quicksilver tutorial

8/6/2019 Quicksilver Tutorial

1/9

Quicksilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes

24

MAR 2004Note: This tutorial is also available in O'Reilly's OS X Panther Hacks.Further Reading: I have also published an intermediate tutorial, with 10 steps to leverage morepower with Quicksilver. There's also Gold Trigger, which helps you understand the trigger system.This isn't Ronco. I'm not an excitable friend from across the ocean with red hair and a bowtie and

a British accent. You're not watching Amazing Discoveries.But I swear, if you give me 10 minutes and you follow my simple directions, you can go frommerely using Mac OS X to owning it.This probably sounds like bullshit, I know. I wouldn't have believed it myself had I not tried thisapp and felt my jaw drop over and over again for the last year. So standby to win.Before you start, you will need to have: A Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 or better. Data, in any of the following forms - iTunes library, iPhoto albums, Address Book entries,

bookmarks in any browser, whatever.

Got all that? Let's begin.Please note this was originally written using Quicksilver Beta 19, and has been updatedrepeatedly. The information contained within is currently up-to-date through b42 "Corgi". Asdevelopment goes rapidly on Quicksilver, things may have changed since I last updated this.Boldface indicates directions, and they must be followed. Plain text is for explanation, whichyou should read. Italics are for tangents, and you can skip them if you really care about the 10minutes thing. Trix are for kids, silly rabbit.Note that the term "invoke" is a silly way of saying "press the hotkey so Quicksilver comes up".1) Go to the Quicksilver webpage and download the current version.QuickSilver, very under-described on the page, currently contains just a few main components - ashelf and a launcher. While the clipboard recorder and shelf are both useful and will be covered,the real power here is the launcher. And it's not so much a launcher as a really powerful personalsearch engine. "It's not so much a time machine, as it is a dodgeball cannon."Note that if you're under 10.3, b36 is the last version available to you. Tiger users shouldgrab whatever is most current.QuickSilver is similar to LaunchBar, only with more features, and free, and has a plugin system.2) The download should be done. If you need to, decompress the archive.If you're using Safari, this is typically done automatically.3) Launch QuickSilver.

Watch as the whizzy QS logo comes up, and fades, and you see the wizard.4) Walk through the setup wizard. Let it scan your machine. Finish the process when it'sdone.What's going on here? QuickSilver is scanning standard data hotspots on your machine - yourAddress Book, Applications folder, Desktop folder, System Preferences, and so on. It's creating agiant searchable version of your machine. After your initial launch, this will happen automatically.Now you're left with the main QS window.5) Press Command-Comma to bring up the preferences.I'm going to go through these very quickly with what I'm using for maximum effect during thistutorial. When you're done with this tutorial, come back and walk through these a little slower andfigure out what works best for you.For Application, check "Start at login" and "Warn before quitting". Make sure "Show menuicon" is checked so you know it's running.If you're the sort of person who lives dangerously, you can come back here later and change the

program feature level to Beta. But let's do that later.Skip down to Command, and take note of the hotkey. Change it if you feel the need to. The default hotkey is Control-Space by, but many people use Command-Space. I personally useSingle or Double Option, which only counts full isolated presses of the modifier of your choice.Use what you are comfortable with.Go to Plugins. Change the selector on the left side of the pane to "Available".As of Quicksilver b26, all the extra functionality was broken into plugins, and b40 added this in-app plugin installer. This means you don't have to bloat up QS with functions you won't use, butyou do need to install plugins for data types you want to access.Install (by clicking the checkbox next to the plugin names), at the very least, the iTunesplugin (which will require an additional Music Support plugin), the Safari plugin (or whatever


