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For all those with bad memory, Quicksilver was first released in 2003 and introduced this style of search window.
Alfred popularized this greatly with its first release in 2010.
Spotlight was first released in 2004, but only introduced this style search-window in Yosemite, so 2014.
So everyone really just copied Quicksilver.
I share an office with one coworker (my teammate/supervisor). We both prefer lowered lighting and dark OS themes to minimize eyestrain.
My main PC is an HP somethingorother laptop-parts-in-desktop-formfactor provided by helpdesk. with Core i7, SSD and 16GB of RAM. Dual monitors (1 portrait, 1 landscape) with an ergotron mount.
I run CentOS 7, with a Windows 7 VM. (Our department gets to run whatever OS and software we want, but get only best-effort helpdesk for it.)
Major tools:
- i3wm
- Chrome (Including a ton of web tools like Outlook, JIRA, Confluence, etc.)
- urxvt
- vim (heavily customized)
- git
- IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate
- VirtualBox
- Vagrant
Good headphones are essential. My travel pair that I take to the office is a set of Jabra Move wireless headphones. I also like Audio Technica and AKG.
I was provided a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse by helpdesk. I opted to bring in a mechanical keyboard from my collection (using a quieter type of switch such as Cherry Red or Cherry Brown).
I also have a Macbook Air 4GB for on-call and the occasional work-from-home (I haven't met an extremely lightweight, durable laptop that runs Linux well). I run the same tools (most installed via Homebrew), subbing iTerm for urxvt and adding Alfred.
I rock an Osprey Metron backpack, which pulls triple duty as a work laptop bag, a motorcycling backpack and a 24 hour emergency bag. (/r/edc, /r/ultralight). You'll usually find that and my motorcycle helmet on top of one of the guest chairs :)
EDIT: Oh, I forgot that you're never more than 15 feet from a mini-fridge on this floor. My workplace keeps them stocked with energy drinks, soda and flavored water, and I stock mine with sandwich materials as well.
Alfred (Mac free with $26 for powerpack). The price may sound high at first but the application is by far my most used program. It is a replacement for spotlight that offers far more functionality. It allow
- use cmd + # to select something that is not the top result
- Workflows (power pack required) plugins to do anything you can imagine. For example
- Type google and then a query to search google
- Type Battery to get battery stats
- Send a tweet from alfred
- There are lots of plugins for alfred available and you can make your own
- Tons of customization
- Do calculations, look up words, shorten links, translate, etc
Spotlight for me: Cmd + space. Or, rather, Alfred, using the same shortcut.
But then I don't really like using the mouse for this stuff - my "dock" is just Finder, Chrome, Photoshop, and Sublime - things I need to drag stuff onto to open.
I think there used to be an Applications folder that was pinned to the dock. That was pretty much the same as Launchpad, but in alphabetical order.
Yeh they more or less left the app store: https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/announcements/gatekeeper-alfred-and-the-future-of-os-x/ - that old version is there for those who want it. Apple shouldn't be promoting apps that aren't being maintained.
Superhuman seems to be targeting a market segment of business people, who make money via email, and where time is money, so the “AI-powered” app is like paying a personal assistant $360/year to manage your email and remove frictions.
If you’re targeting the exact same market segment, more power to you. If not, and you’re targeting the mass market, consider lowering your price to a one time fee, or a small subscription (Eg. $1.99/month).
Alternatively, consider a freemium model like Alfred where a subset of users are happy to pay to extend functionality. I feel like that model should be considered since you’re competing with free web browsers that have amazing extensions. There’s even a few free browsers that mimic your features such as workspaces and split screen. I forget the names, and reverted to Safari with bookmark extensions, and use Rectangle for easy split screen. I’m likely not your target customer if I’m not happy about paying $240/year when I can do it for free.
If you can't find any .dict files for what you're looking for, I would definitely recommend Alfred. It's Spotlight on steroids which means you can find online terms directly from the spotlight search.
You can highly customize the way Alfred looks and behaves as well. You can tell it to put certain results first, give it "workflows" (requires the premium purchase), and run everything from within the search bar. I'd definitely recommend taking a look at it!
System Preferences > Dock > Automatically Hide and Show the Dock
It pops up if I hover over it. Unfortunately, there is no way to hide it permanently, as you probably know.
I use Spotlight to launch everything (some people prefer Alfred). Keyboard > Shortucts > Show Spotlight search sets ⌘ + Space to open it, which I totally love.
Thank you!
Apple's trackpads are lightyears ahead of PC trackpads. There are tons of shortcuts, if you go through the trackpad settings and learn them they'll help you tremendously.
