You’ve probably seen “application launcher” productivity tools like Alfred, Butler, LaunchBar, and so on. You certainly know about the search capabilities of Spotlight – built into the operating system.
Quicksilver has elements of these things, plus much, much more.
Via a keyboard shortcut, Quicksilver is available in every application. With just a few keystrokes (say, part of a name) It can launch other applications; search for and open, move, or delete files; append text to a document without opening an application; control iTunes; send an email; display the cell phone number for a contact and/or start a facetime session — and many other things.
It’s literally the very first thing I install on a new Mac. No exaggeration – I simply can’t function without it.
I promise to write in more detail in an upcoming post, but I highly recommend Merlin Mann’s podcasts describing how to set it up and how he uses it.
It’s been around for ten years, but few people have heard of it, and even fewer use it. Perhaps that’s because there’s a learning curve. Believe me, it’s worth it.
Free