Excellent multi-application launcher

Quicksilver is a handy app and folder launcher has quickly become one of the essential applications on Mac.

For those of you not familiar with Quicksilver, it’s an application that lets you reach any program, folder or file in a few keystrokes. You don’t have to go searching through your files, you don’t have to worry about how your folders are arranged. For many, Quicksilver was a godsend in the pre-Spotlight Mac era. Although it’s lost some of its importance with the new powerful search and Finder features in Leopard it still remains very much an excellent Mac application.

The search function is very quick and powerful and once you’ve found what you’re looking for you can apply a number of actions like simply launching it, emailing or moving. What’s more Quicksilver adapts to the file it finds, so if it’s a document you’ll get to modify or send it, and if it’s an email you’ll get to email or copy it. Quicksilver users also like the fact that the application learns from what you search to bring up what you search for or use most.

Quicksilver wouldn’t be what it is without its large library of plugins though. This includes everything from dialing a phone number to interacting with iTunes or image and text manipulation. This means you can really customize the application to work according to your needs.

The only downside is the stability issues that Quicksilver seems to have. The application is noted to crash every once in a while.

Despite this stability issue, Quicksilver remains an incredibly intuitive and powerful multi-application launcher for Mac. Recommended for productivity geeks.

New: Release Notes are shown by default after each upgrade. This can be disabled by setting a hidden preference. (#1208) New icons from Dan Deming-Henes (#1129) Translations complete for several languages, and in progress for more. See the Transifex project for current status (not necessarily reflected in this release). (#1209) Modernized the look of the Bezel interface (#1140) Notification Center is now available as a notification handler in Mountain Lion (set as default) (#867, #1132) An application’s iCloud documents are shown (in addition to recent documents) when right-arrowing into the application (#1054, #1056) Catalog preset for iCloud documents (#1054, #1056) Holding ? will select the alternate action if available (#1163) Alternate actions can now be seen in the Actions preferences (#1163) Alternate actions added for Move To…, Copy To…, Make Link In…, Run at Time…, and Open With… (#1163) Users can control which file types get preview icons by listing UTIs in the hidden QSFilePreviewTypes preference. By default, it only lists public.item, which applies to all files and preserves the old default behavior. (#1149, #1180) Text entry mode allows undo, substitutions, etc. (#337, #127, #1173) The Large Type action can be used on text files (#1185) Allow non-admin users to install updates (#521, #1159) Right arrowing into URLs keeps links in order and link titles are more accurate (#1146, #1150) Enabled the “Open E-mail URL” action for e-mail addresses (#1194) Clear the selected pane with ?U (as in most Unix shells) (#1189) Descriptions added for all actions in the core application (#1124) Recent Objects and Recent Commands catalog entries are updated in real-time (#1106, #1111) Color QSObjects now support more icon sizes Fixed: Display the correct name after using the Rename… action (#1105, #1116) When changing a trigger hotkey, the old hotkey will be released by Quicksilver (#1104, #1107) Catalog settings are saved when entries are removed (#569, #1108) Item details will always be up to date (#1148, #1151) Icons in the results list are correctly updated when they finish loading (#1200) Icons for proxy objects are correctly updated if the underlying object’s icon changes (#1200) Prevent ??[letter] shortcuts from making the application unresponsive (#1122, #1160) Latest Download proxy object is more reliable under Mountain Lion (#1102, #1109) Triggers can refer to multiple files/folders/applications (using the comma trick) (#555, #1112) The interface will appear above full-screen applications (#740, #1138) Cursor color matches text color (to improve visibility) in text entry mode (#1171, #1173) Prevent a crash when resetting preferences Prevent Primer from starting to look strange when typing in text entry mode Make docking windows completely transparent when they’re off screen (#1064) Favorite Servers, Recent Servers, and Disks presets work again (#891, #1128) Finder Toolbar Items and Finder Sidebar Items presets work again (#683, #1169) The Printers preset has an icon again (#1128, #1156) Fixes for count badges (#1129) Items are ranked correctly when no search string is provided (#1162) Bug fixes and internal improvements (#921, #840, #1114, #1180, #1206, #1211) Changed: Only show name when the label doesn’t match the search at all (#1062) When showing the name, keep the label visible too. Shows as “label ? name” (#1117) Always show details if the interface supports them (#1148, #1151) When full details can’t be displayed, truncate in the middle (#525, #1151) Prevent the Paste and Rename… actions from appearing when multiple items are selected (#593, #1167, #1116) Don’t dismiss the interface when a docking window (Shelf/Clipboard) appears (#337, #1173) Many proxy objects simplified and converted to regular objects with children (#654, #1128) References to Sherlock removed (#1128) Removed the Finder Search Locations catalog preset (#1169) Removed the duplicate Run[…] action. It’s provided by the Terminal plug-in. (#1199) The Move to Trash action won’t appear for files on network volumes (#1180) Better feedback from the Move to Trash action if one or more files can’t be trashed (#1180) The Open With… action now lists all applications in the catalog (#1184, #1180) User visible notifications are used in place of Console messages in many places Development: Improvements to the localization process – or is it “localisation”? (#1025) New dedicated type for Web Search URLs: QSSearchURLType (#625, #1082) New method to return the “big cat” OS version (i.e. 10.x) (#1128) Filter the third pane based on an action’s indirectTypes (#1120) New methods available for QSObjects that represent files: isPackage, isAlias, isDirectory, fileExtension, and fileUTI. Improved isApplication and isFolder. (#1180) Overhaul the way icons are loaded in the background (using GCD) for the results list (#1142) directFileTypes can now be a UTI (not just an extension) (#1185) New helper method for passing input data to an NSTask (#1127) The * in the settings for QSDefaultsObjectSource can now go through dictionaries (#1169) Improvements to the qs-push-plugin script (#1060, #1061) New scoredArrayForType: method in QSLibrarian to get a list of objects sorted by rank (#1162) Styles defined for definition lists in documentation (#1200)

