Rob Wilkerson

Okay, okay, so I'm a little late to the party.  I got here, right?  Just took a little wrong turn at Albuquerque.  QuickSilver looked complicated and, quite frankly, I didn't mind using the mouse.  Until I started not using it.

As long as I can remember, I've been a "Power User" - at least by the traditional definition.  Specifically, I'm a keyboard kind of guy.  I avoid the mouse if I can do so conveniently.  When I bought my first (and so far my only) Mac it was actually kind of fun to use the mouse.  For a while.  Then it became...not so bad. 

"Not so bad" is hardly a rousing endorsement, but nor was the mouse at all inconvenient or annoying as it often seems to be in Windows (I think that's because I'm still kind of mesmerized by the staggering beauty of the OS X UI).  At that point, the mouse vs. keyboard competition became sort of a push for me and there was no reason to fix what wasn't broken, as they say.

All the while, I kept hearing these tales of the miracles performed by QuickSilver and of how, with the press of two keys, a wink and a nod, I could have toast ready for me before I leave for work in the morning (that's a complete drama-ti-zation, of course).  Then one day, while reading another of these tales, a similar - though not so intelligent or fully featured, it was quickly pointed out - product for Windows was mentioned.  In Windows, I do everything in my power to avoid the mouse for some reason, so I downloaded Launchy.

Man, that is one seriously useful application.  No more start menu, no more Quick Launch toolbar.  I'm rocking the keyboard harder than ever.

So, wait, QuickSilver does even more than this?  The devil, you say.

Okay, so I downloaded it.  Again.  I've downloaded it before and just never took the time to learn and understand it.  This time - my third time - I did.  I'm sold.  To be completely honest, I don't use it as much more than a launcher, but still.  Ta-hotally worth it.  In fact, it's a bargain at twice the price (it's free).  I also use it to control iTunes from the keyboard without having to bring the window into focus.  That in itself is a pretty powerful, and remarkably useful, thing.

Yep, I'm hooked.  And when I learn what else it can do and how to do it, the hook will only embed itself deeper, I'm sure.  Feel free to welcome me to the club by regaling me with stories of how you use QuickSilver and of how I can make it do other cool stuff.