Tuesday, August 01, 2006

QuickSilver: create new shortcuts for any app!

One of the biggest productivity boosters in QuickSilver is the ability to use Triggers. Triggers can be, well, triggered from key combinations, mouse gestures (if you have the Abracadabra plugin loaded), or mouse clicks (with the Mouse Triggers plugin loaded).

If you have the User Interface Access plugin loaded, and I recommend doing so, you'll be able to use any Menu item from any application as the trigger action. This means, for one thing, that you could create new shortcuts within any application, simply by programming them in with QuickSilver.

Here's an example of what I did today: In Flash MX, I wanted to create several new blank keyframes, but this was only accessible from the menu - no keyboard shortcut! So I created a trigger that I invoke by clicking twice along the left edge of my screen (Mouse Trigger plugin). This triggers the Menu Bar Item (User Interface Access plugin) action "Insert>Blank Keyframe". Two quick clicks as I draw, and there it is: a new blank keyframe. Maybe there's another way to do this specific action, but this is an example of QuickSilver's flexibility.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love quicksilver, but what really annoys me about everyone who posts a blog comment on it is that they don't really describe HOW to configure anything. Thus to get advanced features one is led on a goose chase that only serves to increase frustration and desire for the feature as everyone else seems to be able to do it!

For instance I am really trying to find a way to be able to bind Abracadabra gestures to keyboard commands (eg to do what was done here in flash) but alas this description, as exciting as it is doesn't really say how to make the trigger select a menu item. Cause when making a trigger one can't (or at least I can't) choose the focus to act a menu item/shortcut. Yes I have menu items and all that working.

So...

how did you bind making new frames to a trigger then?