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Quicksilver Trigger, Strip Clipboard Formatting
Sometimes even the best intentions of developers can't account for user preference, and after speaking with many other Mac users, this certainly seems to be the case with OS X's habitual tendency to preserve the formatting of text copied to the clipboard. For example:I copy text from OmniWeb:Pasted text before running the trigger:Pasted text after running the trigger:Quicksilver maven Dan Dickinson has figured out a sneaky way to strip out this formatting, and has turned the method into a handy Trigger. The trick works by pasting the contents of the clipboard into a terminal shell (where it loses all formatting), and then re-copying the text to the clipboard. For the trigger to work, you must have the Terminal Plugin installed. A full how-to is available on Dan's website.
Quicksilver + YubNub: one search to rule them all
Over at LifeClever, Chanpory has a post about integrating Quicksilver and YubNub, a kind of web search aggregator with a built-in "command line" parser. If you go to YubNub.org, you can enter searches by entering an abbreviation and then the search phrase (there are apparently over 10,000 existing search shortcuts, and you can even add your own). So a search for "TUAW" on google becomes: g TUAW. Similarly, a wikipedia search starts "wp," an IMDB search starts (wait for it), "imdb", dictionary.com with "d," and so on. Using the Web Search Module Plugin it becomes really easy to add this search aggregator to Quicksilver. Just create a bookmark in your default browser that points to: http://www.yubnub.org/parser/parse?command=*** You should now be able to use the standard Quicksilver web searching model to access YubDub (with the Web Search Module installed Quicksilver will automatically substitute the contents of the text field for the *** and open the URL in your browser). LifeClever has the complete instructions. One really neat thing is you can do multiple searches in one line, e.g. mash Apple g wp will open both a Google and a Wikipedia search on 'Apple' in separate frames of a single browser window.
Automatically restart crashed programs
Over at Macworld Rob Griffiths has a great column on automatically restarting a program after a crash. Although it is much more stable these days, for a while last year Quicksilver was constantly crashing on me and often I wouldn't notice until ??? + space was strangely unavailing. If there's any program for you, like Quicksilver for me, that simply must be running all the times (but which unexpectedly crashes sometimes), Rob's hint is potentially very handy. It basically involves using Lingon to create a launchd daemon that watches for a crash log and then restarts the application when it sees one. Full instructions are available at Macworld. I'm now going to go see if I can get this set up for Quicksilver.
Quickly relaunch an app with Quicksilver
That's it, Quicksilver is officially The Handiest Utility Ever. This great tip from Lifehacker explains how you can use Quicksilver to quickly relaunch an application that has - *ahem*- unexpectedly frozen. Simply call up Quicksilver, find the target application, tab over to the action pane, type "relaunch," hit return and blammo! The errant app gets a kick in the seat. Thanks, Quicksilver!
TUAW Tip: Re-embed iTunes artwork in media files
One of the backend changes that came with the release of iTunes 7 is how the app stores album artwork. The days of embedding album artwork in music files are gone, due in part (I assume) to the purchase and integration of CoverFlow, a flashy new way to browse your albums. Artwork is now stored in a new ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder, but what if you want your album artwork embedded in those files? Users can have any number of reasons for wanting this, such as the Growl notifications that Quicksilver creates when iTunes starts playing something new. Those notifications (as I understand it) are incapable of properly display album artwork unless the image is embedded in the file, so iTunes 7 has created a bit of a conundrum with this new organization feature.Never fear, however, for Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes is yet again to the rescue. Doug has a handy script aptly titled Embed Artwork that can do just what it says: embed the album art back into your files. This should make things easier on Quicksilver + Growl, as well as if you move your media files to a new computer, artwork in tow.As usual, Doug's scripts are provided for free, but donations for all his hard work are strongly encouraged.[via Quicksilver's forums]
How To: Stikkit Plugin for Quicksilver
A while back we posted on a nice AppleScript and service for the online organizational service Stikkit, usable with Quicksilver. However, according to the Stikkit blog, Merlin Mann has now talked Alcor, the author of Quicksilver, into writing an official plugin for Stikkits. This plugin not only allows you to easily add new Stikkits, but even adds your Stikkits themselves to your Quicksilver Catalog. So you can search and edit your Stikkits, right within Quicksilver. Unfortunately, like many things related to Quicksilver it's not immediately obvious how to get this set up, so I'll walk you through it briefly.
