plainclothes

Sorry, I wasn't clear about that: I want to change the output device setting in the system preferences. In this case, I want to switch to my conference speaker / mic combo for output when Zoom launches. Ideally I could also switch back to my main speakers when I quit Zoom.

I want to change my sound output when an app launches. Can Alfred watch for this and make the change? It seems like this should be possible with a workflow, but I'm a newb in that area.

@deanishe I like what you're thinking! When jumping into text entry mode, expanding the input field would make for a smoother entry experience. The QS input can be switched into text mode by typing `.` at any time. As soon as that character is typed, the characters entered are preserved and the input visually changes to a small single-line text input. The option/alt key can be used to input line breaks. To simplify matters, I think forcing a certain first character (eg `.`) to change mode would be a reasonable compromise. A handy result of having this dedicated text entry mode is that the new Universal Actions feature wouldn't try to select a "best match" item in the list when what I really want is to action on the string input. That's where UA is causing me trouble at the moment.

Okay. Sorry to offend the Feature Gatekeeper. So … like I was saying … I still miss line breaks from Quicksilver. I'm not saying anyone should build this for me and break Alfred, just pointing out that Universal Actions got me a little closer to the text actions I miss. Thanks, Alfred.

"One size fits all" fits no one. I would expect a "line breaks" config somewhere that allows you to enable the behavior and set the modifier key(s).

Thanks for the file creation pointer! I'll have to dig into that. I realize that line breaks in an input like Alfred's comes with some compromises, but it's worth it for me. For example, I don't really need shift+return to do anything special so I'd probably take that over for line breaks.

Universal actions just got Alfred a few steps closer to the ubiquitous capture I've missed since moving from QS. Things I still need: - Line breaks - Create file - Append / prepend to file

I might be misunderstanding you or I may not have explained myself clearly … I'm talking about typing directly into Alfred's prompt, not pulling in text from a selection in the OS. I do need to explore the latter, but first I'd like to solve the former. I didn't realize how much I used that in QS until it was gone. One other feature I'm missing that's directly related to text manipulation: Line breaks! It was a little cumbersome, but hitting <opt> + <return> would insert a line break into the QS input, which allowed me to queue up a multiline body of text to operate on. I used this frequently for quick notes in a meeting, coming back to it later to drop somewhere else (eg Jira, nvAlt, a slide deck, or email).

This is one area of migrating from Quicksilver to Alfred that bugs me every day. I've found myself keeping QS running as a fall back when I really "need" text actions. Some QS text manipulation features that I used weekly, if not daily: Copy text to clipboard (may seem superfluous, but I used it all the time) Send text to "Shelf" (the shelf idea is like a quick and easy Snippets on the fly) Create new file with text Append text to file Prepend text to file Type text Display text in large type

QS has been really stable for me right up to mac OS 11 … then things started going off the rails. That forced me to give Alfred a go again. I'm always surprised by the many ways it falls short, but the community has certainly done a lot for it. After struggling with Alfred's strange gaps (and even paying for the Powerpack), I'm really hoping QS dev picks up the pace soon. I've said since day one I'd pay for it -- I'm shocked no one has ever tried making a business out of it.

Reluctantly switching Quicksilver user. It's hard to break with over a decade of habits, but things are getting sketchy on mac os 11. Sorry if this is explained elsewhere, but my QS-tainted searches couldn't find it. After performing an action on something, eg moving or renaming a file, the standard behavior of Quicksilver is to return with the modified item selected. Is there any way to get Alfred to behave similarly?