LoveQuicksilver - Quicksilver Blog
QuickSilver is what makes MacOS fun
Guys I just donated and the reason I bring is not blow my own horn, but I wanted to share why I did it, I’m sure a lot of people will agree
- QuickSilver is such a fine piece of software, that I’m surprised Apple hasn’t purchased it and made it part of MacOS.
- The quality of the software deserves a donation. It’s better than other pieces of software I’ve paid for in the past.
- Once you become proficient using QS, you notice how much time it saves you. So it’s on your best interest to keep the project well founded so you keep enjoying the benefits.
- Everybody has opinions and ways of seeing things. Even though QS is designed in a way that you, the user, can extend it. Donating gives you a sense of belonging to the project and (not that you can’t do this without helping, also donating doesn’t need to be money only) you can feel free to request features.
Last, thank you for passionately keeping at this.
Quicksilver Gets Things Done
Better handling of old plugins, lots of new keyboard shortcuts, and improvements to the Shelf and Clipboard
The developers now have a far greater understanding of Quicksilver’s code, enabling them to incorporate new features and fixes at a far faster rate. Time to quantify their output.
Catalog
CHANGE: Improvements to the include/exclude options for files and folders in the catalog #865
Typing ‘.jpg’ will resolve to ‘JPEG image’. Clearer, and more obvious that QS has recognised the file type to be excluded.
The string typed into the drawer text field above resolves to the label below:
NEW: Display the search modes Filter Catalog, Filter Results and Snap to Best in the results window #413, #786
NEW: Allow the search mode to be changed using ⌘→ and ⌘← toggle through all 3 states #67, #786
More info on how sorting and search filters work can be found in QS’s manual (p13) and on this blog.
FIX: Reliably update the catalog entry item ‘count’ icon in Catalog preferences following rescans #817
Preferences
CHANGE: Widen search bars in preference views and improve layout #785
FIX: Allow all preferences to be dismissed with ⎋ #718, #785
NEW: Add keyboard shortcuts to preferences buttons ⌘+, ⌘R, ⌘I for add, refresh and info #527, #785
Mousing to the bottom of the preferences window is now only an occasional chore, and all panes can be closed with the escape key. Here’s hoping for future keyboard shortcuts for search and a plugin’s help window.FIX: Exception when loading various icons in the preferences. DeMinimizer triggers now show correctly #687, #817
Plugins
NEW: Better management of plugins. Automatic replacement and removal of obsolete plugins #764
Not only the QS app, but also new plugins can police the viability of plugins already installed, leaving less opportunity for outdated plugins to crash Quicksilver.CHANGE: Call attention to plugins that do not load correctly #862
Clipboard and Shelf
FIX: Docking windows Clipboard/Shelf correctly retain their state between launches #811, #824
CHANGE: Floating Clipboard and Shelf panes stay open until explicitly closed #824
For the first time in a long time, the Clipboard and Shelf panes behave in a consistent way. Docked panes (that slide in and out of the display’s edge) slide out when moused over, and disappear after use. Floating panes disappear after use when ‘Hide after pasting’ is checked in Preferences>Clipboard. Panes that are visible remain visible until used or explicitly dismissed - even across relaunches.
Stays visible until used
Right-arrowing
FIX: Reliably show the most up to date recent documents when right arrowing into applications #392, #819
FIX: Show that → or / will work on URLs #859
FIX: Show that → or / will work on applications with recent documents #859
FIX: Do not make it appear that → or / will work on text #859
The chevrons in the results window correctly show which objects can be arrowed into.
Interface
FIX: Do not allow the creation of empty text objects e.g. when dismissing text mode with an empty editor #855
FIX: Do not allow focus to be lost from the 1st pane unless it contains an object #855
FIX: Update the list of actions when switching to text mode #277
FIX: Allow actions to return multiple results and change the results after the fact #804
FIX: Don’t require 3rd pane input if the action has it as optional #750, #806
The rest
NEW: Much improved crash reporter. No longer displays on false positives and allows sending of information and crash reports to Quicksilver Developers #848
Restarting a Mac should no longer result in a ‘Quicksilver crashed’ dialog. If QS does crash for some reason, it’s a matter of a couple of clicks to send a crash report.