Spotlight is your best friend. I don't think there's really an equivalent on Windows, although I haven't used Windows in years so I could be wrong. Command-space for everything and if you want even more power, look at an app like Alfred.
If you're using Alfred, install this iTunes mini player. There's a default hotkey. If not, you can scroll to that connection and change it.
If not, this should work.
tell application "iTunes" activate tell application "System Events" to key code 49 end tell
key code 49 is space and space does play/pause in iTunes.
It doesn't search email by default, you'd have to add the path to your email client's data folder/cache to the areas searched to get it to do that. It generally isn't recommended because it will clutter your results a lot.
I really don't ever use Alfred for that, if I need to search my email I goto my email client.
Alfred is useful for launching apps, searching the web, building workflows (a paid feature), clipboard history, snippets, and a variety of other smaller tasks it can do.
Alfred is far more powerful than just being a conduit for searching your computer. Checkout the workflows here for examples of some of the stuff people can do with it: https://www.alfredapp.com/workflows/
Edit: One of my favorite things to do is create my own custom search targets. So I'll need to search the GitHub issues for the projects I work on. triggerword <search string> allows me to do that and it just opens it in a new Safari window. Or I have another where triggerword <bugnumber> takes me to a specific bug report if someone gives me a bug number. I have another Workflow that takes a selected bug number from the onscreen selection and opens the bug report in Safari.
Sounds like a scam to me (Launchpad Manager).
I’m guessing you probably want to restore all the deleted icons in the Launchpad. Here’s how to do it:
http://www.imore.com/how-reset-launchpad-mavericks
And instead of using Launchpad to place your most used apps, I’’d suggest using the dock. I actually prefer using Spotlight and if you’re on the latest version of OS X (El Capitan or 10.11), you simply press Command - Space to bring up Spotlight and type the name of the app and press return:
https://i.gyazo.com/ce56529a360656669abafb1c11998490.gif
If you’re running an older version of OS X (10.9 and older) without the new Spotlight, you can use Alfred for app launching instead.
iOS: Using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine, it's a quick way to get to use bang searches without opening up Safari or Chrome first.
OS X: I use Alfred instead but it's fairly similar. Simple calculator, open an app, quick access to DuckDuckGo without already having a browser up front. Also just noticed it can keep clipboard history as a paid feature too which I really should start using.
macOS Alfred inkl. Powerpack. Das Tool kann sehr viel. Öffne per Tastenkombination lokale Ordner, Programme und Webseiten. Zeichne die Zwischenablage auf um erneut drauf zugreifen zu können. Kann Textbausteinen für die verschiedensten Situationen abrufen und noch einiges mehr.
EDIT: nvm I'm stupid, missed the Wox part :D Thanks for that though, nice tool indeed
EDIT2: Oh man, I'm in love... Found a clipboard history plugin <3 Alfred for windows, I like it
How to get it more spotlighty? I put it on executables only but it finds like everything (I guess that's why it's called like that).
But it doesn't seem to be a good app launcher so far :( (comparing it to Alfred)
1) Alfred - so much more than an app launcher, it has become the hub for all of my scripting. I can't imagine using a computer without my workflows. I could never switch to Windows because of this app alone.
2) Bettertouchtool - amazing window management and customizable gestures for your trackpad. Trigger custom scripts based on trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and apple remote or leap gestures. I find myself trying to use my custom gestures on every computer I use.
3) Sublime text - the best text/code editor for Mac.
Spotlight is pretty good, but if you want even more power check out Alfred. It's one of the best tools I own for productivity. If you buy the powerpack (well worth it) you can install additional plugins. One of my favs is the DevDocs plugin which gives me devdocs for a bunch of different languages and frameworks at my fingertips.
I'd like to add to this to recommend Bartender and Alfred
Bartender is very simple - it lets you customise the icons that appear on your menu bar. You can hide them all behind one tidy little ellipsis. I love Bartender. So much so that I sent them a gushy email once about how much I love their app.
Alfred is an excellent launcher. You can google straight from it, it functions as a calculator, converter etc. I still use spotlight (⌘ space) for file searching, but I use Alfred (⌥ space) for everything else.
Also, I highly recommend using Karabiner, Seil, and Better Touch Tool for remapping your caps lock key (or any other you prefer) into a hyper key for incredible time-saving shortcuts. Pressing 'caps lock s' on my MacBook opens Safari; 'caps lock c' opens Calendar; 'caps lock m' opens Mail, and so on. It also works for window resizing shortcuts. 'Caps lock ←' snaps current window to left half of screen, and the same goes for 'caps lock →' etc. Best thing I've done with my laptop.