2/9

browser you use), the Dict plugin, and the Clipboard plugin.These are the plugins I'll be covering in the tutorial. If you see one for another app you usefrequently, install those too. Or come back later.Close the preferences window and relaunch Quicksilver.New plugins need a relaunch to go into effect. Now you're done setting stuff, and we should beabout 4 minutes in at most. Let's start with the basics.6) Invoke the hotkey (default is Control-Space, remember) to pull up the QS Interface. Press

escape to dismiss it.This should work in any app, at any time. Remember the two main key strokes - your hotkey andEscape. Now, let's search for something.7) Invoke. Type a few letters of the title of a bookmark you visit a lot. Watch as you see anicon for it and its name appear. Hit return. Boom, your browser is there. Note: If you didn't see it come up to the top, and something elsecame up, wait a second, and a menu of search results will come up. Tap down, page down, useyour scroll wheel, or just type the proper name to find the one you want.By now you probably get how to search. Now let's mess around with the actions.8) Pick an application you're running. Hit the hotkey and type the first few letters of itsname until it is selected. Press Tab, then hit Down if you're impatient. See the actions. Pickone.Look at all those things you can do to a running application. This is the basic functionality ofQuickSilver - actions are available for everything that's been scanned.Now you should have a basic understanding of the two main functions of Quicksilver - the search,and the action. All plugins will either allow you to search a new data type (bookmarks for aparticular browser, address books, etc) or add new actions (the compression plugin, for instance,lets you zip nearly anything).If you're satisfied, you can stop reading now and explore on your own. But I probably have at leastfour more minutes, and there's some more nuances.So, address book entries - what can we do with them? There's a lot of similar data for someentries...9) Invoke again. Think of someone in your address book with a lot of data entered for them(address, phone, email, whatever). Get them selected. Now press the Right Arrow.So now we know that some items can have attached data. This is neat. Let's exploit the hell out ofit.10) Make sure iTunes is running. Invoke, and start to type "Browse" - an item called BrowseAlbums should come up. If you wait, more Browse options will appear. Press right. Figureout what you can do from here.

Welcome to what is essentially a keyboard-driven interface not too far off from the iPod. Wantmore?11) Invoke, and hold forward slash (/) for about one second. You'll see your HD. Watch themenu pop open. Play.It's like Column View, but better. Hitting slash or right arrow will move you forward, left arrow orquestion mark will move you back. Hitting return opens the item selected, or apply any action youwant. (If you don't want to go to the root of your hard drive, you can hold tilde after you invokeQuicksilver to jump to your home directory.)Quicksilver can also take text input for some actions, so you don't need to merely use existingfiles or objects. Let's try this with the dict plugin.12) Invoke, and press period to go to text entry mode. Type a word you'd like to define, hittab, and then start typing "Define" until the Define action shows. Hit return.In just a second, a little floating window will show up with the definition, fresh and tasty from overthe internet.

Okay, let's explore the last few features before we run out of time.13) Invoke, then hit Command-L.This is the clipboard viewer. Anything you copy to the clipboard goes here. Clicking on a number- or typing it - pastes it into your currently selected window. Useful.14) Dismiss the shelf, invoke, and then press Command-Semicolon.This is the Catalog (found under Preferences). If you want to explicitly add something to theindex, you can do so from here. If there are things in the index you don't want to see, you candisable them here. This is also where you can poke around with Plugins you've installed to makesure they're indexing what you want.And that's all for now. The possibilities for this are endless and should come to you easily. Nowyou can stop switching to the finder, hitting a three-key hotkey for the folder, and drilling down a


3/9

level or two to launch an application - QuickSilver is so fast, you can probably get the applaunched before you would be able to pull up a finder window.There is certainly more to the app than this - there's the ability to set default search results (rightclick something), change the scores for items with certain search terms, enable services to giveyou more actions for nearly everything, and so on. There's plenty to figure out about Quicksilverthat I can only begin to scratch the surface of - so read the docs, explore the forums, play around,and see what you can do.

I am not associated with Blacktree in any way, shape, or form. I'm just an avid Quicksilver user. Ifyou found this tutorial useful, please toss a link my way, or say hey in #quicksilver on FreenodeIRC - I'm RemyDWD.Posted by Dan Dickinson on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 12:02 AM | 56 TrackBacksFiled in Best Of, Instructional Materials and tagged osx, quicksilver, tutorial

Tangentially Related:

Jun 18 2009Changing the Google Notifier Refresh Rate0Jun 8 2009WWDC 2009 Keynote Thoughts1Jun 9 2008WWDC08 Keynote - Snow Leopard1Jun 4 2008The Alleged End Of OS X for PPC0Nov 6 2007Blacktree Goodies0

