Leaf Raker

OK, this one baffled me: One of the quicksilver functionalities I use the most is the opening of URLs.

I recently switched back from Safari to Firefox 3, something I do from time to time just to keep life interesting.

Even though I enabled the Firefox plugin in Quicksilver it didn’t index the Firefox bookmarks, because Firefox 3 stores the bookmarks in a format that Quicksilver can’t read. Fortunately the solution is simple:

First go to the “about:config”-page in your browser bar:

In the resulting page enter “bookmarks.autoExportHTML” to find the entry for “browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML”.

Now all you need to do is set the value for this preference to “true”.

From now on Firefox will, every time Firefox quits, write the bookmarks in html format in your preferences folder. Quicksilver will index this file (as long as the Firefox plugin in Quicksilver is enabled). You’re done!

Quicksilver’s iTunes plugin comes with several excellent scripts, one of them is to mute iTunes.

The only problem is, that you can still hear all the system sounds. Pretty annoying if you are in a meeting or sitting in a class.

My workaround was to write an Apple Script to control the system volume:

This script will mute the system volume, or set it back to 50% if it’s already muted (the value for “set volume” is a percentage value from 0 to 100).

That’s it, I created a keyboard trigger to execute this script (I used Shift-Ctrl-Command + M) and I can mute my system without having to use the mouse or trackpad.

Using a Microsoft keyboard with a MacBook is possible but has one major drawback: The “Option” and “Command”-keys are exchanged and called “Windows” and “Alt”-keys.

Fortunately swapping the keys so that the “Command” and “Option”-keys are in the same location like on an Apple keyboard is very simple:

1. Open your “System Preferences”
2. Select “Keyboard & Mouse”
3. Select the “Keyboard”-tab
4. Click on “Modifier Keys…”

In the resulting dialog map the Option Key to “Command” and vice versa. This is a screenshot made with Tiger, the dialog in Leopard looks a little bit different:

Voila – that’s it. Now the Microsoft keyboard should behave just like an Apple keyboard.

Now, for one additional problem (if you are still using Tiger or before):

I am using my MacBook Pro in my office, so I’m frequently connecting and disconnecting my keyboard. Since my external keyboard is an ergonomic keyboard with Microsoft keys I would have to change those settings each and every time I connect or disconnect the keyboard. This is only the case if you’re still using Tiger or before, because in Leopard you can set the keys for each keyboard type as shown in this screenshot: Keyboard settings in Leopard

One solution is an AppleScript, which I found on the following website:

Change keyboard modifier keys automatically on OSX with Applescript

Now I have a Quicksilver Trigger to execute this Applescript, which makes the swapping of the “Command” and “Option”-keys quick and painless!

A Quicksilver trigger is a convenient way to define a global shortcut, accessible no matter which application is currently active or the frontmost.

There are two kinds of triggers: Keyboard and Mouse triggers. The mouse trigger is very similar to the keyboard trigger, only that you click a mouse button along with some function keys instead of just a key.

Here is how to create a trigger in Quicksilver to do something very basic, for example launch Apples “Mail” application:

First select “Triggers” from the Quicksilver menu in your toolbar at the top of your screen:

In the dialog that appears Click on the little plus-sign at the bottom and select “HotKey” for a keyboard trigger or “Mouse” for a mouse trigger. In my example I am selecting “HotKey” for a keyboard trigger:

Quicksilver will show a dialog very similar to the normal Quicksilver interface. Define the trigger exactly the same way you would ususally use Quicksilver to do something. So in this example I select “Mail” as item and “Open” as the action:

You should now have a new trigger to open the mail application, so the only thing left is to define which key combination will invoke the trigger. To do that select your new trigger and click the little “i”-button at the bottom right of the dialog:

A drawer will open with the details of the trigger:

Click on the “Edit” button for the hot key. Enter the key combination you would like to use for the trigger.

I always use the combination “Shift-Control-Command” along with a defining key for all my Quicksilver triggers. This key combination may feel odd at first, but it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. The advantage of this combination is that it only very seldom causes any conflict with keyboard shortcuts in other applications.

This concludes the creation of a keyboard trigger. Mouse triggers are created similar, only that the drawer to define the Hot Key looks a bit different to cater for the options you have when using a mouse.

Merlin Mann, author of the famous 43 folders site, posted a video where the author of Quicksilver (A1c0r) talks about why he wrote Quicksilver the way he did:

43 Folders: Quicksilver demo by Nicholas Jitkoff

It’s a must-see for every Quicksilver fan!