How To Save Time And Be More Productive Using QuickSilver
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QuickSilver is a program launching application (similar to Spotlight) and more, designed to help you get things done quickly, and to have a faster more efficient work flow. Think: spotlight on steroids.
With a simple press of cmd+space, or whatever you assign as your shortcut keys a menu will pop up allowing you to open any program by typing a few letters of its name: I hardly ever use my dock - I just launch programs via QuickSilver.
Installing QuickSilver
QuickSilver has been created by the clever folks over at Blacktree and can be downloaded here. For detailed installation instructions check out this guide.
Unclutter Your Dock; Launching Programs with Quicksilver
QuickSilver almost eliminates the need for a the dock, as you can launch programs very easily with it.
If you look in preferences you can set the hot key to bring up the QuickSilver prompt window, I have mine set as cmd+space:
Then all you need to do is enter a few letters of the name of the program you want to launch and it will start to bring up any matching programs that you are able to select and launch. It also has intelligent learning, whereby if you type ‘ff’ and select firefox, next time you type ff, firefox will appear as the default application to launch.
Do More Than Just Launch Programs With QuickSilver
As well as launching programs you can perform actions, so if you type the name of a program and then hit tab you can scroll through a list of other options to perform, for example copying or deleting files.
QuickSilver is expandable with third party modules that add extra functionality. For example, there is an iTunes module that allows you to play any of your playlists through QuickSilver. There are also FireFox/Safari modules that import your favorites and allow you to launch any website in from your favorites.
You can install extra modules by selecting the plugins menu and selecting any that take your fancy.
For further reading, check out this detailed guide by the lifehacker crew.
If you have any other productivity tips involving QuickSilver, be sure to leave them in the comments.
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