Filed under: Software, Cool tools, How-tos, Productivity
Quicksilver basics: shake hands with your preferences
Yesterday Quicksilver started acting a little goofy, and I wasn't surprised; I have just about every beta and extra turned on as I just can't stop exploring all the neat stuff this app can do. During my troubleshooting efforts I resorted to the simple trick of quitting Quicksilver and simply moving its preference file (located with other preference files in ~/Library/Preferences) to my desktop, forcing Quicksilver to re-create a clean new preference file. This fixed the issue, but it also forced me to dive back into my preferences to tweak, toggle and change some of the options I use to make Quicksilver do what I want.
That experience made me realize, however, that part of the Quicksilver learning curve for new users really is to get to know its preferences, since they act as a handy springboard into what Quicksilver is capable of. A lot of fantastic tutorials, like those at 43 Folders and Blacktree's own site (the makers of Quicksilver), sometimes assume that you already know what you're doing with Quicksilver. Another complication is that the actions (and sometimes plugins) used in these tutorials are not installed or enabled by default. Some of the email actions - for example the "send item immediately" action that allows you to email an item to someone without ever touching a mail composition window - are oddly not enabled in a default Quicksilver installation, which means a user has to open Quicksilver's preferences (once invoked, a quick cmd - , does the trick) and dig around in the Actions section to find what they need. Ultimately, I figure there are three key areas of Quicksilver's preferences that might help new or aspiring but confused users get their feet grounded: Catalog, Actions and Plugins, and here is a brief explanation of each:
- Catalog - this is a pretty straight-forward list of everything Quicksilver keeps track of on
your Mac. Looking through the Catalog and the Actions preference panel should help you get a grasp of what
items Quicksilver can find and manipulate, and then how you can manipulate them.
- Actions -
this is a list of the defining ability that separates Quicksilver from mere seek-and-find applications. Actions allow
you to do something with the item you have found, far above and beyond simply opening it. Actions are
(loosely) categorized to help you find your way around: Address Book actions allow you to do more with your contacts,
Text actions (an optional plugin) allow you to do things like looking up word definitions right from within Quicksilver
and appending text to a file buried somewhere, etc. If this panel doesn't excite your inner productivity geek, you
should consider consulting your physician.
- Plugins - Quicksilver is highly, highly plugin-able, which is where even more of its beauty radiates from. Plugins for Backpack, alternative browser bookmarks, the Mac OS X Keychain, NetNewsWire headlines, a multiple-item clipboard, hundreds of web search engines and much, much more all have your name written on them. Go wild.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Flip said 8:22PM on 3-08-2006
Same thing happened to me yesterday - Quicksilver started eating about 150mb of my RAM after I got a little too tweak-happy.
Here's a much easier fix than quitting, deleting the preference files, and restarting:
1. Go into Quicksilver's preferences.
2. Under "Application," click "Reset Preferences."
3. Click "Reset and Relaunch."
4. Smile.
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divid said 10:57PM on 3-08-2006
I've been mesmerized by QS since I've installed a few days ago. But it has crashed a few times, randomly. LIke when I was making a slideshow out of a few pics, the whole screen went black and I had to reboot :|. And a time when I was trying to open a few bookmarks in Safari at the same time (comma trick!), it just shut down.
The ironic part is that instantaneously hit COMMAND+SPACE - QuickOPEN, in a subcortical move to restart Quicksilver. Isn't that sweet for a QS-?n00bie :)
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patrice said 1:39AM on 3-09-2006
Once you have set your preferences (like Triggers, etc.), you should simply back them up. So once Quicksilver starts acting funny on you: just quit, trash the current preferences file & replace it with the backed up one... Can save you lots of time! :-)
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MIchael S. said 3:31AM on 3-09-2006
How do you figure out how to activate an action? For example, there's one called "New Folder...", which is apparently active (it's checked), but I can't figure out how to activate it. Typing "new folder" doesn't do anything!? Also, actions that I know exist aren't listed there, such as "Next Song".
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patrice said 5:11AM on 3-09-2006
to MIchael S.: re the "next song" - did you download & install the itunes plugin?
and did you enable advanced features beta?
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Don said 8:11AM on 3-09-2006
New Folder
Activate QS->Go to folder where you want the new folder->Tab->Bring up New Folder->Tab & name folder. That's it.
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Derek said 9:01PM on 3-09-2006
Every "intro to Quicksilver" post I've seen here has just made it sound more and more complicated. I read Blacktree's website, and I still can't even understand what it does! Is there one definitive place to get started messing around with this reputedly awesome program? I'm definitely interested but I wanna get off on the right foot.
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Bakari said 11:21PM on 3-09-2006
I have to agree. Your article is too brief. Your wet my appetite about Actions but didn't explain enough to show what I can do with it. Quicksilver could really use a mini-manual written in a very clear manner. What I little I have learned to do with the program has been very useful. But I bet I'm not using more than third of what it can do.
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Alan Shearer said 8:53PM on 3-12-2006
I can't get QS to find documents in subfolders in my Documents folder? I have User and documents in the Catalog. I have the spotlight plug in enabled. This is the most important potential feature because I have a lot of documents that I want to get to quickly and either open or Get Info to assess the modify date? Any thoughts about what I might be doing wrong?
Example. I have a document called Asset Allocation.xls Quicksilver will not find this document at all?
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