I am a big fan of Quicksilver. Rare is the day that I sit in front of someone’s Mac without recommending they download it. However, it wasn’t always like this. Even as an avid reader of all kinds of Mac sites, it was only after several months that I realized how truly powerful, simple, and effective Quicksilver really is.
If you haven’t heard of Quicksilver before, it is a file launcher. I’ll provide an example: Lets suppose I needed to open up good ol’ trusty TextEdit. On a regular machine, I would go to Finder, go to Applications, find TextEdit, and double click on the icon. That seems like a lot of steps for an action I do all the time. With Quicksilver, I simply press Apple+Space, start typing the first several letters of TextEdit, and it brings up the TextEdit icon for me, and I simply press return to open the program. Quicksilver does all of the finding for me. All I need to do is know the name. It also works for your files, not just applications. It also does all kinds of other interesting things. If you’re a visual learner like me, there are tons of Quicksilver tutorials on YouTube (like this one). Sounds both helpful and a little daunting right?
Luckily, LifeHacker, a website that I read daily has offered a Beginner’s Guide to Quicksilver, which, in very basic terms explains what Quicksilver is, how to install it, and several great ways to use it. This is the first part in a multipart series, and I will update you guys on when new parts come out.
I highly recommend every Mac user get and use Quicksilver (its 100% free!) as well as read the LifeHacker guide. It is by no means a “poweruser” tool, and is an extremely useful addition to any Mac.