497: Spotlight, Alfred & LaunchBar

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Command+Space ALL THE THINGS.

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Yes! You read my mind before I read my mind! :slight_smile:

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@ismh Iā€™m really interested in knowing if there is a way to email from Alfred without opening my mail clientā€™s inbox like @MacSparky talked about with Launchbar.

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Iā€™m not sure if there is a way to bring up a compose windown in Apple Mail or Spark as I was initially wanting to do, but if you activate ā€œUse Gmail to compose mailā€ it will open a Gmail compose window without the inbox.

That will do the trick for me!

āŒ˜ + Tab?

Here Iā€™ve been using āŒ˜+Space all this time :wink:


But really I just came to say how happy I was to hear that @MacSparky had bought a Stream Deck XL. Being able to use Keyboard Maestro with Stream Desk is a total game-changer. Iā€™ve only just scratched the surface of it, but Iā€™m really happy with it. The only downside is having to carry it back & forth to my office because I donā€™t want to be without it (but also canā€™t afford two of them).

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The shownotes link to Timezones (2015) on Packal, there is a new version (2019):

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Just curious - are the config saved into streamdeck or the MacBook? maybe one can go for the 15 keys and therefore can buy two of them?

Itā€™s possible I missed it, but one of my favorite features of Alfred that was one of my favorite features of Quicksilver was the File Actions. I have an Alfred action connected to a double-tap of the Option key. If I have a file or files selected and double tap Option, Alfred pops up with a bunch of options.

One of my favorites is ā€œMoveā€ where I can move a file or files to another location just by typing the enclosing folder of where I want it to go. Another, is that I can file downloaded files into Evernote just by selecting Open withā€¦ and then typing ā€œEvā€ for Evernote and ā€“ boom ā€“ itā€™s there.

Iā€™ve also started using it to add files to Yoink. If I need to gather up a bunch of files, , say, either from disparate places to put in an email or because I want to open them all in another app like Photoshop or Audition, then I can add them to Yoink without having to touch a mouse. It really is a game-changer.

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Cool! Can you share the script

Iā€™m fairly sure the configuration saved to the Mac, so if you plugged in a second one it would use the same configuration. In fact I donā€™t think thereā€™s any support for using 2 of the same models without using the same config.

Donā€™t know if you have something similar in Alfred but in Launchbar you can ā€œstageā€ items so you can select multiple files or other things within Launchbar and act on them. This blog post explains how. So no need for yet another app like Yoink, although I do have it installed because I keep forgetting all the things Launchbar can do!

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I think the Add to Yoink script came from Yoinkā€™s programmer in the documentation:
on run argv
set pathArray to {}
repeat with theString in argv
set theFile to POSIX file theString as alias
set end of pathArray to theFile
end repeat
tell application ā€œYoinkā€ to open pathArray
end run

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If I sit down at someone elseā€™s Mac and Control-Space(no conflict with Photoshop key commands) doesnā€™t bring up Alfred, Iā€™m a little bit lost for a second.

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yes, possible. Press Cmd Space to have Alfred Search bar open, type in the file name, use arrow key to highlight the one you want and do a ā€œOption - Up Arrow keyā€ to park it right above the search bar.

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OMG! Iā€™ve been wandering if there was a way to do this!!!

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I feel blind without it. Spotlightā€™s search results arenā€™t crunchy enough for me. Iā€™ve been known to surreptitiously install it before getting on with whatever Iā€™m on that machine to do. :wink:

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@DannyR

Creating this workflow from scratch in Alfred using that AppleScript didnā€™t work for me for some reason. Then it occurred to me to just check Yoink itself and sure enough: Yoink > Preferences > Extensions > Install Alfred File Action

The workflow this creates looks like the same script so there must be some other setting that made mine fail.

Hadnā€™t thought of using Alfred to throw things onto Yoink so thanks for the idea! Two essential apps on macOS for me for sure.

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I donā€™t think it was mentioned, but the timer/timeout on Launchbar can be changed. As I recall, I set it to a couple of seconds while still learning, then reduced it when I got faster. I still didnā€™t like the feeling of being rushed though.
(Iā€™m on Team Alfred now.)

Edit: they call it ReType Delay. Default is 0.7 seconds.

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Has anybody who is on the Catalina beta been having trouble with LaunchBar? I canā€™t get it to index certain things it used to index fine. E.g., my index for applications recognizes all my 3rd-party apps but canā€™t seem to access any of Appleā€™s stock apps. I also canā€™t access send to LaunchBar. Finally, the app asks for me to input my license everytime I re-start.

If this is just beta quirks, itā€™s fine. Iā€™m living with it. Just curious if anyone else is seeing this.

P.S. Iā€™m an option-space kind of guy myself.

P.P.S. I have not had the chance to listen to the episode yet, but will be soon, so forgive me if issue this was mentioned.