What a fantastic compilation of tools for any independent designer: The freelancer’s toolbox: 33 useful apps & websites for the freelance designer.
I think I finally need to give Quicksilver a try. It is bascially an application launcher for Mac. Here’s a video:
one of the best repositories for Quicksilver I can find is the Quicksilver category of 43 Folders: http://www.43folders.com/topics/quicksilver
ps. it’s installed on every machine that I work (or play) on.
Sep 9th, 2009 / 10:18 pm
If you’ve upgraded to Snow Leopard you may find Quicksilver a bit hit-or-miss. You might like to try Launchbar in the meantime.
Sep 10th, 2009 / 12:42 am
Word has it Quicksilver is no longer being updated because the developer that created it, Nicholas Jitkoff, was swept up by Google last year. While at Google, he has created Google’s Quick Search Box, which I’ve read is very similar (and in some aspects better than) Quicksilver. It was, after all, developed by the Quicksilver creator with the backing of Google. Here’s a post about it on LifeHacker: http://lifehacker.com/5129873/google-quick-search-like-quicksilver-from-google
Sounds like a good combination to me.
Download it here: http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/
Sep 10th, 2009 / 1:41 am
Quicksilver has been in development limbo for awhile, and the old builds are unreliable.
The main developer went on to start google quick search box — the functionality and polish aren’t quite all the way there yet, but it’s getting close.
Sep 10th, 2009 / 1:44 am
Don’t use Quicksilver if you’re running Snow Leopard. Also bear in mind that it is essentially an abandoned app at this point.
That said, the 43 Folders blog (mentioned above) is a great resource for finding out cool things about the app, and you should also check http://www.themerlinshow.com/ for a few hyper-potent tips too.
And try not to think of it as an app launcher. Quicksilver is a new OS. Once you’re familiar with the high-level functions, it’ll be far more than just a beefed-up Finder.
Sep 10th, 2009 / 7:35 am
But nowadays Apple’s Spotlight feature (also brought up by hitting cmd+space) is just as fast as Quicksilver, so there’s really no need to download any third-party app to launch apps/documents. It works the same way, and won’t require you to run any additional application processes in the background (thereby leaving you with more memory for running other apps…like Photoshop!).
Sep 10th, 2009 / 10:26 am
QS is way more than just an app launcher. It becomes an integral part of the workflow. With a little ingenuity you can leverage it into doing some great stuff.
For example, I have a keyboard shortcut set up through QS that changes my iTunes volume without having to bring the application to the front. Seems banal, but saves me a lot of time throughout the day.
So far so good on Snow Leopard, but honestly the application has never run flawlessly regardless of OS. It’s still a worthy tradeoff, though. I was resistant at first but now I don’t know what I’ll do when it’s not supported at all anymore. It hasn’t changed how I use the Finder, but rather is just a great addition to OS X.
Sep 10th, 2009 / 1:04 pm
I prefer Google Quicksearch for Mac which can do the same stuff that Quicksilver can. And it’s at least being still further developed …
Sep 11th, 2009 / 5:31 am