Anyone using a computer (and the Macintosh is no exception) spends a lot of time locating files and applications, and then carrying out actions on those items. The Finder is a reasonably good tool for getting a visual overview of the contents of your disk, but it isn’t ideal for quickly locating and manipulating files, especially if you have a deep and complicated folder structure, or if you prefer keyboard navigation to using the mouse.
Quicksilver allows you to find what you need quickly and easily, while keeping your hands on the keyboard. For example, if you want to launch an application hidden in the depths of your file system, simply activate Quicksilver with a keystroke, type a few letters of the application’s name, then hit Return or Enter to launch it. When you don’t need Quicksilver, it keeps out of your way, preserving precious screen real estate, and yet you can summon it instantly with a key stroke – just like Mercury the winged messenger. Actually, Roman mythological texts are remarkably silent on whether Mercury could be summoned with a key stroke, but it would have been great if he could. Quicksilver will certainly make you feel as if you have god-like powers.
Quicksilver indexes and parses selected parts of the contents of your hard drive in the Catalog, so that it locates and displays the items matching your search really quickly. If you are a programmer or an uber-geek, you will be glad to know that you can extend and customise Quicksilver until it does exactly what you want it to. The modular structure also means that the application will never be bloated: You only load the modules that you find useful
An older, 10.3 compatible version is available: http://getqs.blacktree.com/b36/
Etienne Samson
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Disable Info.plist preprocessing on Plugins.
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Make shell scripts with “additional shebang” info work.
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README: Make real links.
Henery Barnor
- Removed dangling NSLog calls
Michael Guntsche
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Add Core Plugins to Release Build
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Fix to error messages
neurolepsy
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Fix droplets by using the 10.5+ NSConnection vending method
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The G in BROWSING no longer gets cut off in the result window
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Menus improved
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Object context menus improved
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Don’t show object descriptions in the result window if there’s not enough room (rows <34px high)
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Recent Items made Snow Leopard compatible
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Text fields only allow plain text
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Fix bug creating an indexSet from the UI Access plugin
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Fix 10.5 compilation issue
Patrick Robertson
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Fixed bug #35 – Do Not Open At Login Action now working
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Fix bug #34
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Tidying up (forgot to re-add ‘else’)
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Remove dangling NSLogs
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Fixed relaunch action for fussy apps that did not quit straight away
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Removed a stray brace
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Commented out the loc – locator, path (for bundles) NSLog
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Commented out another NSLog message
Paul Kohut
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Initial loop optimizations
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Update score ranking code
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NSEnumerator – loop optimization
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Merge branch ‘NSEnumerators’ into B5x
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Issue #39 (bug 262) Fix: Incorrect display of Websearch
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Turn on a couple release optimizations
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Fix issues 26, 47, 57 and 61
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Fix lingering issue PjRobertson found
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Fixed single/double tap Modifier Key Activation
Version 1.0b57:
- Default compiler changed to Clang, Apple’s and the Open Source community’s next gen compiler.
By doing that a 20 to 40% increase in runtime speed was gained while managing a catalog library with approx. 13k items. Quicksilver also feels a lot snappier too. This, of course, is mostly subjective (read: YMMV). - Actions should now appear localized again where appropriate.
(e.g. ‘Copy to…’ for example in German could also be typed as ‘Bewegen nach…’ or ‘Open’ as ‘Ouvrir’ in French. .lproj folders for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish, Finish, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish have been included. Mind you, the end result really depends on how Mac OS X handles this in the target language as Quicksilver just asks the OS for the localized representation of some common actions). - Composed characters like German umlauts (e.g. ‘ä’) will now show both parts (the letter ‘a’ and the ‘dots’. Previously only letters would show up).
- The broken action menu now shows up with a cross-selection of all enabled actions from the Actions preferences.
- The Smart Replace and Replace dialog actions no longer crash Quicksilver and will now actually append numbers via a smart numbering system if a file to be copied or moved already exists at the destination.
In order to use the Smart Replace dialog you will need to set the feature level equal to or higher than 3.To do that enter the following exactly into the Terminal and press Return: defaults write com.blacktree.Quicksilver “Feature Level” 3 - File operation requiring credentials no longer crash QS after providing the password.
- The Large Type action now keeps the text visible again for prolonged periods.
- Icons associated with custom file actions (e.g. like custom AppleScript actions) are now correctly displayed instead of a generic file placeholder icon.
- AppleScript actions which return something now cause Quicksilver to reappear again ready to use the result for the next action.
- Mouse tracking for triggers (‘Mouse entered’ / ‘Mouse exited’) now seems to work more reliably.
- The Extras pref pane no longer has a row spacing issue upon first loading of the associated NIB file.
- Excessive log outputs have been silenced to only occur if certain debugging environment variables are set in order to avoid spamming the Console.
- Dozens of API upgrades like replacing deprecated methods with safer variants or adding declaration names for the new way of handling informal protocols.
- All NIB files were converted to a SCM and collaboration friendly XIB format. A lot of clipping warnings have been fixed.
- Triggers with weird keys (like Function keys) are now displayed again.
- Updated French and German localization.
- Various other housekeeping tasks.