Not very interesting, but here's my current desktop with and and without Bartender open.
Edit: extra details
Mac user since 1985, with many Mac user friends and coworkers. I have never seen a human being use Launchpad in person.
I also almost never use the Dock. In System Preferences I set it to the smallest size and turn on "Automatically hide". I assume it's there still, but I can't confirm.
To switch Applications I use ⌘-Tab. It's way faster than using a mouse.
To launch applications I use Alfred. Everything is done via the keyboard, so it's a massive productivity boost.
If you don't want to install third-party software, you can get much of the productivity boost of Alfred through Spotlight. Just hit ⌘-Space and type what you want to launch. Easy peasy.
There are a lot of things, one thing that stands out in daily use is that the file search is a lot better than MacOS Spotlights search. There also Workflows you can build for repetitive tasks. Just have a look at their website to get an insight in alfreds capabilities: https://www.alfredapp.com
Alfred is still very much in active development, as mentioned by /u/rubys_eleven, and the community is continuing to grow. :)
Workflows are a great way to make your own work day run more smoothly, so they're intrinsically quite personal; I have dozens that wouldn't necessarily be useful for someone else, but make my day vastly more efficient.
You'll find great publicly-shared workflows on GitHub, Alfred Forum and Packal*, but it's also worth taking a look at the built-in examples, as well as creating your own (e.g. file filters, list filters, etc, can be so useful at speeding up repetitive tasks)
[* As mentioned by others, Packal is a user-run website, and this previously very active Alfred user has now moved on to a new job, etc, and no longer maintains Packal. We have plans for the future, but at this time, I'd really recommend joining our friendly community on the forum. If you're still having issues joining, pop us an email by replying to your license email and I'll help you sign up :)]
Beyond workflows, it's also worth taking a look at Clipboard History, Text Expansion, Custom Searches and all other features that make you more productive and save you menial tasks. Alfred's features are growing with every update, and we've got some great stuff planned still for the future!
Cheers, Vero (Alfred co-founder)
Wow Maid looks very good! Thanks dude!
About:
Better touch tool: well is not about trackpad, you can benefit from BTT even with a simple mice. For example i have 2 additional buttons on mine, and i can use them to do a lot of things according to the active app. The behaviour will be different and will follow your settings! That's what im searching :)
Xmonad, just tried and it's not what i was thinking: far better! Thank you again!
Unfortunately Rofi isn't a real match for Alfred, please take a look at this.
You can configure things like in a visual programming language - for me it was very useful, 'cause otherwise i have to edit (and usually add) a lot of files.
Cheers!
If you're using Bartender 2, there's actually an update to version 3 which fixes the incompatibility issue with High Sierra:
https://www.macbartender.com/blog/
I don't know how Alfred works on a TouchBar MBP but if you're running a custom theme (especially one that uses transparency), try going back to one of the default theme:
> A small subset of Macs, primarily those with auto-switching graphics cards, may experience lag when using Alfred themes with high window blur. This can easily be fixed by choosing a theme with lower window blur.
> If you're seeing this lag, first, ensure you've updated to Alfred 3.5. Go to Alfred's Appearance tab and choose any of the default themes or, if using custom themes, lower the window blur to less than half on your active theme.
https://i.imgur.com/hqxSOEW.png
https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/alfred-3-5-ready-for-high-sierra/
It's not a menubar but check out Alfred. It's like spotlight but with the possibility to extend it with all your own workflows and commands.
After installing Alfred there are several ready-to-use workflows you can install for example:
https://github.com/fniephaus/alfred-network
Or
https://github.com/moul/alfred-workflow-pingport (I personally use this a lot)
Hope it helps
Loved maid when I had a Mac! Talking of which, a beefed-up uLauncher-like app such that it can match Alfred would be fricken awesome.
(No, Albert does not quite cut it. Sorry.)
I actually left Alfred for Raycast for a while and then came back.
The new theming options look much nicer and the simple workflows that you can do are just great. Raycast has added parameters to commands but I don't like their solution to it (basically adding an input inside an input).
Alfred workflows are additions created for the Alfred app available for Mac and iOS (remote app). https://www.alfredapp.com by Running with Crayons Ltd.
Alfred is a fantastic app that puts all others to shame when it comes to...well...just about anything.
Caveat - Siri and Finder have definitely improved search integration on iOS and Mac, and Launchbar and Keyboard Maestro are contenders as well, but when it comes to quickly doing everything, Alfred is unstoppable!
