Quicksilver - evolve your Mac OS X interface
By Peter Porker - Posted on Sat Sep 8, 2007
Quicksilver is a new personal desktop search tool cum user command interface for OS X.
You would ask, another personal desk search tool? Don’t we have enough? I will have to agree, we DO have way too many desktop search tools already. However, as cliched as it sounds, Quicksilver is not your run-of-the-mill search tool. It is a revolutionary method of rethinking the Mac OS interface. In fact, one blogger even went as far as saying that with Quicksilver you’re not just using OS X - you begin owning it!
What exactly is quicksilver anyway? How will it help me with my Mac? What is all the buzz about for this little software tool from Black Tree, Inc.?
Picture this: it is perhaps the only tool that has 2 (yes - you read right - only two) button-like panels. It will initially scan your Mac for any “subjects”: things like your address book, applications, desktop, system preferences, etc. This will constitute your first panel - a searcheable list of items that you can invoke, call and act upon on your Mac.
Next it will put in “actions” that you can perform on the previous “nouns”. The second panel is a list of actions you can take on the first panel choice. It is often activated by typing a few letters from a desired action or pressing the right arrow key.
If the action requires a target - a third panel comes up where, for example, you can choose the person (the target) you want to send (the action) an email (the noun) to.
Here’s a more concrete example: Call up Quicksilver using the default hotkey - Control + Space. Type in “a pho”. A dropdown comes in and one of the choices will be Adobe Photoshop. Select Photoshop and it will come up.
Sometimes the “noun” of choice is down below the lists. However, if you do it often enough, Quicksilver will learn which app you mean when you type “a pho” in the long run!
The nouns don’t have to be restricted on your Mac either. Type in a bookmark you often visit and it will pull up your Safari browser showing the page you meant.
You have a person in your address book you want to contact? Type their name into the panel and select them, press right - and presto - a wealth of options to contact them open up.
You invoke iTunes and begin to type browse … Quick silver will call up a mechanism for you to start browsing albums!
Basically, Quicksilver is a faster and simpler keyboard based interface that learns about your nuances the more you use it. What results is a faster and more intuitive computing experience! Your hands will no longer have to keep leaving the keyboard to reach for the mouse and the software even goes as far as interpreting your commands for you.
A keyboard based interface for a primarily graphical user interface, you ask? The answer is quite simple - try writing a post as long as this one and do some basic word processor maneuvering: boldface, capitalize, etc. See which will get you done faster: keyboard shortcuts or mouse clicks? Now, think if you can use keyboard shortcuts to run just about anything on your OS X? Neat, eh?
See more about the features, design ethos and ideologies of Quicksilver OS X in the video below. Now, if only there was a Quicksilver for Windows Vista …
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