56 TrackBacks

2004/03/23 18:54 from 2lmc spool on March 24, 2004 4:41 AMQuicksilverRead More

QuickSilver from mak'in-trash`\. on March 25, 2004 5:55 PMOne of the most used application on my Mac is the app launcher LaunchBar. I just have to type ahotkey, the first few letters of the app or url or name, i can launch the app, go to the... Read MoreQuicksilver from atmaspheric | endeavors on March 25, 2004 6:09 PMI have been a longtime paid user of LaunchBar which is a great way to keyboard your way aroundyour Mac. Quicksilver is free and has a cleaner, more Mac-like feel to it. At first glance they seemto do pretty much the same thing. Free is good!More new ... Read MoreDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes fromeXtremities on March 25, 2004 10:35 PMThe Primary Vivid Weblog Read More"Efficiency above all things" from Membranophonist's Ramblings on March 25, 2004 11:32 PMQuicksilver is a flexible and free OS X tool for quickly accessing information via the keyboard.Read MoreDudes, this app is the bomb.. from SMUG on March 26, 2004 3:03 AMDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes... Read

MoreQuickSilver from OS X Recommended on March 26, 2004 3:54 AMThe rave today on the web, especially those who have weblogs and use Macs is Quicksilver.Quicksilver is an evolving structure for manipulating any form of data. The current modulesinclude a launcher, a clipboard recorder, and a shelf. Heard... Read MoreQuicksilver from vowe dot net on March 26, 2004 6:21 AMIf you are using a Mac you want Quicksilver, unless you already bought Launchbar. Dan Dickinsonexplains why: ... if you give me 10 minutes and you follow my simple directions, you can go frommerely using Mac OS X to owning it.This sounds like bullshi... Read MoreQuicksilver positively rocks... from ::: bisonium.com ::: on March 26, 2004 11:33 AMOk folks, I got a heads up from hicksdesign a while ago and thoght I would check this out. Thishas absolutely got to be the most slammin application yet for the Mac. I highly recommend youcheck out Quicksliver... Read MorePersonal Search Engine from edit me on March 26, 2004 1:43 PM

QuickSilver , very under-described on the page, currently contains three main components - aclipboard recorder, a shelf, and a launcher. While the clipboard recorder and shelf are both usefuland will be covered, the real power here is the launcher. A... Read MoreQuicksilver from Snappy the Clam on March 26, 2004 3:35 PMVia mph via ed, a tutorial for Quicksilver, an open source replacement for LaunchBar. I've usedLaunchBar pretty obsessively since I got back on OS X, but Quicksilver is one cool-ass app. If youdownload it, read the tutorial, like... Read MoreQuicksilver vs. LaunchBar from Lair of the Toadking on March 26, 2004 5:58 PMI've been using LaunchBar for the past couple of weeks. It's essentially a launcher for the MacOS:you press Command-Spacebar, type the first few characters of the item you want, and LaunchBarsearches through your applications, bookmarks, address book... Read More


4/9

QuickSilver for OS X: It's Pass-Out Good from since1968 on March 26, 2004 9:30 PM"Efficiency above all things": the best new app for your Mac is free. Read MoreQuicksilver from dabloom.net on March 27, 2004 4:34 AMInstallerade Quicksilver idag efter att Peter hade tipsat mig. Innan krde jag LaunchBar, menQuickSilver har vl lite mer funktionalitet och s r den open source. i alla fall sjlva appen, lsmer om det hr. Peter ... Read MoreQuicksilver from Keys Corner on March 27, 2004 6:09 AM

