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How do you describe Quicksilver?

Submitted by Merlin on September 30, 2007 - 8:43am.

Acting without doing SOUNDS good, but… (Ask MetaFilter)

I really liked this AskMe question about Quicksilver, since it’s one that comes up a lot for folks who don’t get as enthused about the app as I (and many of you) do:

Everywhere I go on the internet, Mac users rave about Quicksilver. I’ve downloaded it a couple times, and I sort of get that it COULD be really useful, but I am not sure how…

So what am I missing with Quicksilver? I see so many other people who get a lot of use out of it, and I am sure I can fit it in somewhere, too, but I just can’t seem to figure it out….

Here’s a portion of how I responded in comments:

Quicksilver provides access to almost any kind of stuff in your Mac’s and your world – contact information, bookmarks, files, Applications, system settings, and pretty much anything else – and it lets you leap to any of these things by typing a few letters of the name (NB: Spotlight is more about contents and QS is more about names; they’re complementary, not competing). So, that’s the neato, Day 0 stuff.

But the big sexy comes with how QS understands the potential verbal relationships between any of those objects, then gives you a single keyboard interface for making amazing things happen…

I’ll admit that it always makes me realize what a fanboy I am whenever I try to explain Quicksilver, but, truthfully, it is kind of challenging.

How do you describe Quicksilver to folks who don’t get all the fuss? How do you relate the sexiness?

in

I've tried it, but ...

Submitted by mpancha on October 1, 2007 - 7:28am.

to me if I have to spend more than 15 minutes learning to use a piece of software, its not worth my time.

Quicksilver, I’ve given it a try over the years, but the learning curve is greater than the time it would take me to manually perform the task I’m trying to speed up. Granted, if I learned to use it, I am guessing it would speed up my workflow, but as it is, my workflow is pretty quick. With keyboard shortcuts, mouse, spotlight and expose, I can do most of what I want in a blink (or a few blinks) of the eye.

Thus far I haven’t seen anything in descriptions, reviews, that makes me want to spend a few hours one day learning to use Quicksilver, but who knows, maybe one day it’ll be incorporated into my workflow.