Quicksilver

Daysha

Am I the only one who just doesn't seem to "get" it?

I downloaded it last night after I had friends telling me it'll change the way you use your OS forever, you can't live without it etc, but so far I just don't seem that big of a deal.

Maybe there's a steep learning curve involved or something, but I just don't see the point of pressing the hotkey to open it, and then typing in something like iTunes to open, when I can just click it right there on the dock!

Maybe there's a whole load to the program I haven't experienced yet, but does anyone else feel the same way?

Kid Nothing

ye right with you on that one, used it for a few days and didn't understand the hype.

Sad Professor

It is a great app but quite complex. It hides a great deal of power and usability under a deceptively simple exterior. I've been using it for years but there's still loads of things it can do that I don't know about. I guess it appeals mostly to people who prefer using the keyboard. I would still thoroughly recommend it, it's definitely one of the best third-party apps available for the Mac. There is a learning curve though. Maybe check out some tutorials. I think there are some on youtube.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I had put off using Quicksilver for ages but installed it when I saw this thread. It's so handy. There really is no comparison between keyboard and mouse.

jester77

Have a look at the triggers, that's what I use the most. You assign programs to shortcuts, very quick to open programs once setup.

thecommander

Same as you guys, I downloaded about a year ago, but found Spotlight can open my programs etc in much the same way. Cant see what the fuss is about.

fugazied

QS does have a bit of a learning curve if you want to use the really advanced features.

I just use it in a very simple manner. I assigned it to open on Option + Space. I just press that and type letters to open apps. I can open any app on my machine in 1-2 seconds, that's the beauty of it.

However, spotlight in Leopard is superior for finding documents in my opinion.
In previous OSes spotlight wasn't the beast that it is now, so QS used to be THE solution for finding documents as well as opening apps. Now I just use it for apps.

thecommander

But why use QS when Spotlight launches apps too?

fugazied

thecommander wrote: »

But why use QS when Spotlight launches apps too?

I find QS faster for some reason. Actually I use QS for certain documents too, sometimes it feels faster for that as well. It's probably not really, could be habit.

Remember QS has some nice abilities too though. For example open it, search for a doc. Now hit TAB, and you will have a list of things you can do. Many people don't know this.

So if you wanted to copy a document somewhere. Instead of searching with spotlight, opening the doc then saving it somewhere. Or opening finder and searching for the doc, you can find it in QS in 1 second, hit tab, select copy to, then select the new destination. That's when you start seeing the power of it. There's a lot more it can do but I barely tap into it.

randombar

I think what people should put down is the shortcut keys they use, so far mine are:

CMD + Option + Right Button = iTunes Skip Track
CMD + Option + Left Button = iTunes Back Track
CMD + Option + Up Button = iTunes Stop/Play Track
CMD + Option + > = iTunes Volume up
CMD + Option + < = iTunes Volume down
CMD + Option + ± = Google search

Any other goodies??

Kid Nothing

GaryCocs wrote: »

I think what people should put down is the shortcut keys they use, so far mine are:

CMD + Option + Right Button = iTunes Skip Track
CMD + Option + Left Button = iTunes Back Track
CMD + Option + Up Button = iTunes Stop/Play Track
CMD + Option + > = iTunes Volume up
CMD + Option + < = iTunes Volume down
CMD + Option + ± = Google search

Any other goodies??

Do most macs not have the iTunes controls on the F7-F12 keys?

My MBP does....

Breezer

amull87 wrote: »

Do most macs not have the iTunes controls on the F7-F12 keys?

My MBP does....

The early MacBooks and MacBook Pros don't, nor anything that came before that. Anything made before 2007 I think. Desktops of that vintage might though.

Kid Nothing

ah right well i can see how it would be useful for iTunes so

thecommander

You can set keyboard shortcuts in Sys Prefs.

silvine

Check out Google Quick Search box. It's from the guy who developed Quicksilver.

Kid Nothing

silvine wrote: »

Check out Google Quick Search box. It's from the guy who developed Quicksilver.

Just downloaded this now and it's excellent, cheers man.

randombar

Any other short cuts ye use lads?

silvine

It's not a shortcut persay but it you configure it to scan your bookmarks you can launch a webpage by typing in the first two letters.