The hints, tips and tricks thread

[Stephen_C]

 This thread is for hints, tips and tricks when using Alfred.

Please:

•     Limit each post in the thread to one relatively short hint, trick or tip.
•     Don’t use this thread for questions: if you have a question about a post in this thread post your question in this forum with a link to the relevant post in this thread.
•     If your hint, tip or trick is dependent on use of a version of either Alfred or macOS other than the current version at time of posting please make that clear in your post.
•     By all means use screenshots if that helps to clarify your post.
•     Do post a link to the relevant Alfred help page if appropriate.

 

Please contribute—and remember what you find easy or standard when using Alfred may still be unknown to others who might find your knowledge very useful!

 

Stephen

[Stephen_C]

How to jump directly an action shown in the results of a Universal Action.

 

When you use a Universal Action on, for example, a selected file in Finder you will see a list of relevant actions. If in fact you regularly wish to see only one of those actions (for example, the Alfred action to move the selected file) you may be able to create a new workflow triggered by a hotkey and link that to and link that to an Action in Alfred action. When you open that latter action in your workflow you will find a Jump to section which, when clicked, reveals the following:

 

 

Simply choose the action you want—and your workflow will then take you directly to that action. (Note that the actions listed do not cover all possible actions that may appear from use of the Universal Action.)

 

(With thanks to @JJJJ for reminding me of this!)

 

See the Alfred help pages for Action in Alfred and Hotkey Trigger.

 

Stephen

[Stephen_C]

What to do if Alfred doesn't find a file that you can find.

 

Always start with these Alfred help pages:

• Troubleshooting File Indexing Issues; and (for Monterey-specific troubleshooting)
• Troubleshooting File Indexing Issues on macOS Monterey.

(Note that the latter page is particularly helpful if you have used the macOS Migration Assistant to migrate a user account to Monterey.)

 

Stephen

[Vero]

Great thread idea

 

If you find yourself referring to the same item in your clipboard history often, select that item in the Clipboard Viewer and use Cmd + S to save it as a snippet.

 

Once it's saved as a snippet, you'll be able to set a trigger keyword for it, and save it in a collection, which will be backed up and synced (if you use syncing) so that you never lose these most useful references you use a lot!

[Stephen_C]

Use a blank keyword and a variable to obtain and store additional user input in a workflow.

If your workflow involves more than a single user input you can use the Keyword input and leave the keyword itself blank to create a subsequent prompt for user input

 

 

Store each input in a variable for later use in the workflow.

 

It’s all rather easier than it sounds! See:

• my Find and replace in clipboard text workflow for an example;
• generally, the Alfred help pages on Keyword Input and Using Variables in Workflows.

Stephen

Edited October 20, 2022 by Stephen_C
Added screenshot

[Stephen_C]

This is the first of three posts about using variables to assist your users.

Use a variable to provide a helpful prompt in your workflow:

 

 

gives:

 

Stephen

[Stephen_C]

This is the second of three posts about using variables to assist your users.

Use a variable to provide a helpful error message with guidance for the user.

Use the Dialog Conditional with the appropriate variables:

 

 

gives:

 

Stephen

[Stephen_C]

This is the final post of three about using variables to assist your users.

Use your workflow’s variables to provide detailed feedback (in a Dialog Conditional and/or a notification) at the end of a workflow.

 

 

gives:

 

 

Stephen