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Newbie. Is there a manual for Alfred?


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I use Alfred for some very basic things, but it is clear from reading the discussion topics that this is an extremely robust application and I'm probably not using it to its full potential.  I can't seem to find a simple manual or How-To Guide.  Does one exist?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Cameron

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I use Alfred for some very basic things, but it is clear from reading the discussion topics that this is an extremely robust application and I'm probably not using it to its full potential.  I can't seem to find a simple manual or How-To Guide.  Does one exist?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Cameron

 

Unfortunately there isn't but I would be more than happy to help you with anything that you have questions on or need help with.

Link to comment

I use Alfred for some very basic things, but it is clear from reading the discussion topics that this is an extremely robust application and I'm probably not using it to its full potential.  I can't seem to find a simple manual or How-To Guide.  Does one exist?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Cameron

 

Vero is constantly improving the tutorials and manual on http://support.alfredapp.com so take a look there to get started :)

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I use Alfred for some very basic things, but it is clear from reading the discussion topics that this is an extremely robust application and I'm probably not using it to its full potential.  I can't seem to find a simple manual or How-To Guide.  Does one exist?

 

Thanks so much,

 

Cameron

Hi,

 

Don McAllister has done three tutorials recently on Alfred 2 at screencastsonline.com however, the only thing is you need to be a member to watch his tutorials. I think you can sign up for 3 months for $23 I believe and its well worth it. He’s got a slew of Mac tutorials on a variety of software. He does excellent tutorials. The only thing that i have to sort of caution you about with Don and the Alfred tutorials if that if you’re not familiar with Alfred he can easily loose you. I found you watch them once, play around with Alfred, interact with others on the forums and then go back and watch the tutorials a second and maybe a third time. Each time they make more sense. This rarely happens with me and Don’s tutorials but when i decided to be learn Markdown for my writing I started with Don’t tutorial and I sat there and thought what have I gotten myself into. Now I can really only write in Markdown (not true but it feels that way as I just whiz a long now without even thinking about it). When I went and watched the tutorial on Markdown again after reading David Sparks book on Markdown it made perfect sense to me. 

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Vero is constantly improving the tutorials and manual on http://support.alfredapp.com so take a look there to get started :)

Andrew,

 

This is good stuff what Vero is doing but I know exactly what Cameron means. I would have loved to have had a simple sort of manual or at least a top level guide as to this is what Alfred is, what you can do with Alfred etc etc. Then some area examples and pointers to possibly the online stuff. The lack of an overview of Alfred left me in the beginning looking at Alfred as this is supposed to be simple and powerful. The simple just seemed like this was somehow everything I had and the powerful was in what way and it looked liked scripting solely to make it powerfull and that just is not the case. As an example, I was sitting here the other evening thinking (David helped me) how can I get Andrew to do what I already do with Keyboard Maestro but can I do it with Alfred. I found a post of David’s in which he said you can’t string stuff together which I had discovered. So I thought well I’ve already created what I want to do with Automator and an Applescript that is actioned within my automator workflow. I’ll just see if Alfred will run that as I couldn’t see why he couldn’t and sure enough within less than one minute I had Alfred doing exactly what I wanted. All I did was was tell Alfred to run my workflow application using the key command EDT for Empty Downloads and Trash. Alfred EDT and wham gone. So it is very powerful but you have to sort of have this higher view level that you can get Alfred to do things like this. 

 

I would say I’m at a point where 50% of my automated commands are Alfred. As an example, Alfred 1p BMO and he logs me into the Bank of Montreal. The other 50% of my actions are probably initiated by Keyboard Maestro. Alot of what I get Alfred to do are Keyboard Maestro things. Then I’ve got some things from Vero, Marko and Arunjc that I can only do in Alfred that are very cool and I can’t do in Keyboard Maestro. There are somethings I only can do in Keyboard Maestro and at this stage would have no idea how to do in Alfred. So its turning into a dynamite combo. 

 

I find I use Alfred all the time now. However, if I add something, like a workflow I’ll approach Alfred cautiously. However, doing this I don’t get frustrated and Alfred delivers up some pretty good stuff. I’m not so much into programming my own things yet but that will come with time. I’ve got a lot programmed and I find when you automate sometimes what seems great at the moment and you spend hours on just isn’t necessary in a very short period of time or just isn’t required. So I really try to avoid spending anymore time than necessary except to use Alfred to get things done and its working out very well. Slow and easy is my approach. Oh and the other thing that has helped me learn Alfred’s ways is testing workflows for others till they get it the way they want it. I like doing that kind of thing.

 

However, back to Cameron’s point, I think for the new user a high level, overview document (not a 100 pager to explain all his nuances as that would be very resource intensive) would be extremely helpful to the newcomer. It would sort of set the stage and what you can and can’t do (expectations). I think when i was starting with Alfred I stumbled across Vero’s online work but its now I use it a lot now that I know Alfred and I want to know specifically how do I do a contacts search and say send an email etc. 

 

I don’t know. Just a thought. 

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Vero is constantly improving the tutorials and manual on http://support.alfredapp.com so take a look there to get started :)

Andrew,

 

As I was writing you I decided to try something I do all the time which is a little laborious. In DEVONthink there are a ton of Applescripts that are written to do things many of which I use. One I use all the time is for tagging documents. I have to pull down the menu etc find the script, run it and enter my tags. I thought well I’ll just open the script, copy it and paste it into an Alfred Applescripts command. I applied the keyword TD (tag DEVONthink) without an argument, jumped to DEVONthink, highlighted a group of documents that needed tagging and I went Alfred TD enter and wham there is my entry panel for the tags so I entered my tags and they were all tagged.

 

Now not in a million years could I write the script that I pasted into Alfred however, since it was already written I just pasted it in. The benefit to me is I no longer have to pull down the menu and run the script etc. Its there immediately. Again, I can run from Keyboard Maestro but since i have so many hotkeys I now use numerous palettes to divide actions up and so I have to enter a hotkey and then a palette key which I generally remember and sometimes don’t and have to either click or go looking for how I assigned it and remember it for next time. TD is an easy one to remember.

 

Its not that I can’t do this with Keyboard Maestro I just didn’t know till now I could make this native to Alfred.

 

Interesting but like I said not in a million years could i write that script but I know who did and who knows how to do it but I’m not going to distract them from a very important project :) as much as I’m having fun.

 

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