This entry is to remind me how to use Quicksilver until I have used it a bit more. This utility needsOS X 10.3.3 and provides, among other things, the... Read MoreQuicksilver from tien mao's little read book... on March 27, 2004 11:13 AMI've read all about it, and now I have it installed on my computer. What am I talking about?Quicksilver. Quicksilver is "an evolving structure for manipulating any form of data. The current ...Read MoreLiquid metal from metacosm on March 28, 2004 1:58 AMQuicksilver: liquid gold? Read MoreQuicksilver - le logiciel from Marsyas on March 28, 2004 7:49 AMCela n'a rien voir avec le roman de Stephenson qui agrmente mes trajets en mtro :Quicksilverest aussi le nom d'un petit utilitaire pour MacOSX qui est encore en version beta, mais prometbeaucoup. Il combine un lanceur d'applications,... Read MoreQuicksilver from life - listed chronologically on March 28, 2004 12:04 PMHere's a nifty little OS X program that was mentioned on Forwarding Address: OS X. It's calledQuicksilver. I have many friends who love a program called LaunchBar for launching things, but forsome reason it never really clicked with... Read Moreas James Brown would say... from oddgirl's blog on March 28, 2004 3:32 PMi feel good! the office move gave me a four-day weekend and i've really made the most of it.sure... Read MoreQuickSilver from eclecticism on March 28, 2004 10:06 PMA piece of Mac freeware worth touting: Quicksilver. Read MoreQuicksilver Screenshots from metacosm on March 28, 2004 11:15 PMQuicksilver action shots! Read MoreQuicksilver - the Mac kind from Nowhereland on March 30, 2004 5:25 AMNo, not the novel, much as I like it... This Quicksilver is a keyboard-driven launcher on steroidswhich, apparently, has been talked about by just about everyone lately, but which I haven't comeaccross until now. Since everyone and his mother are tal... Read MoreQuicksilver from La vita istruzioni per l'uso on March 30, 2004 5:15 PMNe parlano tutti e fanno bene: un piccolo programma che cambier la vita a chi usa il Mac OS X, e

l'introduzione perfetta per farvene capire le potenzialit. Se Apple non compra questaapplicazione immediatamente vuol dire che sono pazzi.... Read MoreQuicksilver, where were you all my life? from The Opinion of a Man Named Harris on March 30,2004 8:32 PMQuicksilver, oh Quicksilver, how could I have ever thought my Macintosh experience was completewithout you? Quicksilver is a launcher (and some other things). It gets evoked with apple+spaceand typing in the first few letters of whatever...applicatio... Read Morenew software from /blog on April 7, 2004 5:34 PMthose of you of which english is not your maternal language have probably used a bunch oftranslation services on the net or use a dictionary from time to time to look up unknown words.my preferred way of looking... Read MoreBlink, Blink, Sniff, Snifffrom Disobey Nonsense Network on April 9, 2004 10:35 AMBlinks. Blinkorama. Making blinkies. Blinkoreno. QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes 100Movies That Deserve More Love Bots Open Door to Gaming History How To Be A Programmer The

Importance of Fudgability The Gamewatchers Network The Homeles... Read Morequicksilver! from Words' End on April 10, 2004 1:21 PMNo, not the recent Stephenson novel, but this free gadget for Mac OS X users. Allows you to usethe... Read MoreQotD: Launcher from NSLog(); on April 11, 2004 9:19 AMQuestion: LaunchBar or QuickSilver? My Answer: LaunchBar for now. I'll look at QuickSilver anotherday. I tried it now and it just didn't feel right. You are encouraged to answer the Question of theDay for yourself in the comments... Read MoreQuicksilver from Pale Blue Dot on April 12, 2004 4:48 PMQuicksilver, a launcher app for Mac OS X. Read MoreInstalling the new OS.... yummm... from Daily Ablutions on April 23, 2004 3:30 PM


5/9

OS Reloaded! Panther is in the building.. well, atleast my apartment! ;) I have been waiting for thisupgrade for sometime.. and before you call me an installation maniac, here is why I did it... 1. Iwas bored... Read MoreInstalling the new OS.... yummm... from Daily Ablutions on April 23, 2004 3:32 PMOS Reloaded! Panther is in the building.. well, atleast my apartment! ;) I have been waiting for thisupgrade for sometime.. and before you call me an installation maniac, here is why I did it... 1. Iwas bored... Read More

X-Assist from random notes on May 1, 2004 2:39 AMFor the OS X users who crave for the good old Application Switch Menu in OS 9 (that thing in thetop right corner which let us "Hide All Windows" and such), there is X-Assist which brings backthat menu and more. And after having heard and read so much... Read MoreEn bttre Launcher from mulli.nu! on May 15, 2004 6:06 AM

