Quicksilver: my attempt at telling you why it's the best thing ever
When I first got my new MacBook, the first thing I heard out of other Mac fans was "Install Quicksilver now, it's the best thing, I can't even begin to explain how incredibly awesome it is".
After I installed it basically all I could see it for was a glorified version of Spotlight that actually works better. (Spotlight seems to index a whole lot of unneeded application support files, .c (source) files and the like. I haven't actually investigated what they are and why they're on my computer but I suspect I want them there. Either way, they clog up my search results.)
I'm a great believer in never unnecessarily installing software to do the same job that the operating system does already. As a result, it took me a while to get into it, but after I got sick of Spotlight taking longer to turn up results (particularly Applications and prefPanes), I eventually switched the shortcut keys with Spotlight so that I could use it just as a "Spotlight replacement".
In essence, Quicksilver can be used to just do that, but I think a better introduction to it tells you all about the "three-pane interface" that is central to more advanced use of the software. Wikipedia has a pretty in-depth explanation of it, but the way I like to see it is like forming an instruction to a computer in English, where the three panes correspond to the direct object, verb and indirect object of a (quasi-)English imperative..
When you first open (or "invoke", as fans put it) Quicksilver, any text you input will be 'passed' to the first, or "object" pane. I say 'passed' because Quicksilver, in its normal mode of input, doesn't use a traditional sequential text input paradigm (PARADIGM!). Basically, Quicksilver searches for files in the catalog (similar to Spotlight's index) and brings up results. It doesn't search as comprehensive a catalog as Spotlight, but this shouldn't matter because there is a lot more that you can do with the results from the catalog.
Once you've typed in text (I'll try to keep this concise now), Quicksilver guesses what you're looking for. It remembers what you've chosen in the past so frequently-selected options will come up earlier. At this point, you can simply press Enter to "open" the selected item, using Quicksilver as a pretty Spotlight.
However, the true strength of Quicksilver is in the fact that you haven't just selected the item you want to open; you've filled out the object field. When you fill out a field (any field), if you don't like the option that comes up, simply press Right and a bunch of alternatives come up. In the object field, if you've searched for a folder, you can then browse through other folders by using the Right, Left, Up and Down arrow keys.
Once you've picked your object, press Tab to switch to what I like to call the 'verb' field. You can then search this (separate) catalog the same way you search the main catalog - by typing characters, then pressing Right and scrolling down the list if you don't get the desired result. Pressing Enter completes your action.
However, some verbs are ditransitive, rather than transitive, to continue the analogy. That means that you can use a third pane to specify what needs to be done in more specific detail: I like to think of this as the 'indirect object' field. One action that takes another parameter is the "move to" action: you select the object you want to move in the first pane, and then the location to move it to in the last pane.
Here's an example of a Quicksilver workflow using the default layout:
Another cool trick which I'm still mucking around with at the moment is the 'dot' trick that sweetjesus26 showed me. Basically, instead of typing something to search for, type the '.' character. You can then type in any text and perform a bunch of actions on this text.
I've written an AppleScript to upload files to ImageShack using Automator.app. I'm trying to work out a way to select a file using Quicksilver's interface, and then "upload it to ImageShack" using this AppleScript. If anyone has any idea how, let me know!
After I installed it basically all I could see it for was a glorified version of Spotlight that actually works better. (Spotlight seems to index a whole lot of unneeded application support files, .c (source) files and the like. I haven't actually investigated what they are and why they're on my computer but I suspect I want them there. Either way, they clog up my search results.)
I'm a great believer in never unnecessarily installing software to do the same job that the operating system does already. As a result, it took me a while to get into it, but after I got sick of Spotlight taking longer to turn up results (particularly Applications and prefPanes), I eventually switched the shortcut keys with Spotlight so that I could use it just as a "Spotlight replacement".
In essence, Quicksilver can be used to just do that, but I think a better introduction to it tells you all about the "three-pane interface" that is central to more advanced use of the software. Wikipedia has a pretty in-depth explanation of it, but the way I like to see it is like forming an instruction to a computer in English, where the three panes correspond to the direct object, verb and indirect object of a (quasi-)English imperative..
When you first open (or "invoke", as fans put it) Quicksilver, any text you input will be 'passed' to the first, or "object" pane. I say 'passed' because Quicksilver, in its normal mode of input, doesn't use a traditional sequential text input paradigm (PARADIGM!). Basically, Quicksilver searches for files in the catalog (similar to Spotlight's index) and brings up results. It doesn't search as comprehensive a catalog as Spotlight, but this shouldn't matter because there is a lot more that you can do with the results from the catalog.
Once you've typed in text (I'll try to keep this concise now), Quicksilver guesses what you're looking for. It remembers what you've chosen in the past so frequently-selected options will come up earlier. At this point, you can simply press Enter to "open" the selected item, using Quicksilver as a pretty Spotlight.
However, the true strength of Quicksilver is in the fact that you haven't just selected the item you want to open; you've filled out the object field. When you fill out a field (any field), if you don't like the option that comes up, simply press Right and a bunch of alternatives come up. In the object field, if you've searched for a folder, you can then browse through other folders by using the Right, Left, Up and Down arrow keys.
Once you've picked your object, press Tab to switch to what I like to call the 'verb' field. You can then search this (separate) catalog the same way you search the main catalog - by typing characters, then pressing Right and scrolling down the list if you don't get the desired result. Pressing Enter completes your action.
However, some verbs are ditransitive, rather than transitive, to continue the analogy. That means that you can use a third pane to specify what needs to be done in more specific detail: I like to think of this as the 'indirect object' field. One action that takes another parameter is the "move to" action: you select the object you want to move in the first pane, and then the location to move it to in the last pane.
Here's an example of a Quicksilver workflow using the default layout:
Another cool trick which I'm still mucking around with at the moment is the 'dot' trick that sweetjesus26 showed me. Basically, instead of typing something to search for, type the '.' character. You can then type in any text and perform a bunch of actions on this text.
I've written an AppleScript to upload files to ImageShack using Automator.app. I'm trying to work out a way to select a file using Quicksilver's interface, and then "upload it to ImageShack" using this AppleScript. If anyone has any idea how, let me know!