12 ms·

I've installed Alfred before but just kept using Spotlight. I never saw why it amazes so many people. What does it do that Spotlight can't?

bordercases 10y ago
See my comment above. For me it seems more accurate.
vurrpurr 10y ago
there is a lot of features in Alfred, but my absolute favorite is the workflows [1] I use Alfred workflow with dash [2], so i can type "go fmt.Println" into alfred, and jump straight to the man-page. I also use Alfred workflow with SnippetsLab [3], to open my personal notes in a similar fashion. 1: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/ 2: https://kapeli.com/dash Dash is also an absolutely wonderful app, for having all your coding docs on-the-go. Since I am often without internet access, Dash lets me continue working. It even has offline stack exchange if that rocks your boat. 3: https://www.renfei.org/snippets-lab/ SnippetsLab provides a very much awesome way of organizing all your snippets of code / notes, etc. This way of navigating means I have to use the trackpad pretty infrequently. My only complaint about these tools, is that I'm stuck in Windows at work :-( For another software I use daily and can no longer live without, it would be tmux.
- adt2bt 10y ago
  Would you mind sharing your Alfred dash workflow? Edit: Found it. For those interested, you need the Alfred Powerpack and Dash installed. Go to Dash Preferences -> Integration & click 'Alfred'.
adamnemecek 10y ago
I use the paste manager A LOT. But that might be only in the paid version.
- zZorgz 10y ago
  Ditto. Can't function without the clipboard history.
WA 10y ago
It isn't so annoyingly stupid like Spotlight. For months, I open a single file called TODO.TXT via Spotlight. I enter T..O..D.. and select TODO.TXT from the list. I don't search for anything else with Spotlight that begins with TOD or even TO. But Spotlight for whatever reason decides that for every second or third search attempt, it must show me an entirely different file than the one I opened a thousand times by pressing exactly these letters. It is hard for me to grasp how in 2016 a piece of software can be so ignorant to such a simple behavior. But: It took me a few attempts to start using Alfred. I personally only use it to open files and programs and to search in files. The default behavior with pressing space twice is very annoying if you want to open text files. So I tweaked the settings a bit and now it works for me: Default Results: Essentials: - all unchecked but *Applications*. Extras: only check: Folders, Text Files, Documents, Images. Search within files by starting your search with the word in like "in FOOBAR". That's what works for me and replaced Spotlight.
- senderista 10y ago
  I prefer using Spotlight from the command line: https://gist.github.com/senderista/1246300 https://gist.github.com/senderista/1246300
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
tdy721 10y ago
It can be "taught" to do things. If you want to open something with 1-2 letters you can just repeat yourself a few times (2-4?) and it will learn and remember. Spotlight just does not do this.
- kiwijamo 10y ago
  That is strange, Spotlight seems to do this for me. I rarely have to type more than 1-2 characters. YMMV.

bordercases 10y ago

See my comment above. For me it seems more accurate.

vurrpurr 10y ago

there is a lot of features in Alfred, but my absolute favorite is the workflows [1] I use Alfred workflow with dash [2], so i can type "go fmt.Println" into alfred, and jump straight to the man-page. I also use Alfred workflow with SnippetsLab [3], to open my personal notes in a similar fashion. 1: https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/ 2: https://kapeli.com/dash Dash is also an absolutely wonderful app, for having all your coding docs on-the-go. Since I am often without internet access, Dash lets me continue working. It even has offline stack exchange if that rocks your boat. 3: https://www.renfei.org/snippets-lab/ SnippetsLab provides a very much awesome way of organizing all your snippets of code / notes, etc. This way of navigating means I have to use the trackpad pretty infrequently. My only complaint about these tools, is that I'm stuck in Windows at work :-( For another software I use daily and can no longer live without, it would be tmux.

adt2bt 10y ago
Would you mind sharing your Alfred dash workflow? Edit: Found it. For those interested, you need the Alfred Powerpack and Dash installed. Go to Dash Preferences -> Integration & click 'Alfred'.

adamnemecek 10y ago

I use the paste manager A LOT. But that might be only in the paid version.

zZorgz 10y ago
Ditto. Can't function without the clipboard history.

WA 10y ago

It isn't so annoyingly stupid like Spotlight. For months, I open a single file called TODO.TXT via Spotlight. I enter T..O..D.. and select TODO.TXT from the list. I don't search for anything else with Spotlight that begins with TOD or even TO. But Spotlight for whatever reason decides that for every second or third search attempt, it must show me an entirely different file than the one I opened a thousand times by pressing exactly these letters. It is hard for me to grasp how in 2016 a piece of software can be so ignorant to such a simple behavior. But: It took me a few attempts to start using Alfred. I personally only use it to open files and programs and to search in files. The default behavior with pressing space twice is very annoying if you want to open text files. So I tweaked the settings a bit and now it works for me: Default Results: Essentials: - all unchecked but *Applications*. Extras: only check: Folders, Text Files, Documents, Images. Search within files by starting your search with the word in like "in FOOBAR". That's what works for me and replaced Spotlight.

senderista 10y ago
I prefer using Spotlight from the command line: https://gist.github.com/senderista/1246300 https://gist.github.com/senderista/1246300

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

tdy721 10y ago

It can be "taught" to do things. If you want to open something with 1-2 letters you can just repeat yourself a few times (2-4?) and it will learn and remember. Spotlight just does not do this.

kiwijamo 10y ago
That is strange, Spotlight seems to do this for me. I rarely have to type more than 1-2 characters. YMMV.