It’s been around for a few years now and just keeps getting better (and no, I don’t work for Running Woth Crayons and am not gaining anything by sharing this info).
Here's how you can change the default fallback searches, if you're a Powerpack user: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/default-results/fallback-searches/
Otherwise as suggested by others, you can type "duck" to use the built-in web search. :)
If you find Spotlight to be great for pulling up things more quickly than clicking around, I highly recommend trying out Launchbar, Alfred, or Quicksilver which are like Spotlight on steroids.
I'm an Alfred user, and in addition to more powerful file features and customizable internet searches, I also use it as a clipboard manager, calculator, fast contact browser, a way to quickly put info into OmniFocus and Fantastical, convert units, calculate dates, and more. Launchbar and Quicksilver are similarly powerful. Alfred is my #1 app on my Mac.
I use smcfancontrol as well, my custom setting is at 3500 rpm. Out of topic but, I'd recommend using (https://www.alfredapp.com/) I replaced my dock & spotlight with Alfred. What Monitors do you use?
Why don't you use the built-in hotkey to pop directly the clipboard history list? I think by default its: CMD+ALT+C
You can have a look here to have a better view of the feature and how to assign your hotkey https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/clipboard/
Hi buddy, thanks for your help but unfortunately i've already checked up Albert, and it's not even close to Alfred's real power :(
If interested, you can check out the huge difference here.
Alfred:
It's one of the first things I install on a new computer. It's useless without the power pack though.
It can automate anything through the workflows, here are some examples:
https://github.com/zenorocha/alfred-workflows And the clipboard manager is great.
A lot of people get started writing their own plugins for applications like Alfred or Übersicht.
Just start looking for things you do with your computer that you could automate with a bit of scripting. When you run into a problem that's in or not too far outside your skillset, have a crack at solving it yourself.
Of course, you need to be learning a useful language. Python or Ruby are good first choices, as they're relatively easy and flexible enough to use for almost anything.
You can also use Alfred to launch multiple apps/files via a shortcut although you do need Powerpack for that:
> Click the little “+” icon in the Extensions section and add a “File or Group” folder. Enter in your information to create the folder and set your shortcut and add your apps/files. Once you set a group of apps for when you’re working, you just have to type something like “wwork” into Alfred to launch all associated apps and files simultaneously.
http://www.cultofmac.com/132934/5-awesome-things-you-can-do-with-alfred-on-your-mac/
From Alfred’s website:
- Use the "open" keyword to open a file (or press the spacebar as a shortcut!)
- Use the "find" keyword to reveal the file in Finder
- Use the "in" keyword to search inside your files' content
As always with Alfred, you can customize these keywords in the settings.
Source: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/file-search/
yabai behaves a lot like a real WM from what I've seen, never tried it though. And like the other user said, hammerspoon.
In the Keyboard settings in system prefs, you can make a keybind for anything that exists in a drop down menu. No way to change the existing ones unless the software in particular has that option.
I recommend this app a lot for automation/binding stuff, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be too popular. Keyboard Maestro. Basically a nice little GUI for automating things with a triggers and actions. There's a ton of stuff that can trigger basically any action. Could make a single key launch an application with this easily. I got it to work as a full blown window manager for a while. It's by far the most powerful app in this genre IMO. Can trigger shell scripts too for stuff it doesn't have.
Another good way to quickly launch apps is with Alfred. Basically it's spotlight but much much better. cmd+space f enter to open firefox etc. Also real useful for getting to files/folders instantly, can do custom web searches for any website with a search bar, and does have a pretty limited amount of automation stuff in there too.
The fact is that macos kinda sucks on it's own, and to make a "power user" kind of experience you have to install shit like KM, alfred, karabiner, yabai, etc. Once you get stuff setup the way you want it though you'll be zoomin'. If I try to use a mac out of the box or even windows I'm immediately frustrated with how slow the experience is, so I feel your pain. LMK if you have any questions about this stuff.
My friend and I are working on a Windows alternative to the Alfred application with WPF and .NET Core. We are of course far from feature complete with them, but we have actually reached a point where I've started using it in my day-to-day workflow. We've got a repository here: https://github.com/dkgv/pinpoint
It is a productivity app that amongst other things, allows you to search your Mac and the web, launch apps and so much more. I’ve been using it for quite some time but barely scratched the surface of what it can do. You can extend its functionality with the powerpack which I believe is a paid add on. However the core app is free to use. Have a look here for more info: https://www.Alfredapp.com
Edit: correct url.
