Alfred for Mac is a tool (app) that will help you to interact with your computer through the keyboard to complete a task with fewer key presses and less than a few seconds. Usually, those tasks require more time to do with a trackpad/mouse. In short, it is an advanced version of Mac’s ‘spotlight’ with a set of quite powerful features.
The big deal is you can achieve more with lesser keystrokes and in incredibly less time.
Alfred has many features built-in like Text expansion, hotkeys, file handling/searching, custom search engines, cascade copying, etc.
I am using Alfred in my personal Macbook Pro for the last 4 months. I astonished by its power. It has a bit lengthy learning curve. But the adaptation will definitely worth the effort of learning to use Alfred every day.
Opening a file, searching and locating a file in my Mac usually takes 5 to 6 seconds, sometimes 10 to 15 if it is deep inside in my folder hierarchy. But with Alfred, I can find/open the file in 2 seconds regardless of where it is located.
Text expansion literally saved me 10 minutes of typing in my everyday use.
It has even more powerful features that comes as a separate extension to the app as ‘powerpack’. There’s a feature called ‘Workflow’ which help you to automate many operations in your Mac. Potentially it has incredible power to maximise your productivity if you work lot in Mac.
Over the course, the time saved by Alfred will be huge, by reducing your interaction time; saving that few precious seconds for every action, every time.
If you haven’t used Alfred, test it now. It’s free. Download it here. For day to day use for beginners, the free version itself enough. I have already planned to cover more about using the Alfred app in future posts.
To have a better understanding of Alfred app, see the below video (video link) demonstrating all the astonishing features of Alfred (bit lengthy video).
Trivial fact: Alfred is the most used app in my Mac.