Quicksilver meets Twitter and Growl
Here is a cool Quicksilver script that lets you post messages to Twitter. Once you've downloaded the script and placed it into your Quicksilver/Actions folder, you can simply call up Quicksilver, invoke text mode (by typing a "."), tab to the action pane, type "tweet" and you're off. Plus, Growl will let you know when you've successfully "tweeted."Not bad for a script that was written from start to finish in the time it takes to play Prince's Purple Rain all the way through (that was the limit the author set for himself).I recently jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, and while I do admit that it's fun, it isn't especially useful. Do I really need to know that Johnny is looking for AAA batteries? No.
Fumo Quicksilver Interface: smokin'
Okay, I'm perfectly willing to concede that, practically speaking, this is utterly pointless; nonetheless, it's pretty dang cool. Ankur Kothari (whom we've featured a couple of times before) is working on a new interface for TUAW favorite Quicksilver, which he calls Fumo. The interface is still a work in progress, but he's released a preview version that includes the infamous smoke effects courtesy of the Disco developers. Fumo itself is an interesting idea, incorporated all three of the bezel interface's panes into a single box (the center well is the equivalent of the left pane, the action (middle pane) is above the well, and the object is below).Fumo is a free download from Ankur's site, the Vacuous Virtuoso (there's also a non-smoking version if you're a square). To see where Fumo is heading, check out the original concept, inspired by Automator.
QuickPack: Quicksilver plus Backpack
Author Nils Werkmeister (great name!) writes in to tell us about his QuickPack, a Quicksilver Action that makes it very easy to add entries to a page on 37Signals' Backpack online organizational tool. We've mentioned a number of Backpack tools in the past, including various widgets and Packrat, but Nils' solution has the nearly insuperable advantage of integrating so well with TUAW's favorite utility: Quicksilver. After entering text mode in Quicksilver (generally with a period) you're able quickly to insert calendar entries, ToDos, notes, and reminders to any of your Backpack pages by prefixing your entry with one of the various supported tags (e.g. "+todo" and "+note"; see the QuickPack page for full details). Once you select the QuickPack action it will bring up another dialog box asking on which page you want your new entry placed.
Desktop of the Week for 4/1 - 4/07/07
The TUAW Desktop of this week brings a subtle spin to two elements of Mac OS X: the desktop and menubar. Flickr user syrup16g submitted a unique setup to our TUAW Desktops Flickr Pool that contains none of the typical desktop icons - not even a hard drive. Head over to see a larger size size of the pic, but the icons you see are aliases to three folders: Photo, Download and Movie. I guess syrup16g has some very specific uses for his Mac. What makes this über-minimal desktop interesting is its contrast with a very, very busy menubar that contains, from left to right: Quicksilver, iScrobbler, Alarm Clock 2, you control: Tunes, Google Notifier, Mixi and Main Menu.If you'd like to see your unique, functional or otherwise interesting desktop featured in our TUAW Desktops of the Week series, check out past featured desktops as well as the original post for the rules and to get an idea of what we're looking for. Then, upload your desktop screenshot to our TUAW Desktops Flickr group. We'll feature one or more desktops each weekend, giving credit to the desktop owner, wallpaper creator and any apps featured in the screenshot (if available). Keep those desktops rolling in!
iGTD - yet another powerful, integrated GTD app
I know, I know - we've been blogging so many GTD apps lately that you probably needed to create a new task list just to look through them and make a decision. iGTD, however, packs one heckuva punch, so I thought it would be worth mentioning. While it includes all the typical features one probably expects from a GTD implementation these days, iGTD brings a lot of power to the table with features like Address Book integration, drag and drop task creation from files, URLs and Mail.app messages, task tagging, 'maybe' tasks, flagging, a unique 'wait for' task class, keyboard shortcuts, Quicksilver integration, phone/PDA syncing, a menubar helper, searching... and even more.With all these features, iGTD is amazingly donationware, and I highly recommend showing the developer some love after all this work.