NEW: Tools for doing Spotlight searches internally #778
This is a work in progress. Spotlight search results for a file, folder or text string can be returned to pane 1 using the ‘Spotlight in Command’, ‘Spotlight Contents…’ or ‘Spotlight Filenames of Contents…’ actions. However, results can only be seen by using ↓↑ on the ‘Searching’ icon that appears in the first pane, and then only one at a time. Useful for very specific searches.
CHANGE: Reinstate the ‘load previews’ preference as a hidden preference #843
If movie or image file previews are slowing QS down, type this command into Terminal:defaults write com.blacktree.quicksilver "QSLoadImagePreviews" NOCHANGE: Move QuickTime specific features to a new QuickTime plugin to be released soon #819
CHANGE: Load web search icons asynchronously. Removes lag when getting website favicons #637, #805
CHANGE: Allow Quicksilver to load multiple file and web search icons at once #805
CHANGE: Add information for developers to the version number #829
FIX: Correctly set names of multiple items e.g. ‘6 Applications’ in /Applications’ #237, #793
FIX: Correctly get names of printers and other packages #475, #793
FIX: The ‘Create File’ action works and looks better #846, #847
FIX: Better handling of paths containing wildcards #814, #815
FIX: Various code optimisations and stability improvements #817, #834, #824, #870, #878, #880, #885
FIX: Typo in the setup routine #876
FIX: update the year in the About panel #881
No mention here of the new Chrome, Networking and iTerm2 plugins. Coming soon: Quicksilver in 64-bit.
@LoveQuicksilver
Unabashed Love…
As the top Mac slapper in my social circles, I end up setting up/configuring many a new Mac. Quicksilver is one of the most important 3rd party apps that goes on these machines… can’t live without it.Thanks Sam!
It’s users like yourself that keep us going. :)
Upload Screenshots to imgur
Thought I would give back to the community.
A few years ago, I had found the custom action for capturing screenshots http://metajack.wordpress.com/2007/03/29/faster-qa-with-screenshots/.
In the same fashion, I made a custom action for capturing a screenshot and posting it to imgur, followed by a growl.
Imgr.scpt is as follows (also has imgur.sh in the same paste which does the job of posting to imgur):
Thanks again for the wonderful QS and let me know if I can make improvements and/or answer questions (I’m a rookie QS and AppleScript programmer).
Cheers,
Haroon
Thanks Haroon!
Quicksilver can perform screenshots using the Screen Capture Actions plugin, but the screencapture command can be customized to a far greater degree (run man screencapture in Terminal to see its options).
Here’s a screenshot variant that returns the file to QS:
using terms from application "Quicksilver"
on process text theString
-- Change save_location to the directory you want to
-- store screenshots in.
-- Make sure it ends with a '/' as below.
set save_location to "/Users/phil/Desktop/"
set theFile to (save_location & theString & ".png")
set theFilename to quoted form of theFile
set theCommand to "screencapture -i " & theFilename
do shell script theCommand
set the selection to theFile
return
end process text
end using terms from@LoveQuicksilver
Quicksilver Makes Itself Clear
A large number of changes that include simpler preferences, object history browsing, and speed improvements
Anyone who is more than a casual user of Quicksilver is going to find themselves saying ‘Yeah!’ to a lot of these changes. Anyone who is not, might find themselves becoming more than a casual user.
Let’s get this straight.
NEW: Simplification of preferences and addition of section titles #788
Quicksilver’s preferences are confusing; very few people understand every option. ‘Alternate Services Menu Key’ anyone? In ß67 this has been removed, helpful section titles have been added (including a brief explanation of how the Actions list works), and options that catered for older Macs have been expunged. All explained in the clear tones of the Queen’s English. (Apart from ‘Catalog’, that is…)NEW: Icons for preferences items #788
A new Plug-ins icon is still being discussed.
