A Faster App Switch

[iwuwu]

Hi there

Alfred is fantastic. But switching apps are still a bit slow, I need to press Command + Space, and then search, and then press the Enter key. Can there be a faster way, such as holding down the right Command key(most people use the left), and then type the characters directly, and then release the right Command key to launch a app?(similar to the Command+Tab replacement app Contexts)
In addition, in the search, can provide a way similar to the sublime text?

[vitor]

That is not possible with Alfred’s feature set, no.

 

33 minutes ago, iwuwu said:

in the search, can provide a way similar to the sublime text?

 

You’ll need to be more specific.

[iwuwu]

3 hours ago, vitor said:

That is not possible with Alfred’s feature set, no.

 

 

You’ll need to be more specific.

like this:

if you want to search the folder "application", you just type any character in this sequence as long as their are in right order(without the need for a next to each other), 
so you can type "aplc" instead of "appl". I feel it's more natural. 

[GuiB]

Alfred doesn't differentiate the left or right command keys. However, you should be able to use another application that allow to map a specific key to an action (In this case, "Show Alfred on a right command key press". Have a look at Karabiner (disclaimer: I never used it, but seen people used it for this style of configuration).

 

However, if you don't go this way, there's ways in Alfred that could help you speed things up... I mean, you could create a list of Hotkey to launch specific application (ex: ctrl+opt+t to launch TextEdit or ctrl+opt+s to launch Safari...). Or have one hotkey that pop a List Filter containing your most used applications so there would be less choices and therefore less chances of needed multiple character to select the right application. Or what about having a list of Hotkeys that are activated only in Alfred, so you pop Alfred and then press the Hotkey to the specific item that you want...

 

Here is a workflow to show you my last idea... I thought this could be useful   

https://nofile.io/f/EqojqY3TaSs/Alfred+Launcher.alfredworkflow

 

Just giving some ideas...

[GuiB]

Or maybe I'm not understanding the question clearly... you want an easy application switcher or an easy way to launch specific applications ? For the second, see my post above. If you want to have a list of opened application (as an alternative to CMD+Tab), try the "running-apps" workflow that you can find here: http://tedwise.com/2013/03/04/alfred-2-workflows/

 

Or direct download link: http://tedwi.se/u/dh

[vitor]

26 minutes ago, iwuwu said:

like this:

if you want to search the folder "application", you just type any character in this sequence as long as their are in right order(without the need for a next to each other), 
so you can type "aplc" instead of "appl". I feel it's more natural. 

 

What you’re looking for is called “fuzzy searching”. Alfred does it for applications but not other things, for a reason. Also see the rest of that post, as it’s exactly about that.

 

But there are Workflows for that, such as @deanishe’s Fuzzy Folders.

[deanishe]

On 16/08/2017 at 2:14 PM, iwuwu said:

holding down the right Command key(most people use the left), and then type the characters directly

 

That doesn't sound at all fast. I don't know about you, but I can't type properly when I'm holding down CMD with my thumb.

 

21 hours ago, iwuwu said:

if you want to search the folder "application", you just type any character in this sequence as long as their are in right order(without the need for a next to each other), 
so you can type "aplc" instead of "appl". I feel it's more natural. 

 

I much prefer this, too (and this is the algorithm my Go library uses to filter results). Alfred already does this with its application search, but I don't think it's possible for other types of search because they're based on the system metadata search which doesn't support that kind of query.

[nikivi]

What I do is create a bunch of macros for opening applications in Keyboard Maestro like here : 

 

 

 

And call that macro from Karabiner. The cool thing with that is that I get one hotkey that will both open the app but also will switch to previous app if same hotkey is pressed again. 

 

I use that a lot. Here is how many times I opened Safari with it for example : 

 

Edited August 17, 2017 by nikivi