It’s been a while since I’ve posted about different tools I use. One new tool I started using is QuickSilver. It’s free.
Spotlight is a great search tool. I used to use it to launch applications too, but got annoyed that the process wasn’t something like: Command+Space, “terminal”, Enter. Most times, I’d have to down arrow once or twice and if Spotlight was still searching, the order would change and my cursor wouldn’t be on whatever I wanted to launch.
Enter QuickSilver…
Upon installation, you get a cute 3-D box with different information and clicking Continue rotates the box to another panel of info. Some of the panels are about plugins or the catalog or … I don’t know, I click Continue, Continue, … until it’s gone. Then, immediately, I configure QS to start at login, only show up in the Menu Bar, automatically download updates for itself, use the Bezel theme and to pause for 1.3 seconds or so before resetting the search (more on this later).
QS has plugins for iTunes, Entourage, Mail, …, anything you can think of. I don’t use any of that and I’m sure I’m missing a ton of functionality. I had an itch and it scratches my itch. Here’s how I use it: Control+Space, “term”, Enter. Terminal is open. Control+Space, “keynote”, Enter. Keynote is open. If you pause before hitting Enter, you’re prompted with a list of options and QS will give precedence to commands, files, folders you choose more often. It definitely allows me to keep my Dock cleaner.
The 1.30 second pause I described earlier is in the Command section of the Preferences. Suppose you type t, e and pause for 1.4 seconds and then type r, m, QS has forgotten about the t, e and searches the catalog for things with r & m. Before changing the pause to 1.30 seconds, QS would constantly forget the first part of my search because I can get distracted. 1.30 seconds is enough time for me to type what I want and not have it reset my search.
If you use QuickSilver in other ways than just a program launcher, leave a comment. I’d be interesting in seeing what I’m missing.
From what I understand, Leopard will make my current use of QS obsolete. Spotlight is supposed to be improved for launching programs.
By yam
I don’t even bother with Searchlight anymore. I’ve shut off the service and removed the icon from my desktop because it’s intrusive indexing makes my laptop halt.
I’m a fan of QS because of its light tread and quick response time. Sure, I don’t get to index all the Mac programs that are tied to the OS, but since I’m a Firefox/Thunderbird/Terminal (actually iTerm) geek that avoids the Dock (crap) and Finder (hard to use), I don’t really miss it all that much.
I’ve never really gotten past launching programs with it, but it’s really good for that. I wish there were something equivalent for Windows.