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    Spotlight vs Quicksilver (LMTP#3)

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Lencias, Oct 19, 2008.

  1. Lencias

    Lencias Notebook Consultant

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    Hi!
    I'm a Windows user that's been using Launchy for a while, and I've been hearing Quicksilver being praised as a spectacular app launcher for a while. I've been looking forward to using it after I get a new MBP soon.

    However, I was playing around with Spotlight on one of the Macs at the Apple Store today... and Spotlight itself seems like a good launcher... I just press cmd+space, type in the app I want, and it opens.

    What exactly does Quicksilver do that Spotlight can't?

    ----------------
    Now playing: Carbon Leaf - What About Everything?
    via FoxyTunes
     
    Lencias, Oct 19, 2008
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  2. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    Quicksilver is much faster. You can also control programs using Quicksilver, such as opening a music file in iTunes by typing part of the song's name.
     
    Budding, Oct 19, 2008
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  3. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    I never actually bothered to learn quicksilver. When I got my mac, the documentation wasnt the greatest for quicksilver, and I didn't feel like finding and installing the plugins.

    So yea, I use spotlight, and its one of the reasons why I love osx.

    But yea, the way I use it is mainly to launch programs. Also if I need to open a specific file (like train schedules or a subway map), i just type it in and itll find it and then i just open it. Much easier then having to navigate through folders and find it. Also it works with your Address Book, so if you need to find someones phone number, or email, just type in their name and itll find them and open it up in address book.

    And actually playing music, i do generally in itunes. Though you can type a song name in spotlight, and itll fin it in your itunes library and open it up via that.

    But yea, maybe theres more functionality within quicksilver, I just never bothered looking into it because spotlight does everything that I need it to do.
     
    sulkorp, Oct 19, 2008
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  4. taelrak

    taelrak Lost

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    Spotlight lets you find files and apps and opens them for you.

    Quicksilver does all of the above (arguably faster), but also lets you do other stuff too (email, send text, run scripts, do specific commands in the application you typed in, run text commands (e.g. dictionary, etc.), and lots lots more)...
     
    taelrak, Oct 20, 2008
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