Quicksilver

hey Guys,

Just installed quicksilver on my mac....

I'm rather new to the software. So far I kinda like it and find it rather useful.... It was hardat first for me to get it down becuase I use Panther still..

Anyways I'm hoping that someone who has experience using it can let me know what are its advantages and limitations.....

hmmm i havent really looked into it but i dont see how it makes oax any better.

anyone care to explain what i get that i dont have allready?

I use quicksilver and couldn't imagine what I'd do without it.

Quicksilver at it's very simplest form is a great launcher, to open any app, folder or file, simple invoke QS and type the first few letters of the app.. then press enter.

Want to "move" an app/file/folder??? same thing, except this time instead of pressing Enter after choosing the app/file/folder you press tab to get the the "Action" pane of QS.... then start typing "move".... Tab again, and start typing the location you'd like to move it to.

How about sending an email with or without an attachment, without even opening Mail??? Easy with QS.

Or a GIANT Pop-up reminder to Pick-up the kids, that displays it self in 9 hours 30 minutess and 18 seconds, or pop-up at exactly 4:37pm.. Easy with QS.

Open and play your favorite song to wake you up in the morning... QS!!!!!

Keyboard shortcut the ssh into your office computer, or a remote server via terminal.... QS again!

Upload pictures to Flickr with a simple keyboard command.. you guessed it... QS!!!!

Do you type the same thing over and over?? Create a "Shelf" in QS and never have to "copy" the text again..... The number of items on your personal shelf is limitless!!! Yay QS!!!

I could go on for hours.... QS can do pretty much anything.... Quickly!

The only thing I don't understand is why it's Free!!! , or why Apple hasn't bought it, and implemented it within the OS, as it is the very first thing I download on a new Mac.

oo i like the idea of having a song play to wake me up. my phone just isnt loud enough.

not sure anything else i would use tho
i dont open apps that arnt on my dock and i dont have many apps on my dock about 20 or so.
ill give it a shot tho

RIDE said:

QS can do pretty much anything.... Quickly!

Click to expand...

I disagree. I would say, "QS can do pretty much anything... if you know how to do it." I have had QS for about 6 months now, and just about anything past opening a file/app is over my head.

Don't get me wrong, QS is an amazing program, but the learning curve is extremely steep! It is not user friendly, and while the main pop-up window is intuitive, the preferences are not intuitive, and what all you can do is not intuitive. For instance, you said that you can create an alarm. If I wanted to do that, I would have absolutely NO idea where to start (which is why I use Awaken for alarms).

Does anyone know of a good website that makes these types of events EASY to understand?

Matthew

Well... I'm a new Mac user myself... so I can't say that I know everything that there is to know about the application....
But after installing it... I see what mathew says about the steep learning curve, but I do agree that Quicksilver can do anything quickly.... like mathew said... need to know how to do it...

If you take your time to learn it you'll see what Ride is talking about. There's a few tutorials around if you google.

I can't imagine not using QS. What used to take 3, 4 or 5 steps is now only 2 commands away.

I have a friend who is into IT alot... (he's the one who suggested Quicksilver to me).... and he has a similar piece of software on his Windows Machine (he's a windows freak)

When I saw him use that... he just typed play **** for song files and stuff
or load ******* file....

It looked like a simple search text box as he brought it up.... pretty neat I must say.... for Windows machine...

I love Quicksilver. I'm actually annoyed when I use Macs without it installed

I know what you mean. You hit the commands out of instinct and nothing happens.

its very cool program but be prepared to take an hour or two watching some videos (if you arnt very computer literate) on the 100s of ways to use QS if you want to really use it effectively

Quicksilver. I can't live without it. Though I've not gone too advanced into its uses, it still completes the way I work. Its a different trip from Spotlight, and both have their own uses. Sure it has a really steep learning curve, but its benefits are tremendous.

I guess the only way to learn it is to use it...

Spotlight??? .... Is there another program with Quicksilver's features???...

Forgive me... I'm new to this....

Spotlight is OS X's built in search tool. The little blue button in the top left corner on the menu bar. Just type in any part of the file name or file contents and it immediately throws a list of possible suspects.

cjay said:

I know what you mean. You hit the commands out of instinct and nothing happens.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Every once in a while I'll go on my brother's iMac and try to bring it up before realizing he doesn't have it. I would install it on his computer but he's more of a mouse guy, so keyboard commands aren't his thing (that's what you get with kids who have never touched the command line ;P)

I think I'll stick to Quicksilver.... Its seems to have alot more features...

Definitely, Spotlight just can't compare.

But spotlight does have its own advantages. Its better for searching files as such as it searches within documents, PSD file layers and such.

Kash said:

Exactly. Every once in a while I'll go on my brother's iMac and try to bring it up before realizing he doesn't have it. I would install it on his computer but he's more of a mouse guy, so keyboard commands aren't his thing (that's what you get with kids who have never touched the command line ;P)

Click to expand...

And even some of us lazy old timers. ;D

Really don't enjoy having to have my hands at the keyboard all the time.
When sitting at my desk at home - am not actually sitting - more like lounging back in a recliner with feet propped up on desk. Much prefer a mouse on the arm of the chair and a drink in the other hand than a keyboard on my lap (but I have been using wireless keyboards for at least 10 yrs just for this purpose).

And while I have QS installed, so far have just not been motivated to get into it that much.

I'm sorry, but how can three of you say Quicksilver is Extremely poor???