No, not this guy!

It gives a bit of a description once you begin to install the application:

There are quite a few guides to explain this program, and I’ll get to those shortly, but to give you my bit:

Quicksilver is a program to use on your mac as an application launcher, yet it has the potential for many more features.  If ye hath fortitude, there are many add-ons and shortcuts to learn which give you control of many applications on your computer within the powerfully concise domain of a select few fingertips.

If you aren’t around to see Mike show off the program at our meeting, allow me to illustrate a few uses.

• I double-tap on the apple/command key, hit “p” and ENTER! The popup window barely has time to display and hide again, and the program photoshop is opening. (It does this by the way, because of all programs starting with P, I use photoshop the most, and it has learned my preference.) That is an example of quicksilver as an application launcher. Yes, I love the dock and still use it, but this is much faster than browsing an application folder.

• Hit the triger keys to call upon Quicksilver, and then with a couple more keystrokes, you can pause or skip songs in iTunes.

• Or perhaps, type imdb, then supply a query, hit enter, and WHOOOSH! your browser opens up and directly accesses imdb, giving you the search results.

The above image is what the program might look like as you call it open, and start typing “Mail.” To the right, is the allowed action (which you can also change), but hitting enter will perform the action.  So in this case, Mail will open.

The program is highly customizable as aforementioned. The launch window above might look completely different…

There is such an example of a differently customized launcher. As you can see, “itunes” was typed in, and the program provided iTunes (indicated by the application icon) as a result, and “open” in smaller font to the right indicates that hitting “enter” will run the program.

Where to download (free):

Go to http://blacktree.com/ and click Quicksilver, and then the download button.

This should work just fine. If you are interested, there are more recent versions being released via google code (the one on their homepage is static, meaning, they aren’t making any new versions there). For a possibly more recent version, check the google code page.

How to:

Okay, this is an awesomely, multifaceted program of awesomeness, how do I use it?

Have no fear, Mike will explain! If you’re in the meeting, that is. If you missed it, then I suppose it is my responsibility to do that for you.  Because of the many features, and my hesitation of confusing people, I will point you in the direction of some very useful wiki (guide) pages.

• The Blacktree guide page

You should start there for anything from a quick introduction, to advanced uses. Just follow the contents.

• Macify

This looks like a very well put together guide for new users of Quicksilver. I does a lovely step-by-step for you AND has screen shots so you don’t lost.

Yaaaay, pictures! inorite?

• A guide from Macrumors.com

This is a wikipedia style guide that also explains the program and its functions.

Customizing the appearance:

Well, there are a few places to go to download different looks for quicksilver. A simple google of “quicksilver themes” should prove quite fruitful.  I recommend Julius Eckert’s site for a few of his very snazzy renditions.  Watch this youtube clip to see a video demo of one of his designs:

If you are a bit lost about how to install and apply these new looks, go take a second glance at the Macify guide I posted above.

Extra surprise!

via Mr. Eckert’s website, I think this is (kind of tricky at first) an interesting web-service!

http://chosr.com/