More recently however, the app is slowly being forgotten amongst newly formed Mac users – this needs to change. On browsing the hundreds of ‘top Mac apps to install’, Quicksilver was frequently placed number one, and to this day, after testing virtually every new Mac app release, I couldn’t agree more.
QUICKSILVER FOR MAC FULL
When I first begun using a Mac full time, a little over two years ago, Quicksilver was all the rage. What is important to note however is that thanks to passionate developers and their plugins, you very quickly forget that, and it soon becomes clear that Quicksilver is the actually the ultimate Mac Swiss Army Knife. Quicksilver at its core is an application launcher, a quick way to get access to any application or file on your computer, and fast. What more could you ask for.A little background. Extremely well thought out and executed, easy to use, free. Hard to find something bad about this program, but if anything I would say it is dangerously addictive.Ī superb application that once you start using, you just can't live without. After an adaptation period, Quicksilver becomes an extension of yourself the process fades away leaving only the results." They call this "Wei Wu Wei" or in English "Act Without Doing", and the program does just that.īeautiful, fast, intuitive, incredibly useful. In the end, I think the developers said it best: "Quicksilver has one very important effect: the effort of frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking.
The program is extremely fast, just like its namesake and takes up very little resources. And when you do need it, it springs into action instantly. From the preferences you can choose to hide the dock icon and menus of the application so that it is totally invisible and out of the way until you need it. When Quicksilver is not in use it disappears until you summon it again. From uploading files to a FTP server right from the Quicksilver interface, to emailing them to a friend or searching within a text document for specific word, you can do just about anything. This is just a small sample, the little beast can be taught to do anything through plug-ins, which enable it to understand and interpret the content of items, and teach it new ways of interaction. You can drag items into the Quicksilver interface, dropping them on applications or folders to have them opened in the application or moved or copied to the folder. By pressing any of the arrow keys another column pops up, listing all the possible actions, and if for example you select "Open With" from the list, a third icon well will appear in the main window in which you can select the application to open it with.Īll of this takes place at lightning speed once you get used to it and since the predictive searching takes place at all times it's very easy and natural to navigate. By default, Quicksiver will automatically select what it deems is the most appropriate action for a certain file, like "Open" for programs or "Play" for songs. Now say you have a song selected from the previous browsing, by pressing tab you can switch focus to the second icon which is where the action takes place. It's a great way to browse, very fast, and very easy, especially if you have huge folders. Did I forget to mention that the same light speed search function that it uses to find a program, based on the partial name you give it, also applies while browsing? I guess I did. Entering a song in the recently played list for example shows you a listing of the genre, artist and album, and from here you can keep browsing on and on. iTunes is one such application and once you "enter" it you can browse artists, play lists, albums. And this is where it starts to get heavy, Quicksilver also acts as a file browser, and pressing the left key will take you to that application's folder from here on you can browse your files just like you would in the Finder's column view.īut it doesn't end here you can "enter" certain applications by pressing the right arrow when you have them selected. Using the arrow keys, you can move through those results up and down. The most relevant result is shown in the first icon well of the main window, with the other results in a floating column view below it. At this point if you type anything, Quicksilver will search through all your currently installed applications. When Quicksilver is activated via a key shortcut that you can set to your liking, it displays the main window which is essentially two, large icons one next to the other in the center of the screen. In case you're curious, here is how it does it. Quicksilver takes user interaction to a whole new level. It's hard to express in just a few words exactly what Quicksilver does, because it is a type of program designed with a new paradigm in mind. However, the same Quicksilver can be used as a file browser, a search engine, a widget or a contextual menu. Quicksilver can be seen and used as a launcher.
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