For years, I’ve been using a launch app called Drag Thing on my Mac. I’ve used it for so long to keep my application icons organized and easy to access that I never really bothered to look for something better. Until today…
Today, I discovered Alfred. Using a simple key command, you call up a search box on your desktop. It can find a web site, folder, application or just about any other thing you can think of. Then type in what you want. For example, I want to find out more about the movie The Help. I click the option+spacebar and Alfred pops up. Then I type “IMDB ‘the help’” and voila! Alfred has taken me to The Help page on IMDB and my fingers never left my keyboard. Then I need to open a client file. I type click on option + spacebar again and Alfred reappears. I type “open SKG tee” and the file pops up with the Illustrator icon next to it. Foosh! My file opens, I can make changes and keep going. Now I need to email the file. I can option + spacebar again and type “Mail” to get to my email client. If I were to add the Powerpack (£12) to Alfred, I could just use the find field in Alfred and locate the file again and select the “email ….” and whoosh! another task completed without clicking through folders.
Another fun feature is the ability to play a song from your iTunes by simply option + spacebar and typing “play (fill in song title)”.
I’m surprised how quickly I was taken with this application. I want everything on my computer to work as seamlessly as Alfred and I’ll definitely upgrade to the Powerpack, even though I know very little about Shell scripts and Applescripts, I’m looking forward to the other features it offers. The Powerpack adds options for “open with…”, “email file”, iTunes mini player, address book access and many other features.
(via Alfred App)
