

Writers will appreciate Alfred's ability to suggest the correct spelling of words or pull up definitions, while others might like the fact that Alfred can work as a calculator, too. System functions work, too: empty trash, log out, put Mac in sleep mode, restart, shut down, turn on the screensaver, and more. If not, keep reading, as I'll try to describe some other use cases in this review.Īlfred Looks, Finds, and Executes Beyond being a quicklaunch and computer search tool, Alfred has other uses that can increase productivity, too.Īlfred enables hotkeys for showing Preferences, switching to Finder or Spotlight to complete the search, and switching to Google to search. If you've ever suffered wrist and thumb strain, or other symptoms of repetitive motion injuries caused by frequent mouse usage, you will immediately "get" Alfred. Notice that with Alfred, you can do everything I just described without taking your hands off the keyboard. After using Alfred only a handful of times, it learned that when I type "ch," I'm probably looking to launch Google Chrome because that's the most common selection I've made in the past-even if a file labeled "chicken-recipe" is a closer match, alphabetically speaking. It will also suggest any files, including program applications, on your computer that use the letters, such as the "iTwin installer" or an entry in your address book for "Mark Twain." Alfred can also track your patterns and learn from your behavior. Type "Tw," and Alfred might suggest launching Twitter in a Web browser. Press enter or the down arrow key or the keyboard shortcut shown at the right of the item you want ( see the slideshowfor an image), and Alfred launches the application or file. Type any characters in the field and Alfred will match them to programs and files that contain that combination of letters. The hotkey will pull Alfred's search bar-a relatively small and unobtrusive box on the screen, with legibly large font for characters-which you then use to search your computer for applications or files, or search online. You can keep the default hotkey to toggle to Alfred, or set your own. See Alfred's requirements page for further details.Īlfred Hotkey Alfred's primary purpose is to enable simple yet powerful keyboard shortcuts for searching your computer and launching application and files.
Alfred for mac os x Pc#
A download is available for Leopard (OS X 10.5) for both Intel and Power PC Macs. The developers, Running with Crayons, report optimal results with Lion (10.7). But Alfred works a little differently, is faster, and for many other reasons is a preferable tool for many users.Īlfred for Mac System Requirements Alfred for Mac version 1.0 is compatible with Intel Macs running OS X 10.6 and higher. The program replicates a lot of functionality that's already available to Mac users in Spotlight, the built-in tool (since OS 10.4) for searching your computer for applications and files.

You can deploy Alfred for a number of different purposes, but until you find the few that speak to your daily work and typical computing patterns, you probably won't think much of Alfred.

Alfred only becomes worthwhile when you figure out what your use case for it is.

The above paragraph may sound a tad overzealous for what is a very simple and straightforward application, but it's meant to drive home a point.
Alfred for mac os x software#
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