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Is there a way to configure a hotkey so that it always passes a selected/highlighted file in the results? More specifically, I have Alfred set up so that, when he opens, he shows his previous search results (Advanced - History). Assuming there’s an old query to display, by default, Alfred automatically selects/highlights the text from the previous argument. This text also stays selected/highlighted until the user clears, modifies, or unselects it (e.g., right/left arrow keys). As a consequence, if you use hotkeys to pass files to workflows (i.e., setup w. Section in macOS & Pass through to workflow), then you always have to remember to unhighlight the text from your previous query before using the hotkey. This is true even in situations when you’ve used the arrow keys to navigate to a particular file in your results. Under the current setup, Alfred’s hotkey will passes the text from the old query because it’s also technically selected/highlighted, and it appears to take precedence over any files/results that you also might have selected at the same time. Is there a way to either: Configure a hotkey so that - at least, when it comes to Alfred’s search window - that it never acts on the query/text and only acts on a selected result/file (e.g., in the same way Reveal in Finder and other alternative actions in Alfred still seem to work even when the old query text is highlighted)? OR Automatically unhighlights/unselects the text from the previous query once the user presses the down arrow key to go through the old results? To be honest, I’m a little surprised this isn’t the default behavior. While I like the fact that the text from the previous query is automatically selected when Alfred is first opened - i.e., because it’s easier to just start a new query by simply typing, which wipes out the old text - I guess I don’t understand why it stays selected once the user starts cycling through the results by pressing the down arrow key? Obviously, this is the easiest way to start a new query (less clicks/keys) but the tradeoff is that users have to remember to unselect the old query each time if they want to use a hotkey to pass a selected file (i.e., assuming there isn’t a more sophisticated hotkey setup than the one described above). For new users, it’s also got to be pretty confusing - since the GUI makes it look like two things are selected/highlighted (i.e., the query and the result/file), and one would assume that if you've taken the time to scroll down to a file in the results that you would want to act on the result and not the query. In any case, am I overlooking something here? Beyond just remembering to unhighlight the old query - or setting up a proper filter, etc - is there another way to accomplish this? I feel like I'm overlooking something really silly here.🤦‍♂️ Thanks for any help you can lend!

I use the query history feature a lot and, in my up-arrow frenzy, I often overshoot the entry I want. To get back to it, I clear out the alfred prompt and start from the beginning, going more slowly this time. It'd be nice if there was a way to go forwards through the history, so that I could correct my overshoot more easily. My thought was that the down arrow would be a natural way to do this. I realize that the down arrow is currently used as a way to disengage query history mode, but the left and right arrow keys also do this, and it's rare that I want to disengage at all.

By "modal" query type I mean one created by connecting a hotkey directly to a script filter, or by calling an external trigger directly connected to a script filter. (Alfred then show's that script filter's icon (in place of Alfred's) and directs all input to that script filter - no keyword is being shown.) As an aside: is there an established/better name for this? - Currently, the typed-query history (pressing up-arrow or, if turned on, having the last query automatically redisplayed) doesn't work in such modal queries at all. - Similarly, query strings entered in a modal query do not get recorded even in the general history. It would be helpful to have a *query-type-specific* (scoped) typed-query history in that event. I.e., when you enter such a modal query again, only *that* query's history is presented. In addition or alternatively, query strings from modal query types could be included in the general history, prefixed by their script filter's keyword (if defined). ------ I realize that I could alternatively define a hotkey to simply open Alfred with a keyword, giving me regular queries that become part of the history, but I quite like the separate mode / scope that is entered for modal query types - and it does open the door for a scoped history. Example use case: I have a modal query for searching Evernote that I activate with a hotkey. Having access to past queries there - limited to queries of that type - would be handy.