Before and after
Click here to see all the changes
NEW: Allow browsing of Quicksilver’s objects using ⌘[ and ⌘] #573
This is a great new feature for Quicksilver. Act on or dismiss any object in pane 1 and it will be added to QS’s object history. This history can now be browsed in the same way as a window’s history in Chrome or Safari. Any of the last 20 objects can be called back into the first pane.Handy if a folder that’s not in the catalog has to be accessed a lot, a URL is needed that Quicksilver opened a short while ago, or a text snippet that isn’t on the clipboard is required again. The history is cleared when QS is relaunched.
NEW: Running applications and processes are monitored in real time (improves use of ‘Quit’ actions and application proxy objects) #575
To see background processes, make sure ‘Include background applications’ is checked in Preferences>Catalog>Running Applications & Processes>ⓘ.CHANGE: Improve speed of action loading for objects #340 #782
When typing, the default time for QS to start searching is now 0.05 seconds. Users on modern machines can gain a small speed boost by setting this to 0.00 seconds in Preferences.CHANGE: Improve speed of catalog searches #758 #780 #782
Quicksilver is a far less likely to miss keystrokes.FIX: Do not prepend ‘http://’ to URLs copied and pasted to the Quicksilver clipboard #775 #776
Great when pasting URLs for shared web content such as tweets and blog posts.FIX: Correctly scan for new plugins when checking for updates #803
More accurately finds new or updated plugins to install.FIX: Do not duplicate objects in the catalog when adding them to the object history #573
If ‘Recent Objects’ was checked Preferences>Catalog>Quicksilver, an object would often be shown in the results list twice, once for its standard catalog entry and once for its aforementioned catalog’s entry. No longer.CHANGE: Do not clear the 1st pane object after 10 minutes #399 #782
Leave an object in pane 1 for as long as necessary.FIX: Odd behaviour when grabbing multiple items from Finder #753 #755
FIX: ‘Current Selection’ proxy object in Sandboxed apps in OS X Lion #710
FIX: Consistently honour the ‘focus action when returning results to Quicksilver’ setting #283 #784
FIX: Do not lose focus of the selected Quicksilver pane when the results window displays #325
FIX: Crash when getting display names (for Displays Module) #789 #790
FIX: Correctly obtain localised names of connected displays (for Displays Module) #790
Display names other than French.
FIX: Correctly restore docked panels when Quicksilver starts #691 #692
My docked Shelf and Clipboard panels stay hidden on launch, don’t pop out when moused over, and toggle in and out on the press of a shortcut. They have done so for at least the last 3 updates (including this one), and I like it this way. What do you see and/or expect from these panels?FIX: Correctly display multi-line ‘Large Type’ text #733
Multiple lines of short text will be formatted to show as many lines on the screen as possible. A display 900 pixels high can accommodate 29 lines of text.
FIX: Only scan catalog items once when the rescan entry button is pressed #765
CHANGE: Improved handling of plugin actions within Quicksilver #773
CHANGE: Removal of deprecated methods and use 10.6+ methods only #648 #781
CHANGE: Make the ‘Unsure Quit’ dialogue a hidden preference #788
When QS is quit using the ⌘Q shortcut, a dialog appears instructing users to hold ⌘Q to continue the quit command. A second quick press of ⌘Q while the dialog is visible will suffice, however.
This feature will reduce the likelihood of trying to launch Quicksilver with Quicksilver, but it could be contentious for people who expect Mac apps’ usual quit behaviour. The standard system method can be restored by running the following command in Terminal:defaults write com.blacktree.quicksilver "Delay Before Quitting" NO
Are we on the same page? If not, or if you have any thoughts on the behaviour of the Clipboard pane or QS’s quit shortcut, feel free to bend our ears in the comments.
More Quicksilver love coming in the near future.
@LoveQuicksilver
