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Quicksilver basics: shake hands with your preferences

by David Chartier Mar 8th 2006 at 7:00PM


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.
Quicksilver is one of the few apps that is so different and powerful that the classic "just open and play with it" phrase might not be enough for some users to grasp what's going on. If you are one of these users, I hope this brief explanation will help you to take your first step into the wide, wonderful universe of Quicksilver.

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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...
 

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Alan Shearer

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?

March 12 2006 at 8:53 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bakari

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.

March 09 2006 at 11:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Derek

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.

March 09 2006 at 9:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Don

New Folder
Activate QS->Go to folder where you want the new folder->Tab->Bring up New Folder->Tab & name folder. That's it.

March 09 2006 at 8:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
patRice

to MIchael S.: re the "next song" - did you download & install the itunes plugin?

and did you enable advanced features beta?

March 09 2006 at 5:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MIchael S.

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".

March 09 2006 at 3:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
patRice

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! :-)

March 09 2006 at 1:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
divid

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 :)

March 08 2006 at 10:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Flip

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.

March 08 2006 at 8:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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