Tumblr now has Dashboard widgets, Quicksilver add-on
Tumblr is a unique new tumblelog service that employs a KISS philosophy: offering a very streamlined, one-column layout and a clever bookmarklet that is smart about what you're trying to share on your Tumblr blog. While the minimalist templates can be edited by hand to include just about anything you want, Tumblr's concept is to be a sort of blogging scrapbook; a place to toss all those unique things you find across the web that might not fit at any of your other blogging venues, or that you simply don't have much to say about. Take a look at the Tumblr Radar to get an idea of how others are using the service. Now that introductions are out of the way, a recent update to Tumblr, as well as a how-to post from our sister Download Squad blog, has highlighted some Mac OS X-specific features that should make it even easier for Mac users to jump into the service. First, Alex Hung (Windows developer for ecto, by the way) wrote up a great how-to at Download Squad that explores the construction of a Tumblr Dashboard widget with Apple's Dashcode. A DLS reader was even inspired enough to go through with it, creating theTumblr Widget that is hosted on Google Code. This widget also became one of two that Tumblr just highlighted in a recent blog post, with the other being more of a basic test widget that Tumblr cooked up themselves. The second Mac Tumblr tool is an AppleScript for Quicksilver by Andrew Lilja. Andrew provides the AppleScript code and instructions for some unique syntax you can use to specify things like titles, quotes and links for your Tumblr posts, all from Quicksilver's handy UI.It's great to see these kinds of tools appear for Tumblr, as it makes an already simple service even easier to use.
Last post EVER about creating new files from Finder
OK, OK! We clearly have a wide range of opinions on this whole "How can I get my Mac to right-click-create new files, like Windows does?" thing. Some folks like the QuickSilver approach, some think QuickSilver is an anti-Mac-way abomination. Some like NuFile, and some like FinderPop (Update: and some, like Wired's writer, and me too now that I've tried it, like DocumentPalette.)Some think the whole idea is plain goofy and there's nothing wrong with going into an application to create a file; others think the previous people are missing the point, because sometimes you need an starter file right here right now, and this is faster than opening the parent program and navigating to the folder you want, or using a stationery file or template.As usual, if you want something stripped to the essentials that works really gracefully and cleanly, call John Gruber. In response to yesterday's NuFile post, John knocked off a quick AppleScript which, in combination with the Big Cat Scripts plugin and the text editor of your choice, creates a nice little text file wherever you right-click.We're through talking about this now; does that work for everyone? Good. Enjoy your Wednesday!
Another way for switchers to make new files
Regarding Mat's post on a cool QuickSilver-based approach to creating new files at high speed, a fair number of commenters -- and, it turns out, the original poster at lipidity.com -- made mention of NuFile, a combination contextual menu plugin and preference pane. One quick (free) download later, I'm a believer. A right-click gets you a customizable list of blank file templates; throw in a .webloc document to open new pages or blog posts, or just about anything you want.For switchers looking to find a close match to the Windows "New File" contextual menu, NuFile is a pretty good solution.
