sites opens ~/Sites (where all my code projects live).To get access to my most used folders quickly, I've created workflows which just open that folder: Open Common Folders #Įventhough Alfred comes with a backed in file browser, I often still use good old Finder.app.
They are quite simple but save me a couple of seconds every day. So first I would like to show you some of my own workflows. "Search and play Spotify playlists" however is quite complex and needs a lot of scripting work. For example "search this folder for that file type and open the file in that app" is quite easy to accomplish. They can wary between very simple and very complex. You define the event that triggers the workflow (a hotkey, a snippet, a file action), define its input (keyword, file filter) and then take action it (open a file, run a search or run a script). Workflows allow you to write basic programs with a drag and drop editor. Next let's cover the most famous and powerful feature of Alfred: Workflows. Shortcuts for CLI actions (like ziping a folder on UNIX as I will never remember the options for tar).Templates for certain types of notes I take.Canned responses to support emails or unsolicited recruiter emails,.I also have snippets which actually contain text: No need to scroll though Apple's emoji picker. By having all emojis available as snippets, I can type them out or search them in my snippets library. Here's a quick video on how I use the emoji snippets. I will work on that project over the next couple of weeks.
The goal is, to switch the source for the emojis to the official list of available characters from .Ī plus would then be to also create a new release when new emojis are being released by using GitHub Actions. You can find it on GitHub.Ĭurrently it's the same as the one from Joel, but written in PHP.
However, my added build process relies on dependencies which very slowly update to newly released emojis (which is okay, as these dependencies are used for something different than a snippet pack). Since Joel released his pack, new emojis have been released, and I stepped up and created a build process to his open-sourced emoji pack ( see PR #1). This collection of snippets allows you to type :v: to get the ✌️ emoji. Joel Califa once created an "Emoji Snippet Pack". Wether you love them or hate them, sometimes you use them. My biggest snippet collection is centered around emojis. The search url looks like this: ``` Emojis # Quickly open a personal GitHub repository by typing ghm repo_name.("invoice" is a generic example and you can adapt this to any other "thing" you use at your job (posts, sale, product, …)) Open the invoice details page in our app.Open the customer details page in our app.The way I use "web searches" in Alfred, is that my input is ususally an ID for a resource in one of my most used applications and not necessarily as a search term. For example app Tony Stark expands to Stark. It just passes the given search term to a URL. In summary, a custom web search allows you to set up a shortcut to start a search on any website. I use them everyday at work but not necessarily to search. Web searches are the first powerful feature we take a closer look at. Update the keyboard shortcut to invoke Alfred to `⌘+Space`. Open the Alfred settings and use the freed up ⌘+Space-combination to launch Alfred. Disable the "Show Spotlight search" setting to free up the `⌘+Space` keyboard shortcut Click on "Spotlight" and disable "Show Spotlight search". To do that, open System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts.
The first I thing I do, when installing Alfred on a Mac, is disabling the default keyboard shortcut for Spotlight ( ⌘+Space) and use it for Alfred. Use Spotlight Keyboard Shortcut for Alfred # With the basic summary out of the way, let's get started by replacing Spotlight with Alfred.
The worfklow features become available when you upgrade and buy the "Powerpack".
It uses Spotlight's search index to search files on your Mac, can start any of your installed apps and you can extend Alfred with custom workflows. (You can do calculations or webs searches too).Īlfred is Spotlight on steroids. In Yosemite, Apple redesigned the UI and Spotlight got a lot smarter. (Note: You find links to used themes and wallpapers at the end of this article). In this post I would like to show you how I use it, my custom workflows and some tips and tricks. I've been using it since I started working on macOS in 2013.
Alfred is my favourite piece of software on the Mac.