Changes

• New: Release Notes are shown by default after each upgrade. This can be disabled by setting a hidden preference. (#1208) New icons from Dan Deming-Henes (#1129) Translations complete for several languages, and in progress for more. See the Transifex project for current status (not necessarily reflected in this release). (#1209) Modernized the look of the Bezel interface (#1140) Notification Center is now available as a notification handler in Mountain Lion (set as default) (#867, #1132) An application’s iCloud documents are shown (in addition to recent documents) when right-arrowing into the application (#1054, #1056) Catalog preset for iCloud documents (#1054, #1056) Holding ? will select the alternate action if available (#1163) Alternate actions can now be seen in the Actions preferences (#1163) Alternate actions added for Move To…, Copy To…, Make Link In…, Run at Time…, and Open With… (#1163) Users can control which file types get preview icons by listing UTIs in the hidden QSFilePreviewTypes preference. By default, it only lists public.item, which applies to all files and preserves the old default behavior. (#1149, #1180) Text entry mode allows undo, substitutions, etc. (#337, #127, #1173) The Large Type action can be used on text files (#1185) Allow non-admin users to install updates (#521, #1159) Right arrowing into URLs keeps links in order and link titles are more accurate (#1146, #1150) Enabled the “Open E-mail URL” action for e-mail addresses (#1194) Clear the selected pane with ?U (as in most Unix shells) (#1189) Descriptions added for all actions in the core application (#1124) Recent Objects and Recent Commands catalog entries are updated in real-time (#1106, #1111) Color QSObjects now support more icon sizes Fixed: Display the correct name after using the Rename… action (#1105, #1116) When changing a trigger hotkey, the old hotkey will be released by Quicksilver (#1104, #1107) Catalog settings are saved when entries are removed (#569, #1108) Item details will always be up to date (#1148, #1151) Icons in the results list are correctly updated when they finish loading (#1200) Icons for proxy objects are correctly updated if the underlying object’s icon changes (#1200) Prevent ??[letter] shortcuts from making the application unresponsive (#1122, #1160) Latest Download proxy object is more reliable under Mountain Lion (#1102, #1109) Triggers can refer to multiple files/folders/applications (using the comma trick) (#555, #1112) The interface will appear above full-screen applications (#740, #1138) Cursor color matches text color (to improve visibility) in text entry mode (#1171, #1173) Prevent a crash when resetting preferences Prevent Primer from starting to look strange when typing in text entry mode Make docking windows completely transparent when they’re off screen (#1064) Favorite Servers, Recent Servers, and Disks presets work again (#891, #1128) Finder Toolbar Items and Finder Sidebar Items presets work again (#683, #1169) The Printers preset has an icon again (#1128, #1156) Fixes for count badges (#1129) Items are ranked correctly when no search string is provided (#1162) Bug fixes and internal improvements (#921, #840, #1114, #1180, #1206, #1211) Changed: Only show name when the label doesn’t match the search at all (#1062) When showing the name, keep the label visible too. Shows as “label ? name” (#1117) Always show details if the interface supports them (#1148, #1151) When full details can’t be displayed, truncate in the middle (#525, #1151) Prevent the Paste and Rename… actions from appearing when multiple items are selected (#593, #1167, #1116) Don’t dismiss the interface when a docking window (Shelf/Clipboard) appears (#337, #1173) Many proxy objects simplified and converted to regular objects with children (#654, #1128) References to Sherlock removed (#1128) Removed the Finder Search Locations catalog preset (#1169) Removed the duplicate Run[…] action. It’s provided by the Terminal plug-in. (#1199) The Move to Trash action won’t appear for files on network volumes (#1180) Better feedback from the Move to Trash action if one or more files can’t be trashed (#1180) The Open With… action now lists all applications in the catalog (#1184, #1180) User visible notifications are used in place of Console messages in many places Development: Improvements to the localization process – or is it “localisation”? (#1025) New dedicated type for Web Search URLs: QSSearchURLType (#625, #1082) New method to return the “big cat” OS version (i.e. 10.x) (#1128) Filter the third pane based on an action’s indirectTypes (#1120) New methods available for QSObjects that represent files: isPackage, isAlias, isDirectory, fileExtension, and fileUTI. Improved isApplication and isFolder. (#1180) Overhaul the way icons are loaded in the background (using GCD) for the results list (#1142) directFileTypes can now be a UTI (not just an extension) (#1185) New helper method for passing input data to an NSTask (#1127) The * in the settings for QSDefaultsObjectSource can now go through dictionaries (#1169) Improvements to the qs-push-plugin script (#1060, #1061) New scoredArrayForType: method in QSLibrarian to get a list of objects sorted by rank (#1162) Styles defined for definition lists in documentation (#1200)

Quicksilver is a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data. 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.

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.