About Quicksilver

Quicksilver is a launcher utility app for macOS which gives you the ability to perform common, every-day tasks rapidly and without thought. An introduction to Quicksilver's abilities include:

Find out about the Quicksilver Project and the team behind it.

Searching in Quicksilver

Find and Do

Quicksilver gives you quick access to all your important things. With only a few keystrokes, you can get to your applications, files, contacts, bookmarks, music, etc. Don't get distracted though; although Quicksilver finds and launches things quickly and extremely well, it's more about doing, not finding.
Do almost anything with Quicksilver

Launching is a gateway drug

Saying that Quicksilver is an application launcher is like saying a car is a cup holder. You can do almost anything with Quicksilver. Quicksilver's art is in learning what you like doing, and turning your chores into two-second thoughts. By knowing your habits, Quicksilver blurs the line between thinking about something and simply getting it done.
Abbreviating results in Quicksilver

Type it like you think it

Using Spotlight or a similar app to find the contact 'John Smith' requires you to search for say "john". What if you want to just type "js"? Quicksilver lets you abbreviate using letters from anywhere in the name, and that means anywhere. Use "ps" to find Photoshop or "tun" to find iTunes.
Use abbreviations that make sense to you.
Reverse the action in Quicksilver

Do it like you think it

Quicksilver lets you do things how you think of them, adapting to however you think.
You can Google search for 'some text', or find 'some text' with Google search.

You can select a contact and e-mail them a file, or you can select a file and e-mail it to a contact.
No thinking. No planning. No adjusting. Just doing.
Perform everything from Quicksilver

Stay where you are

With Quicksilver, you never need to stop what you're doing to complete simple tasks. Move the file you just downloaded to your Documents folder without leaving your browser. Add something to your To Do List as soon as you think of it. Quicksilver allows you to process your thoughts instantly, and lets you get right back to what you want to be doing.
Grab results from any application into Quicksilver

Grab and go

Select files or text and act upon them immediately. Quicksilver can grab the current selection from almost any application. Grab selected text to search for it on the web or append it to a file. Grab files and delete them, move them or send them. Grab pictures to resize them or change their format (above), the options are limitless.
Copy a file using Quicksilver

Keep Finder at arm's length

Quicksilver allows you to do all sorts of things with files: move, copy, rename, delete, whilst also letting you navigate your entire file system. Just add a few important top-level folders to the catalog and you can browse through your folders from there.
Triggers: keyboard shortcuts in Quicksilver

Still not fast enough?

If you find yourself doing something frequently, you can speed up the task even further by assigning a "trigger" to it. Triggers give you the power to assign regular tasks to keyboard shortcuts or mouse movements; you don't even need to activate Quicksilver.
Extend Quicksilver with plugins

Extend Quicksilver & do more

There are many plug-ins that extend Quicksilver's functionality even further. Interact with your installed applications; Mail, 1Password, Microsoft Office and more. Access information from web-based services. Access your browser's bookmarks and history.

Check out the 'Plugins' section within the Quicksilver preferences to see the all the entire plugins list; containing over 100 plugins.
Nostromo Interface for Quicksilver Primer Interface for Quicksilver Window Interface for Quicksilver BezelHUD Interface for Quicksilver

Numerous Interfaces

Customise Quicksilver with one of the many interface plugins, or alter the colours, bezels and font sizes.

What about Spotlight?

Spotlight is fantastic and it certainly has its place, but it's no substitute for Quicksilver.
  • Spotlight knows about everything on your Mac. Quicksilver also knows about everything, but concentrates on the things you care about.
  • Spotlight is about finding things. Quicksilver is about finding things (faster) then doing something with what you've found.
  • Spotlight can show your dad's entry in the Address Book. Quicksilver can show your dad's work phone number, call it or send your dad a file.
  • Spotlight forces you to think as you search. Quicksilver allows you to just start typing to get what you want.

Words from the Web

     “Quicksilver is like carrying a light-saber and throwing robots across the room with your mind”,
Anonymous

     “Quicksilver allows me to do near superhuman things with files and applications. It makes me a frakkin Ninja and my Mac a Ginsu Knife”.
Patrick Rhone, Minimal Mac