Leopard Love: QuickLook Apps
Last night, Mike Rose pointed me to this great Leopard tip that allows you to turn your Application folder into a full-screen app viewer. Here's what you do. Navigate to /Applications and select the entire folder (Edit > Select All or Command-A). Next, tap the space bar, click the full-screen arrows and click the Index Sheet button. Bingo: instant full-screen viewer goodness.
Update: My bad. It won't launch the apps -- just displays their icons quicklook-ishly. Still cool.
Thanks Sebastiaan!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
William said 12:43PM on 3-31-2008
Too bad clicking on an icon doesn't easily launch the application.
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conigs said 12:13PM on 3-31-2008
While it may be pretty, useful is definitely not a word I'd use to describe this. Just make sure you don't use CMND-O to pop open an app, lest you open up every single item in your Applications folder as they are all selected.
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Maikel said 12:15PM on 3-31-2008
...and when you click between normal view and index view (esc from index), while holding down Shift, you get slow motion beauty...
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Jeremy said 12:16PM on 3-31-2008
Or.. you could just make a Stack on the Dock of your Applications folder and do the exact same thing, but with one click.. Quite useful!
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Ed said 4:20PM on 3-31-2008
Seriously. Why would anyone not have an applications stack in the dock? (unless they have a ton of apps, but even then there's folder view)
pete_01 said 12:22PM on 3-31-2008
1. Navigate to /Applications and select the entire folder
2. tap the space bar
3. click the full-screen arrows
4. click the Index Sheet button.
Its instantaneous!
J/K
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Unregistered said 12:20PM on 3-31-2008
It's pretty but not very useful unless it can be made into a one-click thing.. even so, i doubt it'd be any bit more useful than the dock :P
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Joe said 12:21PM on 3-31-2008
This feels more like a proof-of-concept than something that is actually useful. The end result may emulate an app launcher, but the process is anything but instant - let's reiterate the steps:
1. Open a new Finder window.
2. Click "Applications" in your sidebar.
3. Press Command-A or drag a rectangle over all the icons to select all.
4. Press the space bar.
5. Move the mouse over the the "Full Screen" button and press it.
6. Move your mouse over to the "Index Sheet" button and press it.
And now you are presented with a non-customizable screen conatining all of the items in your applications folder - including folders for some of those applications (MS Office, Adobe CS). That's a pretty lackluster reward for all those steps you performed.
I think Command-Space and typing part of the name of your app works a lot better and faster.
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Joe said 12:26PM on 3-31-2008
Although now that I think of it, you *might* be able to record these steps in automator. My work machine is Tiger (until I get my new Mac Pro this week, 16GB, 3TB, 2x23", but I digress) so maybe I'll look at it on my home machine, or would anyone else with access like to investigate this?
Jacques Lema said 5:02PM on 3-31-2008
You could save yourself one step by just hitting:
-Control A (select all)
-Control+Alt Y (full screen quickview)
Of course you still have pick the grid mode manually and you'll still end up with something practically useless. But it will make your colleagues drool.
Cris said 12:33PM on 3-31-2008
I do like the result, but it's just too much hassle. I'm no expert but, could there be a way to make an automator script for this?
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Josh Dyson said 12:35PM on 3-31-2008
Yeah, I'm afraid I can't find a single useful thing about this tip. You waste so much time to get a big black screen full of icons that does absolutely nothing functional nor all that pretty. Spotlight launches apps pretty darn quickly, though. So does a stack of the Apps folder. Or a dock icon. Heck, you might have just come up with the _least_ wieldy way to launch an application!
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Stormchild said 12:42PM on 3-31-2008
Sad excuse for an article.
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Joshua Whitver said 12:52PM on 3-31-2008
...And this is better than choosing the app from the pop-up menu in the Dock, or *gasp* double-clicking the icon in the Finder window why, again...?
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Kevin S. said 12:49PM on 3-31-2008
:face to palm:
did you even TRY this tip before you posted it?
clicking on the icon in the grid doesn't even launch the app. neither does double clicking it.
it does the same thing as if you were to hit space on an app (quicklooks the icon)
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chesama said 12:53PM on 3-31-2008
or maybe if you hit command-a, space, F11-F11-esc, click your right mouse button and scroll 4 times down and one time left, then command-a-F11-F3-tab - it'll open every app!
WTF is this? this is not useful. it's cute. that's it.
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Josh Dyson said 1:00PM on 3-31-2008
what's even better about this is the "source" for her "tip" (which was just a tweet) never calls this an app launcher or a way to do anything useful.
"Want to see something impressive? Go to your apps folder, CMD+A, hit the spacebar, go fullscreen, press the mosaic button. Nice!"
Just a pretty way to see your Apps icons.
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Nanaki said 12:48PM on 4-01-2008
Like someone else said... just make a stack in the dock. It's a wonderful way to forget this TUAW post ever happened. :)
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Chad said 1:24PM on 3-31-2008
Anything for a couple bucks, eh Erica? What a terrible article. It's unfortunate that this is becoming a regular occurrence.
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mentalsticks said 1:10PM on 3-31-2008
Great tip! And...
I just found out that you can do the same thing with the contents of your image folder! It shows thumbnails of every single pic you have in there! It's beautiful! These are the steps:
1. Navigate to your 'image' folder in Finder
2. Press cmd+A to select all files.
3. Press the spacebar.
4. Move your mouse to the 'full screen' button and click.
5. Hey presto!
And now that I'm trying it again, you can do something similar with your 'documents' folder. Follow these instructions:
1. Navigate to your 'documents' folder in Finder
2. Press cmd+A to select all files.
3. Press the spacebar.
4. Move your mouse to the 'full screen' button and click.
5. Hey presto!
Does anybody know whether this works in other folders as well?
/fake enthusiasm about a stupid hint
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