Thumbnail Navigation — Navigate the file system with previews

[vitor]

Usage

Search for folders with the nav keyword and press ↩ to navigate the contents in a thumbnail view. Type to filter.

• ↩ Open or view file, or navigate inside folder.
• ⌘↩ Flip sort order.
• ⌥↩ Reveal in Finder.
• ⇧↩ Navigate to parent folder.
  

Alternatively, begin navigation in a folder via a Universal Action.

Configure the Fast Entry section in the Workflow’s Configuration to start navigation with the contents of specified folders. Launch it via the fnav keyword or the Hotkey.

⤓ Install on the Alfred Gallery | Source

[vitor]

When reporting issues, please include your exact installed versions of:

• The Workflow.
• Alfred.
• macOS.

In addition to:

• The debugger output. Perform the failing action, click “Copy” on the top right and paste it here.
• Details on what you did, what happened, and what you expected to happen. A short video of the steps with the debugger open may help to find the problem faster.

Thank you. Accurate and thorough information is crucial for a proper diagnosis which allows me to help you better.

[runningwithscissors]

This is great, really opens up some new options for me. Is there a way to change the default view in the workflow from single page continuous to double page continuous? Or is there a way to do it via a hot key? Right now, it seems like you have to right click and select it every time, which kinda disrupts the workflow.

[vitor]

You mean for PDFs? You have to right-click, yes. Is that an option you change often? Could you expand on why that is?

[runningwithscissors]

Yes, I mean for PDFs. And yes, I use the two page view a lot more often than the single page view, because the pdfs I am looking through are long and the tidbit of information I'm seeking might be on page 50 (for example). So, two page view gets me there more than twice as fast since it's almost like a four page view.

[vitor]

The next Alfred build will improve on the PDF display options.

[runningwithscissors]

Thank you! It's little things like this that have made me a proud Alfred user and supporter for... I don't even know... 10 years or more.

[Cedric]

I've been a long time user of the RecentlyAdded workflow, and as I was cleaning up my list of workflow, I uninstalled it by mistake. I saw on the forum that this Thumbnail navigation is now the recommended workflow for the use cases covered by RecentlyAdded. I also couldn't find the RecentlyAdded workflow on your Github, so now I wonder if the following workflow is possible using Thumbnail nav:

1. type keyword matching a specific folder (scr for screenshots for folder, rdn for download folder)
2. get a list of the files from that folder sorted by last added/updated (ideally the screenshots would use thumbnails, but the downloads would be a basic list).
3. optionally filter the file by typing part of their name if needed
4. action the file of my choosing

Thanks in advance for the pointers.

[vitor]

I think you’ll know better if you try the workflow whether it fits your usage. The instructions explain everything in detail. If you ever want Recently Added back, you can still get it.

[Cedric]

Thank you so much for the Recently Added workflow. I can now go back to my usual rdn to find recent downloads. And I use Thumbnail navigation for recent screenshots by modifying the fast entry keywork to "screenshots" and the fast entry folder to the screenshot folder.

 

I think browsing visually the recently downloaded is not adding much value, so the two workflows work best for their respective use cases. I am a tad worried about future updated to Alfred though, given that you recommend replacing RecentlyAdded with Thumbnail Navigation. Any way to get an for more than one fast entries and a choice for a thumbnail vs list presentation of the results?

Thanks!

[vitor]

7 minutes ago, Cedric said:

I use Thumbnail navigation for recent screenshots

 

There is a workflow specifically for screenshots.

 

5 minutes ago, Cedric said:

I think browsing visually

 

It’s not just about browsing, it’s about previewing directly inside Alfred.

 

3 minutes ago, Cedric said:

I am a tad worried about future updated to Alfred though

 

You shouldn’t be, it’s highly unlikely that any update to Alfred will ever break Recently Added. An update to macOS might, but I have zero control over that.

 

4 minutes ago, Cedric said:

Any way to get an for more than one fast entries

 

That has always been possible, and is explained in the configuration itself how you can list the contents of multiple folders. It’s exactly the same method as Recently Added, separating by commas.

