9:26 am 20

    Super tip, Max m. You do have to be a “little” specific in your text box. Such as 3a or 3am and give a date if necessary, such as Sept 20. Another cool piggyback to this: Set your local iCal app to synchronize with your google calendar.

21. Alexis September 14th, 2007 at 8:48 am 21

    I love the drag and drop nature of Quicksilver. You can Invoke Quicksilver, find an app or document and then drag it out of Quicksilver screen to move it, or drag something on to it to to launch or move. This is really helful with things such as video files where usually I have it set to open in Quicktime, but if I wanted to use VLC (which is not in my dock), I find VLC with Quicksilver and then drag the movie onto the VLC icon in the quicksilver dialog.

22. FMGreen Steve September 14th, 2007 at 4:43 pm 22

    @Alexis …why not just right-click and Open With > ?

23. Benton September 21st, 2007 at 7:34 am 23

    Probably my favorite use for QS besides opening files and apps is creating new files and moving those files around. There’s a really nifty action that will let you make a template of a file and put it in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Templates/ and then when you pull up a folder in QS, you can tab over to the action pane and choose “Make New”, and you’ll see your template in the third pane. I do a lot of hand-coding HTML, so I have a few HTML document templates in there, and if all I need to do is add content to a template, I just invoke QS and I have a new file named “untitled.html” in whatever folder I want with all the HTML formatting already in it, so all I have to do is type in the content and I’m done. It’s really nice.

    The second best function is just being able to move a file to anywhere else without having to have 2+ Finder windows open. Just choose a file in QS, tab over to the action pane, choose “Move To”, tab over again and type a file name. Press “Enter”. Done. It takes less than 2 seconds. A great timesaver.

24. lgoose September 25th, 2007 at 12:02 am 24

    I find the Clipboard feature really useful, you do not need to pay iClip or something like that, and it’s always a trigger away
    I also use it to launch applescripts, mainly one that does what the zoom “green button” does (enlarge the window) this way I can easily maximize the window with a combination of keys (just as cmd-h hides the window, or cmd-m minimizes it I have opt-cmd-z to zoom it)
    Another great feature is the “launch at a time” and “launch after delay” features, this way you can set quicksilver to do anything it normally does but at a given time or after a delay (duh!) just do the action press ctrl-return (ctrl-return is a shortcut to carry the last combination (subject+action) to another action then you can set the “run at a time” or whatever else
    Another very good trick is the comma trick, but this one Merlin has already said enough about.
    I hope you enjoy, I’m a great fan of yours waiting the launch of your new podcast, it’s difficult to hear Buzz out loud without you…