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Internal shortcuts - unlock those hidden Quicksilver features

With the release of Quicksilver ß69, we added support for Quicksilver to process keyboard shortcuts from all keyboard layouts. Triggers have worked in this way ever since they were introduced into Quicksilver, but the same can’t be said for the long list of (often hidden) internal shortcuts

In this blog post, I’ll take you through some of the most useful, and less well known shortcuts Quicksilver has to offer.

Paste Action

Whilst this technically isn’t a shortcut, Quicksilver’s “Paste” and “Paste as Plain Text” actions (which allow you to paste whatever item is in Quicksilver’s 1st pane) have only ever worked for QWERTY keyboard users until now. The action simulates the ⌘V keystroke, so never quite worked for all our international users. Now, however, this action is available for everyone to use. Here are some examples of where you might use it:

• Use Current Web Page ⇥ Paste when wanting to paste your current website URL (for example, into an email or tweet). Requires a browser plugin (e.g. Safari Plugin, Chrome Plugin)
• To remove formatting from copied text, try Clipboard Contents → Paste as Plain Text. Useful to set up as a trigger.
• Paste items from your shelf (requires the ‘Shelf Plugin’) by bringing up the shelf item in Quicksilver’s 1st pane and using the ‘Paste’ action.
• Easily paste a file or folder’s path by simply using File or Folder → Paste

There are many, many more uses for this action, perhaps one of the most useful in Quicksilver’s arsenal!
Tip: turn on “Allow capitalised keys to select the action” in the Extras preferences, and you can then run the action with ⌘⇧P without having to tab to the 2nd pane. See this blog post on ‘shifting’ for more information.

Browsing Quicksilver’s History

Believe it or not, Quicksilver has an object history just like your browser. If you want to bring up that file, folder, or snippet of text you were using in Quicksilver a few days ago, just use the ⌘[ (back) and ⌘] (forward) shortcuts to browse your history. Just like your browser, except inside Quicksilver. For more information, read about it in a recent Quicksilver release article or view the video below.

Browsing object History in Quicksilver

Showing an item’s contents and browsing in Quicksilver

You should all be familiar with using the → (right arrow) key to show an item’s contents (for example, a folder), and then using ← (left arrow) to move back ‘up’.
For some years now, the / (forward slash) key has also worked for showing an item’s contents. To move ‘up’, a corresponding ⌥/ (option forward slash) keyboard shortcut has existed. Only now, with the release of Quicksilver ß69 will this work correctly for all users, no matter what their keyboard shortcut.

A useful shortcut if you don’t want to stretch all the way to those arrow keys!

A few more hidden gems

The ~ (tilde) key represents your ‘Home’ folder on your Mac. You can type this in Quicksilver’s 1st pane to instantly bring up the home folder - now available for all our users.

Typing ~ to show your Home folder

Entering into Text Mode in Quicksilver is typically done by pressing the . (period) key. Now, with Quicksilver ß69 you can also use the ' (apostrophe) key.

If you’re using the Calculator plugin, an easy way to put Quicksilver into “Calculate” mode is by typing =. This puts Quicksilver into text mode (allowing you to type your mathematical expression) and makes ‘Calculate’ the default action.

Calculating expressions in Quicksilver

Wrapping it all up

This post should have given you a (not so) brief look into some of the internal shortcuts available to Quicksilver. For the full list, be sure to checkout our Keyboard Shortcuts page on the wiki.

Let us know if you have any more that you’re particularly fond of!