You might be able to put something together with an Alfred workflow. I wasn't able to find something specifically for Nirvana, but I did find one that grabs the active browser link and another that adds a task to TickTick. You might be able to use those as guides to create what you want.
Alfred is great in general. I use it in place of Spotlight and I definitely don't use it to its full potential.
If you guys like this app and are Alfred users, then I suggest you install the IINA Workflow to gain faster access to IINA controls no matter what app you're in.
I would also recommend Alfred. Great for launching apps, websites, and performing custom web search shortcuts. It’s a better version of spotlight and the free version is very good, but if you like building workflows the pro version is even better!
It depends on what you want to do. Your best bet is read the documentation of the new workflow objects and the updated workflow objects.
I don't see any big breakthrough in workflow development. My preferred new object is the [Split Utility](https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/utilities/split-arg/).
Imho, the best improvements in workflow development lie in the debugger.
It does so much. Search for files quickly, clipboard history, launch apps, workflows, make your own keyboard shortcuts and much more. There is a free version where you can try some core features and see what the paid "Powerpack" has to offer.
For anyone in the comments hoping to find a brief idea of what powerpack is:
> The Powerpack is a set of incredibly powerful features, built on top of the robust core Alfred application. Deeply flexible and integrated with OS X, use it to customise your Mac and make you more productive than ever!
“For your security, Alfred doesn't listen for characters typed when you are in a secure text field, such as a password field, so he won't expand a text snippet in a secure field.”
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/window-tidy/id456609775?mt=12
OR
You can get Alfred and use workflows with it, which do the same thing as this.
- Amphetamine - prevents Mac from sleeping
- Alfred - Spotlight alternative that can do more
- OmniDiskSweeper - disk usage information
I would highly recommend looking into Alfred + Powerpack, Better Touch Tool and possibly something like Transmit FTP if you need to use FTP for anything.
Personally I like to customize my Menubar and thats where iStat Menus comes in :P
BetterTouchTool for some cool touchpad stuff and win 10 like window snapping
Alfred as a proper Spotlight replacement
And there're more features with version 3 coming anytime soon, such as snippets expansion a la TextExpander.
I loved Spotlight so much was a bit reluctant to change in the beginning, but after a few weeks using Alfred I can only praise it.
There's a free version, but you should pay for the Powerpack to get all the juice. Really worth it after you spend some time exploring its numerous possibilities.
These are a couple things I'd recommend. Mostly shortcuts and convenience apps. I also strongly recommend an external HDD for Time Machine backups. Hope that helps.
Better Snap Tool ($2, App Store) is a customizable window snapping tool (like introduced in Windows 7).
Alfred 2 (free, w/ restrictions, but the free version does most of what you need https://www.alfredapp.com) is a keyboard shortcut app that is quicker and IMO better than Spotlight (native Mac search bar) because it can easily do a google search straight from the app.
Caffeine (free, App Store) lets you keep your computer awake when you don't want it to power down/sleep.
The Fray Fix ($15 http://www.thefrayfix.com ) is a rubber thing you put on your charger to prevent it from fraying (which is a terrible design flaw in the Macbook chargers). Worth the cost to prevent having to buy another charger (~$60-80).
Alfred. Personally I don't even use the dock. Takes too long to fiddle around with the mouse just to launch an app.
You can of course use Spotlight instead but personally I enjoy the additional power of Alfred.
Cannot tout Alfred enough. It's far faster and more powerful than Spotlight, and as someone working in IT who has Caffeine enabled, I love being able to sleep from Alfred as I'm walking away for security. It will change how you use your Mac.
Alfred does a lot more than just launching apps though. It's really worth it, especially if you get the Power Pack
Like u/banelicious, I keep my dock empty except for open apps and Alfred really boosts my productivity.
Before you go learning the keyboard shortcuts, I highly recommend you look into these apps and fit your own keyboard combos into the learning curve:
I switched to a Mac specifically just for these two apps, they’re that good. Biggest thing I can recommend with BTT is to set a 3 finger click for the middle mouse button, and a 4 finger click to close a window, and a 4 finger force click to quit an application.
Didn't work for me but this worked:
What u/anthoj said (on another thread) is the solution: go download Alfred, pay for the power pack, and install this workflow: https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/guides-and-tutorials/google-drive-workflow/
Works perfectly for me. Obviously sucks to have to use a third party app but I'm just sooo happy that I can find my stuff again!!!