Quicksilver Tip for Switchers: Make New File
I'm told that one of things Switchers miss when they come over from the dark side is the ability to create new files simply by right-clicking and choosing a type from the "New" submenu in Windows Explorer (their Finder equivalent). For those people, Ankur Kothari (aka the Vacuous Virtuous), has a nice solution using everybody's favorite Mac utility: Quicksilver. Basically Alcor (the Quicksilver developer) has included a default action "Make New" which is not usable without a little setup. What you need to do is create a folder called "Templates" in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver. In that folder you just add files of the sort you create on a regular basis, e.g. Word Documents, text documents, spreadsheets, whatever. Now whenever you want to create a new file of that sort, just start Quicksilver and navigate to the directory where you want the file to be created (e.g the Documents folder as above), tab and select the "Make New" action, then tab to the third pane and select the file type from the dropdown list (you see above I've created two document types, a Markdown document in TextMate and a rich text document in TextEdit). Hit return, and the appropriate application will start up with an untitled document ready to go. But it gets even better, the documents you save in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Templates do not have to be blank. Rather, as you might expect, they can be templates what already have some content (e.g. headers or formatting). This is such a handy trick that even non-Switchers may find it useful.[Via MacBreak Weekly]
Merlin shows us the Quicksilver comma trick
The ubiquitous internet gadfly, and productivity guru, Merlin Mann recently launched yet another online venture: The Merlin Show. The first five episodes have nothing to do with Apple (though they are interesting), however, the latest episode covers a TUAW favorite, Quicksilver.Merlin shows us how ,armed only with Quicksilver and the comma key, you can save a few moments queueing up tasks you want done on multiple files at the same time. Watch the short video and learn a thing. You'll thank me later.
Ask TUAW: Cookies, Mail.app vs Outlook, Party Shuffle and more
We got a lot of great questions following last week's Ask TUAW. This means, unfortunately, we won't be able to address all of them this week, but we still have managed answers for several more than usual. This week we'll be tackling questions about Mail.app, cookies in Safari, iTunes, Spotlight, and more. As always, please leave your own comments, and ask more questions for next week either in the comments to this post or using the tip form. Now let's turn to this week's questions.
Trampoline: the quickest route to the tools you need
Application launchers are diversifying in big ways, and it's great to see the market expanding. After discovering LaunchBar then switching to Quicksilver, it was obvious how useful these apps are and how important it is that there be a wide variety of them. A new launcher I just found, called Trampoline, definitely adds a new flavor to the mix. Trampoline bills itself as "the quickest route to the tools you need," and it fits the bill pretty well. Unlike other similar app launchers and file manipulators, Trampoline offers what I would call a 'circular Dock' that can be toggled via a key or tied to a mouse button. Users can add their favorite and most-used apps to this on-call Dock, and it appears underneath your mouse, wherever that may be. As a unique alternative to other comparatively 'bloated' app launchers (though I say that with love as I cannot work without Quicksilver), Trampoline offers a simpler, more direct approach to keeping your beloved tools right at your fingertips. A demo is available from Old Jewel Software, and a license costs $19.95.
Do It
Do It is quite possibly the most feature-packed mini-todo widget app ever written. For a birds-eye view, it features integration with Quicksilver, Address Book and iCal, as well as .Mac syncing and AppleScript-ability. As Tim Gaden puts it: the only thing missing is a kitchen sink. Fundamentally, Do It is (surprise) a todo manager. But thanks to shaking hands with all these other apps, you can import/export todos from iCal, install an Address Book contextual menu item for easy contact reminder creation, add items from the most excellent Quicksilver or simply make it do nearly anything you want with the power of AppleScript. Despite all this impressive functionality, Do It remains freeware and available from Jim McGowan's site.[Update: my bad - Do It is an app, not a widget. I tried this app out a little while ago, and in finally getting around to writing it up, I mixed this up with another todo widget I just found. Sorry guys.]
Roll Your Own Quicksilver Plugin
Regular readers know we here at TUAW love Quicksilver. Indeed, I think it is my single favorite application (and that it remains free is just mind-boggling to me). Anyway, despite a ton of built-in functionality and plethora of plugins to add more, you may still find there are a few things your best Mac buddy can't do. So why not write your own plugin? If, unlike me, you can get over the hurdle of not actually knowing how to code, there's still the issue of the lack of adequate documentation for writing a Quicksilver plugin. And so the "Vacuous Virtuoso," Ankur Kothari, comes to the rescue with an on-going series devoted to writing a Quicksilver plugin with Xcode in Objective-C. So far, only the first two parts are available (an Introduction, and an Anatomy of a plugin), but three more parts are planned. So all you developers out there fire up Xcode and get to extending and expanding our beloved Quicksilver![Via Daring Fireball via Cocoa Blogs]