Jag uppgraderade min lilla iBook till MacOS X 10.3 igr. Det var frsta gngen i vrldshistoriensom jag faktiskt sjlv har betalat fr en operativsystemlicens, s det kndes ju lite udda och s.Fast de... Read MoreQuickSilver from Useful Design on May 28, 2004 9:28 PMI feel the need to profess my love for QuickSilver, the free type-a-few-letters-to-find-something-on-your-mac application. I use it constantly to find phone numbers and files and folders andapplications. A quick command-spcaebar pulls it up. For examp... Read MoreQuicksilver: Worth the Price! from rue jules verne onJune 28, 2004 10:37 AMFirst of all, this is not a review of Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Great book, but very last year.No, this is an endorsment for BlackTree, Inc's wonderful little application which is also namedQuicksilver. Now, I understand that the applic... Read MoreQuicksilver from Jacken's Weblog onJune 28, 2004 7:06 PMI've been raving about a program called LaunchBar for quite some time now, and I have been usingit extensively. But this article got me curious to try out QuickSilver. And I have now switched toQuickSilver. It has a much nicer looking interface, a... Read MoreMacOS X turbocharged from daily babble onJuly 31, 2004 10:21 AMThanks to Mike Steinbaugh for pointing out a really great testimonial and tutorial aboutQuicksilver, which is one of the best utilities I've seen yet for MacOS X. You owe it to yourself totry this one especially since... Read MoreMacOS X turbocharged from daily babble onJuly 31, 2004 10:23 AMThanks to Mike Steinbaugh for pointing out a really great testimonial and tutorial aboutQuicksilver, which is one of the best utilities I've seen yet for MacOS X. You owe it to yourself totry this one especially since... Read MoreQuickSilver rocks from Why do you need... KONAMI ORIGINALS? on August 9, 2004 2:12 AM

I love QuickSilver. It's a great application launching utility for OS X. One problem, is many of itsfeatures and functions aren't very well documented. Mad props to Remy for his excellent tutorialon how to get the most out of this required piece of s... Read Morelinks for 2004-09-28 from sjarvis.com on September 28, 2004 8:28 AMDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes(categories: quicksilver readlater tips)... Read MoreChange the Way You Use OSX With Quicksilver from kadavy.net on November 9, 2004 11:28 PMI'm using an amazing new program called Quicksilver to use Mac OSX. Download it and use thistutorial to familiarize yourself with Quicksilver. What's so great about it? Imagine this: Instead ofusing a mouse and opening your browser, then... Read Morelinks for 2004-11-12 from reedit.net on November 12, 2004 7:16 AMDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes(categories: osx todo)... Read MoreQuicksilver from World Wide Wood on November 29, 2004 8:32 PM

I'm sure Will or someone else has mentioned this program to me in the past, but I finally gotaround... Read MoreQuicksilver : Get it now from SOLID HANG | BLOG on December 24, 2004 3:17 PMQuicksilver from Blacktree, INC is a fantastic FREE, open source app that takes the best ofLaunchBar and adds infinitely more possibilities. The interface is very user-friendly and it searchesin a snap. Plus you gotta a trust a company whose website ... Read Morefalling in love again from mamamusings onJanuary 9, 2005 1:47 PMIts been a while since I fell in love with a software application (apologies to those who thoughtthey were going to get some juicy personal tidbits here). But its happened, so I feel the need toshare my happiness with the world. :) The ... Read MorePersonal information nerdvana from 90% Crud onJanuary 10, 2005 3:09 PM


6/9

Got a Mac? OK, here's three applications you need to install if you haven't already, based on yourfaith in me alone. I'm asking 15 minutes of your time max. First, install QuickSilver. Don't askwhat it is or what... Read MoreDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes frombookmarks onJanuary 19, 2005 10:47 PMDan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes ... ReadMore

