Just like I mentioned it yesterday, today is the first of, hopefully many, tips regarding the application Quicksilver. The main and most used function is it's ability to launch applications, folders, and files. Just by the press of a trigger (the default trigger is "ctrl + Space"), Quicksilver's bezel appears in the middle of the window. Quicksilver's bezel is the graphical interface which is famous for it's three panel display and the simplicity of the design. So continue after the jump to learn some basic and advanced features to the launching ability of Quicksilver.

Once the application is up and running, with the simple trigger of "Ctrl+Space" (or if you changed the trigger, to whatever you set it to) the bezel will appear. Now, your bezel may look different so just go Quicksilver's preferences and you can change the colors to your fancy.

When you first run it, you will be greeted with this bezel. It's blank now but just begin typing and the first panel will constantly change to whatever you type. Quicksilver uses a score system to determine what file/application/folder appears. The more you launch that specific item when you use a certain letter, the higher the score is. For instance, when I type the letter "S",  Safari is the first application to show up. But if I type "St", Steam appears first. It's as simple as that.

Now you can change what shows up in Quicksilver. Just go to the preferences, press the Catalog icon in the top right corner, and from there you can change what folders it can catalog, what applications, etc.

If you want to open a folder or application, all you have to do is press "Enter". This is because the default action for those types of files is "Open". If you wanted to do something else like Move the item, reveal it in Finder, or even rename it, instead of pressing "Enter" press "Tab" instead and it will highlight the Action Panel instead.

Same concept as before but instead of objects, you have actions. They change depending on the object you have. You can create a new folder if your object is a folder, rename the file, or reveal the application in Finder. It's amazing what it can do.

Now the third panel is usually used for additional information. Let's return to the example I used earlier. When I pressed "S", Safari would show up in the Subject Panel, but if I press "Down", the additional panel would fill up with items. In my case, Safari would show up first followed by Steam and Skype. Let's say I wanted Steam to be the default instead of Safari, all I would have to do it right click on Steam in the additional panel and choose "Set as default for 'S'."

It's a simple application and that can get very advanced with an endless amount of possibilities. Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

Here's a small bonus tip. You can queue items in Quicksilver. Just choose the object and the action you want and press ",". It will add a small icon under the object panel and allow you to choose the next item you want. If you want to remove it, press "Delete".

Difficult Level: Medium

To all the Mac users out there, if there was one tip that you had to follow, let it be this one. What makes this tip more important than the rest? That answer is Quicksilver from Blacktree. Quicksilver is a graphical interface that interacts with nearly every application, media, and file known to Mac OS X. It's most basic function is its launching capabilities. It catalogs your applications, files, documents, and folders for easy access at the press of a command. Today's post will be just an introduction, so every week I'll go in depth into one of Quicksilver's advanced features and to get the most of it.

Just so you're ready for tomorrow's post, head over to Blacktree's site and download Quicksilver for your Mac. There are two versions, one for 10.4 and 10.5 while the other is for 10.6 (latest).

Difficulty Level: Easy