Stephen_C

You might consider using the inbuiilt Universal Actions—which are fully explained on this Alfred help page.

Stephen

And what do you have set under Preferences > Default Results > Fallbacks (at the bottom of the page)? Take a look at "Setup fallback results".

Edit: see also this Alfred help page about fallback searches.

Stephen

You may find this forum post helpful.

Stephen

Are you using macOS Monterey and, if so, have you looked at this Alfred help page?

Stephen

You might take a look at FreeFileSync. I've used it for years to synchronise large music files between various devices and it's worked very well.

Stephen

I think work is ongoing—see this page.

Stephen

There are no "pre-bundled" prefabs: you have to add your own.

Stephen

Try

Alfred Preferences > Features > Universal Actions

(on the General tab).

Stephen

27 minutes ago, mathieudaudelin said:

My Clipboard History holds 10 items (raw text words), which I frequently rely on and use through my day

This is just a thought, which may be completely off-track, but couldn't you use Snippets for those items rather than copying them from the clipboard history all the time?

Sorry if that's not helpful!

Stephen

This is a rather basic workflow (primarily an AppleScript script) designed to facilitate logging on to sites which require you to input specified characters from your mother's maiden name, the name of your first school, a memorable date, etc. Some of us use password managers which don't show the numbering of the characters and this workflow is designed to help. I've never used GitHub and certainly don't think this worth "hosting" so please excuse the way in which it's presented. (I shall probably get into trouble for that! 😀.)

It looks like this:

First copy the relevant word to the clipboard from your password manager. The Keyword (I used "gc" for Get characters) to trigger the workflow has no argument and the script will prompt you to provide the numbers of the characters you need (with a space between each number). This is the script:

try
    -- get the word from the clipboard
    set theWord to the clipboard
    -- keep it as a title to the dialogue
    set titleWord to theWord
    -- split the word into characters as a list
    set listChars to characters of theWord as list
    -- get the length of the character list
    set lenList to length of listChars
    -- an empty variable to store the characters we need
    set existingChars to ""
    -- set a default answer to demonstrate correct input
    set dAnswer to "1 3 6"
    -- ensure the dialogue shows the word and max. no. of characters
    set userEntry to display dialog ¬
        "Enter the 3 numbers of the characters you want from " & "'" & titleWord & "'" & " with a space between each:" default answer dAnswer with title "Get characters from " & "'" & titleWord & "'" & "(" & "max. " & lenList & " characters" & ")"
    -- get the dialogue input
    set dAnswer to text returned of userEntry
    set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    -- we are splitting the input numbers by the space character
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " "
    -- create a list of the input numbers
    set answerList to text items of dAnswer
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid
    -- set variable to check the last number input is not > than number of characters in word
    set overFlow to item -1 of answerList as integer
    -- check the last input number isn't greater than number of characters in the word
    if overFlow is greater than lenList then
        error "There are not " & overFlow & " characters in " & "'" & titleWord & "'"
    end if
    -- now loop for each number in input
    repeat with i from 1 to (length of answerList)
        -- set each number against the appropriate character of the word
        set seekChar to item i of answerList as integer
        if existingChars is "" then
            set existingChars to item seekChar of listChars
        else
            -- add it if we already have a character
            set existingChars to existingChars & " " & item seekChar of listChars
        end if
    end repeat
    return existingChars
    
on error error_message number error_number
    if error_number is -1700 then
    set error_message to "Please ensure there is only a space between the numbers"
    return error_message
    else
    if the error_number is not -128 then return error_message
    -- substitute the following line if not running in an Alfred workflow
    -- if the error_number is not -128 then display alert "Error" message error_message as warning
    end if
end try

The script traps certain errors (including incorrect input format or a number greater than the number of characters in the word).

I don't know if this will be useful for anyone else but I use it a fair bit.

Stephen

Have you looked at the example workflow included: "Simple folder search"? If not go to Alfred preferences, click on "Workflows" and then on the plus sign at the bottom of the column and choose "Examples > Simple Folder Search".

Stephen

Edit: I suggest you also read Understanding Result Ordering from Alfred's help pages.

As a more general suggestion, and with the increasing number of Automation Tasks, it might be quite useful to have a search facility within the Automation Task window to assist with finding tasks quickly.

Stephen

Maybe this recent post will help you.

Stephen

If you go to Alfred's preferences under `Default Results` do you have `Folders` checked under `Extras`?

It may be helpful to take a little time reading the help page for the beginner's guide to searching with Alfred just in case you've not already done so,

Stephen

If you right click on the name of one of your workflows you'll see options to export it (which may be what you in fact want) or to open it in Finder (among other options).

Stephen

I like this idea very much. My programming "skills" (such as they are!) are limited to AppleScript so although I have many useful personal workflows most are reasonably basic (although, of course, nonetheless very useful to me). I'm sure I'd benefit considerably from the sort of thing you're suggesting.

Stephen

You might take a look at the example workflow included and called Dynamic File Search. Go to Workflows, click the plus button at the bottom of the list and choose Examples to find it. (Sorry if you've already seen it!)

Stephen

2 hours ago, Belfong said:

It also seems I can’t exclude Folders from being search. I could have sworn I’ve seen this before. 

You can use a file filter input to do that. From the page to which I have linked:

Quote

A file filter allows you to narrow down your search to particular file types you want to find, making it easier to locate the file you need.

Rather than add every possible file type to your default Alfred results, or trawl through an unfiltered list of all files that match your search term, these finely focused filters will help you find the results you need in a moment.

 

As an alternative, if you run your search a few times and always select the file you need (i.e., the 2022 file) Alfred will remember that and soon it will appear top of your search results.

No doubt there are other ways to achieve what you need but these are the first that occurred to me. I hope they help.

Stephen

I am very far from an expert with shell script but, as a very minor comment on this helpful workflow, I believe there is a missing closing parenthesis (before the final quotation mark) in the script attached to the Copy macOS version trigger.

Stephen

…and if you want an excellent current DEVONthink search workflow look here on the this forum. @chrillek is a talented and helpful member of the DEVONthink forum and I find his workflow extremely useful.

Stephen

On the assumption you're using Alfred 5 have you considered using an Automations task (see Arguments Processing under the Automations task)?

Stephen

See this page:

Quote

This page is currently being overhauled with a whole load of new amazing Workflows built by us and our community.

Stephen

Bartender 4 supports AppleScript and, in very crude terms, you could include something like this in a workflow to trigger the Bartender quick search window:

tell application "Bartender 4"
    quick search
end tell

That is pretty basic but it may give you enough of an idea to develop something better!

Stephen

2 hours ago, IvanPsy said:

I'll have a look at the new features and see if I can solve.

In Alfred 5, under Workflows you'll see a panel to the right of the Workflow editor. Open Automations in that panel and one of those you'll see is called Run Shortcut.

There's more about using Automation Tasks here in the Alfred help pages.

Stephen

Without intending to sound sycophantic, I just wanted to thank Andrew (and Vero) for, not only the development and release of Alfred 5 (which is a significant, and much appreciated, step forward), but the constant, considerate and always responsive support provided on these forums.

It's because of the continuing development and the support here that I am intensely loyal to Alfred.

Thank you.

Stephen