bourbakis / alfred-hacks

A variety of useful scripts/extensions for Alfred

Installation

You can install an extension by opening the ".alfredapp" (in the binaries folder) file in Alfred for Mac.

Usage

iCal Quick Entry

In Alfred, just type cal {X} where {X} is natural language describing an event.

This extension will the event to your iCal via OS X Lion's "Quick Event" feature.

For example, try typing this into Alfred:

cal Dinner with Michelle tomorrow at 6:30pm

Background Command

In Alfred, type bg {X} where {X} is a terminal command.

The extension will execute your command in the background and send the output to Growl.

This is super useful and you'll discover more reasons to use it over time. Trust me, install this and you'll find it starting to replace tons of Terminal commands.

Here are some examples off the top of my head.

Making a directory:

bg mkdir ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/OmniFocus

Looking up a domain:

bg whois dorkitude.com

Launching MacVim (in this case, opening my Vim configuration file in it):

bg mvim ~/.vimrc

Copy Command Key to Clipboard

I occasionally find myself wanting to enter the symbol for Apple's Command Key (⌘) into something I'm writing -- documentation, tweets, IM conversations, etc.

I got tired of googling for "Apple Command Key" or "St. John's Arms" just to copy/paste the symbol, so I made this simple Alfred extension.

Once it's installed, you can just type this into Alfred:

`commandkey`

...and the script will put the symbol in your clipboard ⌘. Paste on, young soldier!

Copy Date to Clipboard

In Alfred, type date and your clipboard will be populated with today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format.

For example, I just typed this into Alfred:

date

And my clipboard became:

2011-12-12 

This little extension is super useful since I am anal about the filenames of legal docs, contracts, journal entries, and that sort of thing.

Copy File Contents to Clipboard

In Alfred, navigate to a file using commands such as open , ~ or /, and press the right arrow to open the file actions. Select Copy Contents to Clipboard to add the content of the file to the clipboard.

Google in a new Chrome window

In Alfred, type gw {x} where {x} is a search query. This will perform a Google search in a new window, so as not to disturb your precious 500-something tabs!