Emailing a file with Quicksilver
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
Like most people, I mainly use Quicksilver as an app launcher or to display phone numbers from Address Book quickly. But I have recently learnt a new trick - mailing a file to someone from Quicksilver - which is a real timesaver.
For this tip to work you need to have the Apple Mail plugin for Quicksilver installed and the “Email Item… (Send Directly)” option activated in the actions tab of Quicksilver’s preferences. You might also like to move that action up the list towards the top. It’s second in my list as emailing files is now, after opening them, the second most common thing I do.
- Activate the Quicksilver interface with its keyboard shortcut
- Type the first few words of the file you want to email.
- Select it when it appears or scroll down until you find it. Hit the Tab key to move to the next window in the bezel.
- Hit the “Down arrow” to open the drop-down box of available actions. Select “Email Item…. (Send Directly)”. Hit the Tab Key.
- In the third window type the first few letters of the recipient’s name. Select the right one. You should now see something like this:

- Hit Return. Off it goes as an attachment!
I once got myself down to five seconds for this sequence. Mostly it takes longer but it still pays off for those times when i just need to send a file.
The latest version of Quicksilver also has an “Email Options” tab in the Preferences which allows you to tweak the settings for the subject of the email and the default message that goes with the attachment.
Tags: Address Book, email, file, mail plugin, quicksilver