The Mac Mini is in the House! from dasme.org on February 11, 2005 9:53 AMMy house that is! My Mac Mini that I ordered the day after the launch finally came in. I'll tak aboutthe delays another time, but it seems that Apple greatly favours their own online and retail storeswhen new... Read MoreAdd to text files Quicksilver style from Lifehacker on February 22, 2005 10:34 AMOne of the most fun, time-saving functions of Mac productivity software Quicksilver is the abilityto append to an existing text file with a few keystrokes. Say you want to add "milk" toshoppinglist.txt. No more Finder, point, click,... Read MoreNice intro to QuickSilver from Blue Sky On Mars on February 23, 2005 12:00 PMIf you use a Mac, you must use QuickSilver. Take a look at this for a quick intro, and you'll seewhy: Dan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog: QuickSilver - A Better OS X In Just 10 Minutes...Read MoreGiving Quicksilver a Try from nomaded's little corner on February 23, 2005 5:46 PMSo, after using LaunchBar for quite a while, I noticed that my girlfriend was using Quicksilver onher iBook a... Read MoreQuicksilver Tutorials from Forever Geek on February 23, 2005 6:36 PMWhen I got my Mac it was recommended to me by many people that I go and get Quicksilverbecause it "changes the way you use your computer" or some silly thing like that. Well I did goget... Read MoreEssential Macintosh Software from foldedspace.org onJune 2, 2005 1:15 PMI've been back on Macintosh for nearly three years, and have explored a lot of the availablesoftware, and am now willing to make recommendations. Read MoreFirst Thoughts on My New PowerBook from NoahBrier.com onJune 26, 2005 12:33 AM

Last night I finally gotRead More

One Week of Quicksilver (Thoughts and Tricks) from NoahBrier.com onJune 26, 2005 12:35 AM

After a week of using my new PowerBook, and more specifically,Read More

46 Comments

Although Blacktree is free and all, and has more features, LaunchBar actually /works better/ for what it is designed to

do, without any bells and whistles. It just works. QS looks cool, seems cool, even sounds cool, but it doesnt behave

like a stable, production-ready piece of software. Which it isnt, so thats okay. Anyhow, Im sticking with LaunchBar

for now.

Nevyn | March 24, 2004 3:37 PM | ReplyI dunno about thatI used LaunchBar for a very long time. It was designed to be a launcher, and Ive yet to find an

instance in which Quicksilver hasnt been able to perform that task at least as well. Its only gotten better with each

beta release (which seem to come quite often). At the very least, its solved one of the most annoying features of

LaunchBar: the inability to search/launch while scanning. Hows that for a novel idea! I hated having to wait to get

going for what seemed like ages after a restart or fresh login.

oshmady | March 24, 2004 11:40 PM | ReplyAs a computer illiterate, I thank you thank you thank you..this just rocks.

LilBit | March 25, 2004 12:50 AM | ReplyThanks so much for this tutorial! I am absolutely stunned by QS, I cant believe that this is free software. This article

has given me such a head start

Jon Hicks | March 25, 2004 3:40 PM | ReplyThis is the greatest freeware app Ive ever seen in my Mac-lovin life. Thank you for a brilliant introduction.

Skandranon | March 25, 2004 9:13 PM | ReplyI cant agree about using the Bezel in preference to either Window or Menu (largely because too many icons show up

as ugly enlarged bitmaps), but everything else about this tutorial and this application is spot on. I tried and dumped

LaunchBar but see a great future for Quicksilver on my machine.


7/9

As others have said: its amazing that something this good is available for free!

Jim | March 25, 2004 10:42 PM | ReplyWow, thats great! I just dumped LaunchBar a couple weeks ago because I hate waiting for it to scan. I was using

TigerLaunch, but the mouse just isnt as convenient as the keyboard. QS looks like a winner!

Nate | March 25, 2004 11:10 PM | ReplyNormally, Im fairly app-shy, as I run a lot of heavy-duty graphics programs that hog a lot of ram. QuickSilver,

however, runs like a dream on my machine. Its up, there, and gone in a flash, doing exactly what I ask with no waiting.

Its like the sexy, silent hand maid Ive always wanted!Thanks for the brilliant tutorial, it really helps in getting familiar with QS stunningly simple and smooth interface

quickly. Youre a life-saver.

Arisa | March 26, 2004 3:32 AM | ReplyOne word: Wow.

Thanks much, James

James E. Robinson, III | March 26, 2004 7:52 AM | ReplyThanks for the tutorialit was great, took less that 10 minute to complete.

Quicksilver is AWESOME. Yet another reason Ill be sad leaving my G5 at work to go home to my PC. It is so simple,

so beautiful.. yet so easy to use Im amazed.