 

8 minutes ago, Cedric said:

and a choice for a thumbnail vs list presentation of the results

 

Like I said, if you prefer Recently Added you’re more than welcome to keep using it. But the reason I deprecated that workflow is that for a good while I had been thinking of improving it with previews, and then with the new views I realised that the next version of Recently Added would basically be a repeat of Thumbnail Navigation, so it made more sense to add the fast navigation feature to this one. In other words, the deprecation is the best scenario if you want to keep the list view.

[Cedric]

 

On 3/26/2024 at 4:34 PM, vitor said:

There is a workflow specifically for screenshots

 

I tried it before posting here, and it showed me only 5 screenshots and wouldn't show me more in my tests. Thumbnail navigation works perfectly for that purpose. Given that TN seemed to be the successor of RecentlyAdded with additional features, I focused on understanding what it could do instead of trying the navigate the issues in a different workflow.
 

 

On 3/26/2024 at 4:34 PM, vitor said:

That has always been possible, and is explained in the configuration itself how you can list the contents of multiple folders. It’s exactly the same method as Recently Added, separating by commas.

 

I've also tested it before posting here (I do try to do my homework, I promise), and what it did was give me a mix of recent screenshots and downloads in the same visual list, invoked from the same keyword. But I don't want to mix the two, i want to be able to invoke one or the other using a folder specific keyword (scr for screenshot, rdn for download).

 

 

On 3/26/2024 at 4:34 PM, vitor said:

You shouldn’t be, it’s highly unlikely that any update to Alfred will ever break Recently Added. An update to macOS might, but I have zero control over that

 

On 3/26/2024 at 4:34 PM, vitor said:

In other words, the deprecation is the best scenario if you want to keep the list view.

 

 

Thanks! That's great reassurance.

 

Edited March 27 by Cedric
update

[Cedric]

Unsure if it's the workflow or a gap in Alfred's framework, but thumbnail navigation is less useful than normal Alfred browsing when it comes video, as it doesn't show any preview.

 

Thumbnail navigation

 

Alfred's normal navigation

 

 

 

[ixium]

Firstly, this is great; we've been looking for something like this for a very long time. (We make grocery ads and need to always search for files by thumbnail.) But the issue we're having is, we can use NAV and go to the folder we need, but when we set the quick access file/hotkey, it goes to user.workflow instead of opening the folder. The issue we're guessing is the folder we're trying to access is on our computer but in the Google Drive section. The file path for quick access is listed like this "~/My Drive (my@email.com)/Clients/Client Name/Files/Pictures/Stock Photos," but when we click the hotkey, it opens the workflows/user workflows folder. We have checked that Alfred has full disk access; what else can we try? Thank you!

[vitor]

That’s a symptom of using a path which does not exist. Make sure you have the right path in there and use the debugger to see (and report) any errors.

[ixium]

I've set the path with the included selector, also when I select my downloads folder it seems fine, so it seems like it's something with the google drive (or folders inside my drive). Weirdly, It works fine with one of the main files in my drive "Clients" but the second I try to get it to drill into this client folder by default, I get the mentioned issue. Also it works fine on other clients folders, so it must be something with this one, they are all named similarly so that is very strange. What else can I check / try from my side as it appears to be an issue with this one clients folder

[ixium]

Looking at debug it almost looks like it's breaking the name into different file paths. Trying to find a way to show you this without showing my file names to the public.

[ixium]

Ok one more update (sorry for the spam). So it appears this happens with clients that are named in my system like this "Last Name, First Name - Business Name" Something about the it seems to break right after "Last Name," and then splits to a different path, guessing this has to do with file separators for adding multiple directories. I cannot change my folder names (it has hundreds) is there anything I can do to make it act like one complete path?

[vitor]

Try this version. It changes the separator to colons instead.

[ixium]

Thank yo so much, will try that now, this is such a nice improvement to have in alfred!

[ixium]

That worked, thank you so much!

[vitor]

Updated to 2024.4.

• Change Fast Entry separator from comma to colon.
• Pass through modifiers on Fast Entries Hotkey.