Show time & date in search box

[patrickmcd]

I think the empty search box is a lost opportunity. I'd like an option to show the time & date in the background of the search box until I start typing. Something like this:

 

 

 

You could choose the format of the date, or turn on/off/reorder units. Something like the functionality in iStat Menus would be great.

 

 

 

I like to set the menu bar to "automatically hide and show," but the one thing that I miss is being able to see the time without using my mouse or a slightly awkward key combo (^F2 with function lock) to show the menu. If I could hit the Alfred hotkey and instantly see the time (without typing / using a workflow), that would be quite useful to me.

 

Anyone else?

[vitor]

Similar thread with solution:

 

[patrickmcd]

Thanks, but the links to the workflow and examples are all dead.

 

Hopefully this would be useful enough to others that it makes it into the product.

[vitor]

The examples are not dead. The screenshots in my first post over there cover all you need to reproduce the Workflow (which is exactly why they’re there: to be followed after the links expired).

[nikivi]

You can also use Hammerspoon which is free.

You can then edit the init.lua configuration to add this function, set a keybinding and then when pressed it would quickly give you what time it is now like in screenshot below :

 

 

 

Much cleaner solution I believe.

Another solution would be to use bartender app and put the time into the extra bartender menu bar and then assign a simple hotkey to show that bar, it looks like this for me :

 

 

 

And the cool thing with that approach is that you can even keyboard search for things so you can access any menu bar item you have from the keyboard alone which is super valuable for people who despise using their mouse like me. ? 

Edited August 27, 2017 by nikivi

[vitor]

@nikivi I don’t think that’s @patrickmcd’s point. I see it as being more about maximising Alfred’s empty box than getting quick access to the date.

 

Your Hammerspoon solution could be achieved just as well with a Workflow with large type, and Bartender is a paid app. Suggesting an extra app to do a single thing is seldom the best solution, particularly when said app can do a ton of things and we’re using it for a simple single goal. Most of us want less things running on our machines, not more.

[GuiB]

Here is two solutions... one that is like the one from @vitor in the other post (calling a script filter for the output) and the other output the date directly in the Alfred popup (so a little more like the screenshot of @patrickmcd). So you can try both and choose the one you prefer

 

https://nofile.io/f/R7CfN9no9yk/Quick+Glance.alfredworkflow

 

I thought this could be a good idea, especially @vitor's one if you want multiple item at a glance when you activate Alfred...

 

As for changing the date string, I would say like @vitor on the other post and look at the "date" command in the terminal (or here: https://ss64.com/bash/date.html)

[nikivi]

2 hours ago, vitor said:

@nikivi I don’t think that’s @patrickmcd’s point. I see it as being more about maximising Alfred’s empty box than getting quick access to the date.

 

Your Hammerspoon solution could be achieved just as well with a Workflow with large type, and Bartender is a paid app. Suggesting an extra app to do a single thing is seldom the best solution, particularly when said app can do a ton of things and we’re using it for a simple single goal. Most of us want less things running on our machines, not more.

 

Yeah, you are right about Bartender being a paid app. 

 

As for Hammerspoon, as you can see on the screenshot, Hammerspoon's solution looks a lot nicer then what you can achieve with 'show text' in Alfred. I only recently started using it and I love it so definitely recommend it. That is if you have menu bar hidden by default.

Edited August 28, 2017 by nikivi

[vitor]

7 hours ago, nikivi said:

As for Hammerspoon, as you can see on the screenshot, Hammerspoon's solution looks a lot nicer then what you can achieve with 'show text' in Alfred.

 

My point was that it’s not nicer enough to have another full app running on the system all the time.

 

It looking nicer is also highly debatable — to me it looks awful. The type is cut off at the bottom; the color is garish; and it has no background, meaning no contrast against something of the same colour. It looks like it was photoshopped into the image in a hurry (even worse than that, as that wouldn’t cut off the type).

[patrickmcd]

Thanks @vitor, I got it working based on the screenshots. It's a nice solution, even if a bit hacky as you said in the other thread. Thanks as well @GuiB, your workflow works similarly. I see an almost imperceptible delay between these and the regular Alfred reveal, but they are good enough for now.

 

@vitor, you're right that it's about maximizing the empty box. While the time would be useful to me (because I'd like to hide my menu), it's easy to imagine other uses; weather, battery, a timer, etc. It's a way to get some kind of immediate information without any extra work (and without installing and learning anything else).

Edited August 28, 2017 by patrickmcd