Marcus Vorwaller | March 26, 2004 10:14 AM | ReplyOne quick comment - once youve hit the shortcut key you can pop open the shelf by doing apple-option-s; you dont

need to open the clipboard memory first.

Thanks for introducing me to quicksilver; its great.

Ethan Fremen | March 26, 2004 11:48 AM | Replysweet!mac | March 26, 2004 2:11 PM | ReplyNice tutorial! Ive been using QS for a month or so now and you taught me a couple tricks ;-) Rock on!

Paul Lathrop | March 27, 2004 1:51 AM | ReplyIndispensable! Its like a quantum jump in usability. Thanks for the tips, I especially like the Browse iTunes one! :)

Michael Heilemann | March 27, 2004 10:23 AM | ReplyI cant get the Browse Music function to appear my iTunes folder is an alias inside my music folder to another disk,

which I suspect is why. Shame, because Id have been ready to replace launchbar. As it is, Im sticking with it.

darkaddress | March 27, 2004 12:11 PM | ReplyI was skeptical of browse music at first. I have over 10,000 songs in my iTunes library. The first time I invoked

browse music, QuickSilver ground to a halt for about ten seconds. So much for that, I thought.

Then I tried it a second time. Poof. Instant. Command-space, type brow, hit right-arrow, select album, type moo,

right arrow, hit enter. Now Im listening to Airs Moon Safari about three seconds after I got the urge.

Im hooked. I dont care if it is free; where do I send my money?

Jeff Harrell | March 27, 2004 12:45 PM | ReplyThis is an amazingly simple yet empowering application. No more launchbar. Fast, it is.Erik | March 27, 2004 6:25 PM | ReplyNice tutorial! Like so many others, I am giving Quicksilver a run and liking what I see so far (except for occasional

slow downs) Nice tagline (Coldplay fan?) :)

UBiK | March 27, 2004 8:32 PM | ReplyWell done on the tutorial. You helped me get my head around the basics! Ta!

Krissy | March 28, 2004 3:55 AM | ReplyHmmm the wizard doesnt show up. QS only launches and disappears

What do I do?

Pat | March 28, 2004 12:23 PM | Replywicked tutorial! i breeded through it, and panther is MINE! it has been PWNED heheh

anywhoo. Apple should give the blacktree guy (and the tutorial guy) lots of money and put this in the system dammit.

you guys rock!

-Leigh waaaay too excited

Leigh Honeywell | March 28, 2004 10:43 PM | Replyerr i breezed not breeded blushes

-Leigh

Leigh Honeywell | March 28, 2004 10:43 PM | ReplyThanks this realy interesting

David | March 28, 2004 10:57 PM | ReplyThis looks like a pretty cool idea. Unfortunately most of my bookmarks and contacts are MS-based (in IE and

Entourage) dunno if this kinda data can be imported into quicksilver?

scott | March 29, 2004 1:25 PM | ReplyGreat app. And the icon looks a lot like the Marathon logo (http://www.bungie.com/products/trilogy/trilogy.htm). Extra


8/9

kudos!

Phil | March 29, 2004 3:03 PM | Replythe only problem with this style of launcher is that sometimes there are apps you wont run if you dont have the visual

reminder. I have a many-tabbed dragthing dock, and paging through it once in a while reminds that I really need to run,

say, quicken again since I tend to avoid balancing my checkbook. There are about seven other apps like that for me.

If I dump it all in favor of launchbar, Id only ever run the apps I felt an urge to run.

Its kind of like having stuff on your desktop. Sometimes you just need them there.

It would be killer if you could also specific certain organization to it. Like a command key that would pull up thebrowsable menu of the apps you wanted to make extra accessible; user-defined. then I could throw away my dock for

good because Id also have the visual reminder aspect.

tunesmith | March 31, 2004 5:07 AM | ReplyThanks for the tutorial. This app. is something I cant live without God it speeds up certain tasks. I couldnt ever get

used to launchbar but this one is a keeper.

Clark | March 31, 2004 9:45 PM | ReplyMany thanks for a great tutorial to a fantastic product. One day Quicksilver will be ripped off, by Apple and integrated

into the Finder.

Steve | April 1, 2004 3:20 AM | ReplyI kept hearing about this thing but refused to try it without a screenshot or more documentation. Ive tried it now

Pretty sweet Thanks!

