Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools
Yojimbo plugin for Quicksilver (or: My heart just skipped a beat)
I need to make more of a habit of rooting around in Quicksilver's plugin pane, as I almost always find stellar new tools each and every time I open it. This time around I stumbled on a Yojimbo plugin for Quicksilver that seems to do a better job of adding items to the Yojimbo database than the bookmarklets that BareBones added themselves in the latest 1.2 update. Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings agrees, and he even beat me to the punch with a post that elaborates how this plugin works, complete with screenshot goodness. Be sure to check it out for a needed tip on turning this operating into a Quicksilver Trigger.After tinkering with this plugin, I am even happier that I uninstalled StickyBrain. The beauty of these actions is that, when adding or archiving a webpage to Yojimbo, this plugin doesn't force Yojimbo to the front, taking the focus away from whatever else you were doing. I don't know how these Quicksilver ninja developers managed to pull this off, as this is one of the main advantages over those new bookmarklets I mentioned.
I hope I speak for many users of Quicksilver and Yojimbo when I say: thank you, Quicksilver ninjas.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nicholas said 5:32PM on 6-13-2006
I actually didn't understand a word of that!
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David Chartier said 7:20PM on 6-13-2006
Well let me see if I can help elaborate real quick:
Quicksilver is what some call an 'application launcher.' It works a lot like Spotlight - it lets you find files, folders, applications, etc., but then, unlike Spotlight, it lets you chose what you want to do with them.
Yojimbo is a new app from BareBones Software that is basically a 'digital junk drawer.' It lets you easily store web pages, bookmarks, serials, site passwords, text snippets, etc., so you can easily organize and search these things. It's great for doing research and keeping your 'digital stuff' organized instead of just lying around in a bunch of Finder folders, amongst many other things.
Well this Yojimbo plugin for Quicksilver letes you enter a piece of text or a URL into it, and then automatically send that text or archive that website into Yojimbo, without ever having to open a browser window or directly work in Yojimbo, all from a Spotlight-ish type of interface. If you can get used to the concepts and using these tools, this can do absolute wonders for your productivity.
If you're still curious, Quicksilver is here, and I urge you to check out their documentation for help on grasping how the app works:
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com
and Yojimbo is at BareBones Software:
http://barebones.com
Hope this helps!
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Sir Not Appearing in this Blog said 1:11AM on 6-14-2006
That's what's kept me off Quicksilver...it's got a phenominal learning curve. What I hate most about QS is its fans, mormon-like legions of people who try to tell you it's the path to true enlightenment. Yet they can't quite explain it, telling you to, "check out their documentation for help on grasping how the app works". I am waiting for the one, true definitive Quicksilver tutorial.
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Angel said 6:49AM on 6-14-2006
The problem is that Quicksilver can do so many things. If you're waiting for a tutorial that covers everything it can do, you'll be waiting for an extremely long time since new functionality is found for it quite often. There are several tutorials on the Quicksilver website that do quite a good job with some of the basic and non-basic functions.
By waiting, you're missing out on an excellent app and serious time-saving measures. Even if you use it as a basic launcher, you'll quickly come to love it.
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Justin said 9:12AM on 6-14-2006
To get an idea of what launchers could do for you, check out this excellent screencast about LaunchBar (warning: direct link to video file, sorry, couldn't find a page to link to). It goes over the basics of LB and you can get a starter of an idea about what QS does as well by proxy. Of course, QS is much more full-featured, but that will get you started.
Speaking of scripts and URLs, I just posted some scripts for Pukka in the event that you use it for URL management instead of Yojimbo. Same idea -- send a URL from a browser to Pukka.
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Justin said 10:09AM on 6-14-2006
Apparently inline links do not work.
LaunchBar screencast: http://media.libsyn.com/media/donmc/macTV004_-_Launchbar_Utility_Review_H264.mov
Pukka scripts: http://codesorcery.net/2006/06/14/pukka-and-applescript/
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Nate said 1:58PM on 6-14-2006
Quicksilver does not have an unreasonably large learning curve. Once you understand the basics of how to interact with it, everything else logically falls into place. I can open any application, run shell scripts, search websites, interact with iTunes, etc: all those operations individually take literally less than two seconds to set in motion with Quicksilver. And those are just the basics...
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Josh said 3:08PM on 6-16-2006
A very old, but basic tutorial/overview of QuickSilver:
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php
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