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Quicksilver: Append to a text file from _anywhere_

Appending to a txt file in QS

Quicksilver makes it easy to add new lines to a txt file without even opening an application. Here’s an example of how you might add “coffee” to your “groceries.txt” list.

  1. Invoke QS (usu. “CMD-space”)
  2. Hit “.” to start typing in the variable input field
  3. Type “coffee”
  4. Tab to the next pane
  5. Type “APP” (or whatever it takes to pull up “Append Text To…”)
  6. Tab to the next pane
  7. Type “GROC” or surf to your running “groceries.txt” file
  8. Hit enter
  9. You’re done
  10. Optionally, note that after you’ve appended this, the window autopops with the destination file (“groceries.txt”) ready to open for inspection.
  • Hint: You can add carriage returns in the input field by typing option-return.
  • Hint: To place your new text at the beginning of a txt document, rather than the end, type “PREP” (or whatever it takes to pull up “Prepend Text To…”) in step 5 above.

(N.B.: Watch this space for an upcoming series of Quicksilver features—from setup through power user tricks)

Update (9/12): New Quicksilver release brings “Interface and stability enhancements.” Also, Append/Prepend is now available in “Beta” mode. Yay.

Shane's picture

for you remind users: ln .reminders...

for you remind users:

ln .reminders reminders.txt

This is creating a hardlink to your .reminders file - you now have two ways to get at the same data, and any change to one will be reflected in the other.

Do this and you can append to reminders.txt and remind will work accordingly since it will find the same changes in .reminders (since it is the same exact file).

(For all you UNIX geeks (like myself) who ask "why not a symlink?" - Quicksilver doesn't seem to like them and doesn't register them in its catalog)

 
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