Duncan | April 1, 2004 3:36 AM | ReplyHow long before Apple incorporates this into a future OS X release? Ideas this good dont tend to stay uncopied for

long. Bravo Blacktree, this is amazing stuff. Bravo Dan, this is spot on.

Ben | April 2, 2004 7:53 AM | ReplyThe directory browsing is cool, but I usually start by pressing ~ for my home directory, rather than / for the hard drive

root. If you organize things The Apple Way, I think its more useful.

Dan Ridley | April 4, 2004 12:18 PM | Replythanks for this tutorial - nice work.

bob | April 4, 2004 5:39 PM | ReplyAs has been said, I cant believe such a sophisticated piece of software is free. QS takes my hotkey-fetish/OS-laziness

to new heights. The browsing to albums in iTunes is especially handy. Thanks Dan for the awesome tutorial, yet

another aspect to love about my iBook!

Danielle | April 9, 2004 4:35 PM | ReplyNo matter how hard I tried, I could find no reason for people to create software and then give it out for free. It costs hell

of time to develop something, why not sell it? There must be some reason. Brian

Brian | April 10, 2004 7:24 PM | ReplyThe Catalog is under the main preferences now, as is the triggers; all of which are reached by Command-Comma. The

Cmd-; shortcut is no longer effective.Richard Soderberg | November 8, 2004 8:52 PM | ReplyWow, this is absolutely fantastic, both the software and your tutorial!

Ive downloaded QuickSilver a while ago but hadnt really given it a try being discouraged somewhat by the lack of

documentation (or I just couldnt find it easily.)

What a powerful piece of software this is amazing.

Thanks for writing this out, now Im ready to owning my OS X.

mayu | February 22, 2005 8:10 PM | ReplyIt is because of this blog that I began using QuickSIlver back in March-2004. Thank you!

andesco | February 23, 2005 4:48 PM | ReplyHoly crap. You have totally made my OS X life. I used LaunchBar religiously after a certain level of data critical mass

was reached in my computing life. THis rocks the damn house. Now, why cant I invoke when im away from my

computer. damn.

Rob | March 1, 2005 2:15 AM | ReplyQuickSilver IS a fantastic tool. I just uncovered an amazing feature and had to share my enthusiasm. I often use the

followiing keystrokes: To open a file from a specific directory,CMD + Space, {first letters of directory name},/, {First letters of filename}

To open a specific application,

CMD + Space, {first letters of application name.

Ok. nothing new I hope. But this morning, I did the following key commands without thinking:

CMD + Space, {first letters of application name}, /, {first letters of file name created with that application}

AND IT JUST WORKED! Woo Hoo! That is the definition of intuitive software design.

Joe Lombardo | March 17, 2005 8:56 AM | Replykowtow

sorrento | March 28, 2005 10:13 PM | ReplyThanx! What a great program!


9/9

Fausto Galli | April 2, 2005 6:59 AM | ReplyThanks for the help. This was a great tutorial and I know my way around QuickSilver because of it. They should

bundle this with the app! ;-)

Adam Covington | May 4, 2005 8:24 AM | ReplyThank you, for this great tutorial.

xwilly | May 23, 2005 5:09 PM | ReplyApologies if this is too off-topic but as the forum is down.QS just hangs for me whenever I try to scross down the

second tab from the open option, to do something else, like move or trash. It hangs for so long I end up using forcequit. This is a real shame as it limits what I can do with QS. It happens whether beta or stable features are enabled and I

have stripped back to only the default plugins being enabled, but it still does it. Any ideas? I dont want to give up on

QS yet!

abramelin | February 10, 2006 4:02 PM | ReplyThanks so much for this. I may just be ready for the advanced course.

JFA washwords | August 28, 2006 9:34 AM | ReplyDan - thanks for a great tutorial. Ive been using QS for at least a year, but mainly just to launch apps and to look up

phone numbers. Ive seen the HUGE tomes that have been written by folks but I get intimidate right away! You walked

me through just a few simple steps that opened my eyes to the possibilities and why I should explore further. Thanks!

NosillaCast | April 10, 2007 10:29 PM | Reply

quicksilver tutorial

Documents