Same problem, what u/anthoj said is the solution: go download Alfred, pay for the power pack, and install this workflow: https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/guides-and-tutorials/google-drive-workflow/
Works perfectly for me. Obviously sucks to have to use a third party app but I'm just sooo happy that I can find my stuff again!!!
Take a look at the Monterey-specific page, which offers a few workarounds for bugs in the Monterey Migration Assistant:
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/monterey/
If you have any issues, please pop by the official forum thread:
Google had paid Apple a significant sum to replace Bing with Google for Spotlight internet search since years ago. It's not possible for Apple to let you freely customize it.
Your best bet is using 3rd party tools, like Alfred.
There might be other solutions, but I recently had the same question and because I use Alfred I was looking for a potential solution that would allow me to call shortcuts via Alfred. I found this ( lukdiekm/alfred-shortcuts) Alfred workflow and had success with it.
If you use Alfred (would recommend, it's Spotlight but supercharged), there's a Google Drive workaround that maintains it's own index and gives you similar behaviour and functionality: https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/guides-and-tutorials/google-drive-workflow/
With Alfred's workflows, you can essentially create dynamic input snippets (where you fill in the blanks)
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/triggers/snippet/snippet-triggers-with-dynamic-inputs/
If you need any help creating your own dynamic input snippet workflows, pop by the official forum where our experienced community can help :)
tmux, vim, learning shortcuts, Alfred & Dash (Mac OSX)
For web development, I spend a lot of time running different servers and processes in the terminal. Really amped up my efficiency when I started using tmux to keep them all in different panes and windows and learned the shortcuts to navigate between them.
Then I added vim so that my code was right alongside it all and wow. Vim folks tend to be a bit fanatical about it, but freeing myself from the mouse was the best thing I ever did for efficiency.
Followed it up with Alfred so that now I just open everything with keywords.
Now I only use the mouse when I'm in the web browser.
That sounds like an interesting workflow.
Alfred includes support for clipboard merging. On the plus side, this functionality is shrink-wrapped and ready to go. Having to use a different keyboard shortcut may become frustrating, however. (I could see myself reverting to old habits.)
If you know a little SQL you can dig out (and dump) the contents of the regular Alfred clipboard history. (The clipboard history is stored in an sqlite database.) This approach would not require the use of a different keyboard shortcut. I use Alfred workflows to manipulate its own clipboard history this way.
You're looking for the built-in Amazon Suggest and Google Suggest workflows. Here's how you can install them (they require a Powerpack license) :)
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/templates/#suggest
As ever, you're just lucky if I remember to check Reddit. If you post to https://www.alfredforum.com you can be certain you'll get answers to any question as the community is far more active.
You're looking for the built-in Amazon Suggest and Google Suggest workflows. Here's how you can install them (they require a Powerpack license) :)
Alfred "plugins" are called "workflows". Docs are here: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/
But I never needed to read them because the wysiwyg system is so intuitive that you just know what to do (maybe once for a complex workflow I had to check the script's output format & json schema).
Do yourself a favour and get Alfred. It's got a clipboard and snippet history feature, among lots of other things. It's one of the few apps I pay for, one of the first I install. It seriously makes you more productive. https://www.alfredapp.com/
While I appreciate what you are doing, and I’m sure it was a great experience, I’m going to continue supporting Alfred. They’ve been around for over 10 years and I believe they will stay around because they support their development effort by charging for advanced features: https://www.alfredapp.com/about/.
In fact, I believe a strength of macOS over Windows has been that third-party tools have typically been able to charge for their products, so they stick around and improve way beyond their Windows counter-parts over time. Also see BetterTouchTools.
If you're seeing some red x's in the File Troubleshooter, it's a sign that the file isn't properly indexed by macOS's metadata index. Manually locating the file in Finder and opening makes macOS index it on the spot.
You would likely benefit from rebuilding your Mac's index:
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/#rebuild
I’ve not tried this but how about adapting this File Filter?
This example only looks for .pdfs in Documents. But you could change the first step to look for only contact files and in the second step, change the Scope to be wherever the contacts are stored. Presumable somewhere in the User Library.
I don’t actually know if the contacts are stored as individual files or if they’re in a bigger, single file. If it’s the latter, I guess that this would fail
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/
It's likely a hotkey conflict, so take a look at these areas of macOS that may be reserving Cmd + Space for something else. Once you've changed or disabled those, the issue you're seeing should go away :)
The "Jabra On" and "Jabra Off" are literally iPhone Shortcuts (using Apple's Shortcuts app). If you open the Shortcuts app and add a shortcut, you can search for each of the steps I've described using the exact text in my description.
