3529 An Application launcher and much more Quicksilver is described by its developers as a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data.

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 more.

At first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher.

When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. It also supports abbreviations, so you can type entire words, or just fragments of each. When not in use, Quicksilver vanishes, waiting for the next time you summon it.

Other Actions

Quicksilver's greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific application.

Quicksilver can be given the ability to understand the data inside of files, allowing you to work with data in new, faster ways. Plug-ins add both new items and new actions, allowing you to run scripts, send instant messages, dial phone numbers, look up words in a dictionary, queue up songs in iTunes party shuffle, and much, much more.

Frequently used commands can be bound to triggers, giving you the ability to execute them immediately by hitting a hot key or using the mouse on a corner or edge of the screen.

Wei Wu Wei - Act Without Doing

In the end, Quicksilver has one very important effect: the effort of frequent tasks fades into the background and you are able to act without thinking. After an adaptation period, Quicksilver becomes an extension of yourself; the process fades away leaving only the results. 1)

1) Thanks to Lao-tze and S. Mitchell

New in version 1.0b58:

Etienne Samson

• Disable Info.plist preprocessing on Plugins.

• Make shell scripts with "additional shebang" info work.

• README: Make real links.

Henery Barnor

• Removed dangling NSLog calls

Michael Guntsche

• Add Core Plugins to Release Build

• Fix to error messages neurolepsy

• Fix droplets by using the 10.5+ NSConnection vending method

• The G in BROWSING no longer gets cut off in the result window

• Menus improved

• Object context menus improved

• Don't show object descriptions in the result window if there's not enough room (rows <34px high)

• Recent Items made Snow Leopard compatible

• Text fields only allow plain text

• Fix bug creating an indexSet from the UI Access plugin

• Fix 10.5 compilation issue

Patrick Robertson

• Fixed bug #35 - Do Not Open At Login Action now working

• Fix bug #34

• Tidying up (forgot to re-add 'else')

• Remove dangling NSLogs

• Fixed relaunch action for fussy apps that did not quit straight away

• Removed a stray brace

• Commented out the loc - locator, path (for bundles) NSLog

• Commented out another NSLog message

Paul Kohut

• Initial loop optimizations

• Update score ranking code

• NSEnumerator - loop optimization

• Merge branch 'NSEnumerators' into B5x

• Issue #39 (bug 262) Fix: Incorrect display of Websearch

• Turn on a couple release optimizations

• Fix issues 26, 47, 57 and 61

• Fix lingering issue PjRobertson found

• 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. '') 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.

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

System Support:
PPC/Intel

Version for Mac OS X 10.4-10.5 available

Free

For more information, visit:
http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver

Tags: Software Updates ï Software News ï Utilities ï

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