> I don't think turning bluetooth off and on is really necessary unless you don't remember which device was connected to the Jabra at last.
I found that setting the playback destination to iPhone wasn't sufficient (Jabra Elite 7 Pro is still connected), which is why I briefly toggle off bluetooth in the "Jabra Off" shortcut.
> Imagine you were connected to your MacBook. No matter what you clock on your iphone, don't you need to disconnect from your MacBook first?
Correct. This doesn't get around the need to disconnect the connected device first. I've got an Alfred remote action to dispatch my ToothFairy shortcut key combination, which let's me use my phone to tell my laptop to disconnect (only if my MacBook is still on and not sleeping).
I like having the one-click connect (rather than navigating through menus), but this would be a much better experience if Jabra allowed a connection request from another paired device to switch the Jabra Elite 7 Pro to that new device or at least give us a disconnect command on the Jabra Elite 7 Pro so we could, for example, triple-tap the right ear bud to disconnect the current connection.
Are you referring to a workflow keyword? You'll need to set your keyword object to "no argument" if you don't want Alfred to wait for an argument (e.g. a search term) to be provided.
I'm not sure I'm understanding your response fully, but it sounds like you've setup snippets, but they're not auto-expanding when you type the snippet's keyword. I would read this support page and make sure you followed each step, especially the "Auto expansion allowed" checkbox.
If you open Alfred preferences and view the Snippets UI, is there a warning that "loginwindow is preventing text expansion" (or something like that)?
I tried to locate an Apple resource but this third party one does a decent job explaining what Finder allows for in terms of file selection and what you want isn’t possible. I would encourage you to look into Finder alternatives like Alfred, or one of the ones mentioned here. I don’t know of one that offers exactly the usage case you’re looking for, so it’s likely going to involve some trial and error on your part to find one that fits your needs.
Very cool! I'll have to play around with Espanso. I've been using a Ruby library called Dunmanifestin for generating text like your NPC description, and have even worked it into an Alfred Workflow, although I haven't figured out how to release it.
Aa for using Obsidian to play, wow that's genius. I've used it for running multiplayer games in the past, but it seems like a good way to organize solo play: something I've not yet wrapped my head around.
Thanks for making the video!
it doesn't even have to be long canned messages. if you're a programmer, small bits of code. there are dynamic snippets that can insert the current date or time if that's useful to you. if you use some emoji often you can set up snips for that with something like :sm for 😀 (smile) without having to go through the emoji picker. snippets for special mac characters like ⌘. you can use snippets in any application, like terminal or a chat application, plenty of uses outside a word doc or email.
there are bunch of "snippet packs" available on alfred's site at https://www.alfredapp.com/extras/snippets/
I had a similar situation where I needed two machines in sync. Sometimes I'd need to take my work projects home and on slow days I'd bring freelance projects to work. I don't know if this fits your needs but it's served me well for a few years:
- Laravel Homestead installed on both machines
- Homestead.yaml symlinked to Dropbox
- Configure dnsmasq for all .test domains (one-time setup on each machine)
- git repos for each ~/Documents/Sites/sitename.test
- Database backups via php artisan backup:run
- Amazon S3 for /storage files
This way I just had to discipline myself to commit and run backups before I leave/go to work/home. Alfred can also be very helpful if you want to automate any shutdown/startup scripts but that's a whole 'nother thing.
You might both want to take a look at the troubleshooting guide for this, which is usually caused by a hotkey conflict:
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/missing-typed-characters/
Thanks but as op said, turning that off unfortunately doesn't help. I can't imagine there isn't any setting for this... Really looking into Alfred if this can't be solved otherwise.
I'm also wondering on how to at least change the search engine.
It’s hard without knowing exactly what you want to do. I like to google things like “how to get the most out of new macbook” or “best apps on mac”, you’ll find some really cool stuff that way.
I can tell you that one app I cannot live without is Alfred! There’s a lot of functionality in the free version, and the pro version does some crazy things. You can look up “Alfred workflows” which are basically extensions for it.
Get in the habit of googling stuff. If you get frustrated with something, or if you think “wow wouldn’t it be cool if I could do X”, google that. If you’re frustrated with an app, search for “alternatives to <app>”.
When you set it up, open up your settings and go into all the menus, get familiar with what’s in there. Do that whenever you download something. You’d be surprised, sometimes I find a setting to disable the exact thing I was getting frustrated with.
Still working on Pinpoint alongside my friend. It's a keystroke launcher similar to Alfred, but for Windows, using .Net Core and WPF. We are thinking about leaving the Windows-only comfort zone and porting it to something like Avalonia, but with MAUI coming up we are also considering waiting for that.
I have both Alfred and BetterTouchTool. I prefer Alfred for text expansion (requires the powerpack license). Having said that, BetterTouchTool is plenty capable of doing what you want as previously mentioned.
Hello,
Well, I agree it is close with the better spotlight.
You can look into Alfred's feature on the below homepage.
I think the why Alfred is a powerful tool is that it could users write their workflow themselves.
(Although it is paid version's feature..)
Users can execute their script (python, js, php.. etc) simply.
It's a kind of the workflow.
My top 3 software recommendations:
I definitely recommend picking up a copy of Alfred. You can find it here: https://www.alfredapp.com/ It does so much, so I recommend reading the feature list, but I use it all the time for... practically everything. There's a free version & a premium version.
I really like Yoink, use that one all the time as well when working with various photos.
Hazel is a great app if you like automatic file organization in some places on your machine. It takes a little bit of figuring out/setting up, but once you understand how the rules work together, you can really get a clean, efficient & automatic file organization process going. I use it for photos I take of my work (I'm a potter), business receipts, music, and more. You can check it out here: https://www.noodlesoft.com/
As a little trick, if you didn't know, you can type "?keywords" or "?hotkeys" or basically the question mark followed by almost anything that might help jog your memory, such as the name of the workflow, the title of a snippet you can't remember the keyword for, etc...
You can also use the question mark trick to bring up any of Alfred's preferences if you need to quickly check a workflow or change a preference somewhere :)
https://www.alfredapp.com/blog/tips-and-tricks/search-alfred-question-mark-trick/
<em>Keyboard Maestro</em>, <em>Typinator</em> and <em>Alfred</em> are all worth a look and might be able to do what you want. Good luck!
On the Mac version, I use the Alfred app and its auto-expand text snippets to create a similar header for Bear journal entries. (That requires Alfred’s “PowerPack” pay version I believe.) There are other text expander utilities out there that might also work.
Have you looked into Alfred or Launchbar? These two apps provide not only the search functionality from Spotlight (and do it way better), but have a ton of useful features from clipboard management to snippets to custom actions etc. Really powerful and pretty easy to use.
I use Alfred with the paid PowerPack, but I’m pretty sure the basic features cover everything Spotlight does and slightly more.
Download a fresh copy from https://www.alfredapp.com/ and install it, I remember there was an update last week that added support for BigSur, maybe you missed it? I trust this fresh copy has this update and Alfred will work.
- Arrows for the testimonials
- if a photo is a placeholder, make sure it says placeholder on it, or you may get comfortable and end up leaving it there
- The logo looks too amateur. You should have focused on refining that first. Some questions I have about it is, what does a hand have to do with cleaning butts? This isn't asia, this looks to be an american product. Not every logo needs an icon. You can just have one that is text based.
- The template looks like a generic template that you can be used by anyone for anything. That isn't a good thing when you are a designer. A program can give general templates. Focus on making the template specific for your client's needs. Research what other water based competitor websites look like. Take elements from there that you know you want and don't want and iterate from there.
Look at this website. Check to see what they do differently and what makes their website work and not work: https://www.alfredapp.com/
- Alfred: Absolute must have, way better than spotlight. You can find some handy workflows for development productivity.
- Linear: Beautiful and speedy issue tracker, integrates with git and other services.
- Rectangle: Open source window manager. It’s the only window manager on mac that I’ve seen support gaps between windows.
Spotlight is ok for searching for stuff but alfred (especially with powerpack for a small price) has way more. So many people think it’s just an app or file switcher and stop there. Sadness.
Here’s a list of features:
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/overview/
I live for snippets and the clipboard manager.
The real gold is the workflows though: https://www.alfredapp.com/workflows/
Some of my faves workflows are: Lastpass Secure password generator Fantastical Dash Notion search Chrome bookmarks Iterm Brew cask Add to things Bitbucket
There’s others. I’ll put a little video together showing how I use it if anyone is interested. There’s probably good stuff on YouTube already too.
Play with it and check out their blog. It’ll change your life. :)
If there are no local results, Alfred shows you the fallback searches for your search term:
https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/default-results/fallback-searches/
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If you're using the Mail.app workflow on macOS Catalina, unfortunately, you won't see any results. Apple have added restrictions in Catalina that mean third-party apps like Alfred can no longer return results from Mail.app.
You can create a workflow that is triggered by a hotkey, on the hotkey item you can define that you want, as input, the current selected text.
Here’s the official guide explaining in detail just what you need to do, I hope it helps!